“I've already tried chiropractic care... ”
Turns out, when most people think of chiropractic care, they often think of the more traditional cracking or twisting of the spine designed to mobilize those “stuck” spinal segments. And if you’re like most, you may have even tried this more traditional type of chiropractic care at at least once in your life. The care you experienced may have left you with a “love them or hate them” stance on the entire chiropractic care process.
What would you say if we told you there is a totally different type of chiropractic that does not require any popping, cracking or twisting of the neck and is completely centered around adjusting you as few times as possible? What we’re saying is, this is such a completely different approach, it’s almost difficult to even compare.
The best kept secret in healthcare is Blair upper cervical patients find amazing and lasting results over and over and over again.
“No cracking? Great, tell me more...”
Well if you’re just discovering Blair upper cervical and/or know someone who has experienced the positive effects of it, they likely had a difficult time explaining it. So here is an attempt at some sort of “simplified” explanation.
Blair upper cervical is a gentle and highly specific method that is individually tailored to each person’s unique anatomy. Blair Upper Cervical work, places focus on correcting the position and biomechanics of head on the neck, accounting for each person’s individual asymmetries. This area of the body is pretty important because this is where your brainstem lives. The Blair chiropractor’s focus is to eliminate problematic irritation in this area that might be negatively impacting your entire nervous system, while improving blood flow and CSF drainage. #neuralintegrity
“So why is that important?”
You see, our body’s are giant walking and talking sensory organs. Even when we aren’t trying, we’re always utilizing our senses to collect and process data of our internal and external environment. And when working properly, our body is responding to these conditions appropriately and constantly. That’s the duty of the nervous system. In our office, we focus our complete attention to how well your body’s nervous system is sensing and responding appropriately.
All of the “sensory data” that happens without us thinking about it, is acted upon by the brainstem, which controls and regulates the body function in what we hope is an appropriate response (think by just smelling certain foods, we begin to salivate and begin releasing certain digestive enzymes = appropriate response). A proper response heavily relies on the correct sensory data. So we focus on neural integrity so to speak… and sometimes light or forceful hits to the head (aka concussions) can affect it. Makes sense, right?
We find most people have experienced some sort of concussion at one time or another in their lives. Some concussions are more serious than others, and some can have much a more dramatic impact on your body’s ability to sense what’s going on, altering its ability to regulate appropriately.
Some concussions, head traumas, slips, falls, bumps, drops, sports collisions or even the briefest of “fender bender love taps”, can affect the nervous system’s ability to function appropriately. Again, some incidents do damage faster, and some slower, but all can have a negative impact on the integrity of your nervous system. And that’s where we come in. We eliminate the factors that may be causing problems surrounding your neurophysiology. It’s all about your ability to sense and dictate an appropriate physiological response.
“Fancy, schmancy… It all makes sense but
I’m not sure I like the idea of getting twisted or cracked.
Especially my neck.”
Well, frankly neither do we. We simply do not do those types of adjustments in our office. And just to be clear, we do not think those who practice those neck twisting adjustments are doing bad work. A great number of people are finding relief every day utilizing those adjustments. If people weren’t finding relief, chiropractic wouldn’t be the 3rd largest healthcare system in the United States. And despite what you may have heard from “a cousin’s neighbor’s friend that knew a guy…” those adjustments are very safe. We just happen to do it very differently in our office.
Our view is by addressing the craniocervical junction (where the head meets the neck) and removing any irritating pressures on the lower brainstem’s surrounding tissues, we feel we can make more of an impact in a shorter amount of time and get results throughout the entire body, not just the neck. And after all, it’s results that we all want, right?
“OK, well if you don’t crack it, what do you do?”
Well, we’re glad you asked. =)
After a brief consultation to ensure you are in fact a candidate for our care, we will perform an exam and take imaging. Unfortunately, we cannot make an exception to side step the imaging process. We will not be doing ANY guess-work in our office. Ever. We use the most advanced and modern technology to identify what’s going on at the craniocervical junction, before we get started. We wouldn’t or couldn’t formulate a plan until we have all the specifics.
Next, we will go over your imaging together and you can ask questions regarding specifics. You will then decide to move forward or not. There is no hard sell in our office, just ask anyone. =)
The corrections looks like this. You will be comfortably placed in a side posture position on our specialized table. Your head will gently rest on a moveable head piece that is designed to move .5 – 2 inches. Using measurements we obtained from your imaging based on each patient’s individual anatomy, we gently make our correction with precision (it’s true, we even use geeky protractors). So specific, some people are not even sure a correction was delivered if it wasn’t for the table making what can be described as a ‘startling’ noise. Following the adjustment, you will be placed in our resting suite, in a specialized gravity chair where your neck can lightly traction for a short period of time, while you rest. You will be sent home with instructions, a list of things to be careful of and a scheduled follow up visit.
Follow up visits will take place to ensure the integrity of the correction is maintained. When it “falls out”, we correct it. When it seems to have “held”, we will leave it alone. The longer the period of time its “holding”, the further progress is reached. The goal is to not need to be adjusted very often.
Like a majority of upper cervical docs, more time is spent on the analyzing of the imaging and other indicators than actually delivering the correction.
Again, there’s no popping, cracking or twisting. No pulling or jerking. No radical gross manipulations will take place here. This is a subtle, gentle and precise procedure that allows the head, neck and body to return to their proper positions and restores balance back to the entire spine and nervous system.
Contact Us
490 Post Street, Suite 238A
San Francisco, CA 94102
Practice Hours
Tuesday-Friday 9:30AM-4PM
Thursday 9:30AM-12NN
One Saturday/month/by appointment only
Dr. Lawlor is a member of the Blair Chiropractic Society