Introduction To Upper Cervical NUCCA Care

 What is Upper Cervical Care (also known as NUCCA)? It’s a procedure of chiropractic care that focuses on aligning the upper cervical vertebrae in the neck. The importance of these vertebrae, known as the atlas and the axis, is due to the lower brain stem and the postural reflexes.

1. Lower Brainstem – The significance of the lower brainstem is that it controls most of your vital functions in the body including heart rate, digestion, breathing, blood pressure, and many reflexes.
2. Postural Reflexes – These reflexes unconsciously control the muscle throughout the spine. This area also is critical for regulating your body’s inflammatory response.
   

What Dr. Lynady does is different than the standard chiropractic procedures that most people are familiar with, such as the cracking, twisting and body manipulation. Dr. Lynady’s upper cervical and NUCCA procedures places a greater emphasis on the correction of the misalignment of the Atlas and Axis, which are technically known as the C1 & C2. To see a demonstration and testimonials of the procedures, view our videos.

There are many terms used to describe our procedures, so here is a more detailed explanation what the terms mean:

1. Upper Cervical Care – This describes the region of your spine that our procedures focus on. It describes your neck region and should not be confused with the female region of the body that shares the name “cervical”.
2. NUCCA – This is an abbreviation for the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association and is often used when describing the procedure
3. Orthospinology – The word Orthospinology is based on the clinical scientific model of correcting the alignment of the head and neck to as straight as possible position. It derives it’s meaning from the words “ortho” “spine” and “ology”. Ortho, means “straight”; spine refers to your “vertebrae”; and ology means “study of”.
4. Grostic – Was named in honor of Dr. John F. Grostic, who developed it in the early 1940’s. This system requires a very precise and accurate analysis of the upper cervical region in the neck.
5. Blair – The Blair chiropractic technique is a specific system of analyzing and adjusting the upper cervical vertebrae of the spinal column.

 All of these names and procedures focus on the upper cervical region of the neck, specifically the Atlas (C1 vertebra) and C2 (vertebrae). You will find here is slightly different methods employed by all the of doctors that practice them, but they have one general goal, to balance your head straight up through minor and virtually painless adjustments to your Atlas and Axis.

As most patients quickly find out, the alignment of the upper cervical region of your neck will relieve most symptoms you’re experiencing throughout your spine. If you have been seeing a standard chiropractor that does practice these procedures without much improvement, it may be time to give upper cervical care a chance.