I help many people get rid of pain (low back pain, sciatica, shoulder pain, headaches, menstrual cramps, neck pain, chronic pain, etc) and allow them to sleep better.  It helps to allow the body to relax so that lying down is more comfortable.

NUCCA helps many people with their stress levels and to make them more efficient during the day so that they get their work done.  I help get their minds to be more focused so that things get done when they are supposed to.

If you are too tired to function during the day and need to drink caffeine to stay awake, then can’t sleep at night because you’re too hyped up, we need to figure out a way to get you to sleep better.  See above for a solution: NUCCA.  If your body isn’t relaxing enough for you to feel tired at night, we need to stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the complement of your stress response.  NUCCA stimulates this calming part of your nervous system.

I’ve helped many people sleep better at night.  It’s worth a try.  It’s time for you to get the sleep that allows your body to heal and function at is best!  It’s time for you to do more than take sleeping pills.  It’s time for rest.  Call Dr. Pritchett at 925-829-7900.

Eventually, Valerie found her way to an upper cervical chiropractor.  He evaluated her, took x-rays and found that the atlas/C1 vertebra was severely misaligned, and began adjusting her. As her spine stabilized, her symptoms began to lessen.  She also began seeing a homeopath, reducing her stress and doing yoga.  Elated by her discovery and with deep compassion for other women with less hope than she’d ever possessed, Valerie began writing a book so that others may find healing as well.

Valerie Lumley now speaks around the country at various chiropractic conventions, bookstores and anywhere else she can find to spread the word about upper cervical chiropractic.  Her book, Curing Chronic Fibromyalgia: Choosing What Works, has been endorsed by the NUCCA board of directors as well as the International Chiropractic Association (ICA).

You can learn more about Valerie Lumley’s story and purchase her book here.

Here’s some anatomy to explain.  The tensor veli palatini muscle is innervated by the trigeminal nerve (cranial nerve V).  The trigeminal nerve comes from the superior cervical ganglion (from nerve roots C1-C4).  NUCCA utilizes the atlas (C1) as a lever to correct the entire spine. It follows that correcting C1 will improve function of the trigeminal nerve and therefore improve how the tensor veli palatini holds the Eustachian tube open.  When the Eustachian tube is open, it allows more fluid to drain, therefore keeping infection at bay.

A study is in progress to show how chiropractic may increase function of the tensor veli palatini.  In 1996, published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiologic Therapeutics, was a retrospective study with 46 five-year-old children who had otitis media (ear infection). 93% improved with chiropractic care, 43% with one or two treatments.  The improvement was determined by one of the following: parental observation, chiropractor declaring patient asymptomatic, or the medical doctor saying the patient is improved.

In 1997, published in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics, a study of 332 children, ages 27 months to 5 years, was done and showed a “strong correlation” between chiropractic and improvement of otitis media.  There are many other case reports as well.

If your child suffers from chronic ear infections, bring him or her in for a consultation to see if NUCCA can improve the function of the tensor veli palatini and help your child to live a healthier life.

You cannot go into your DNA and “choose” which genes to turn off and which to turn on, but you can make lifestyle changes which will turn off some disease-promoting genes and turn on some disease-preventing genes.

What are the lifestyle changes?  This article mentioned three:

1. Diet and nutritional changes, increasing fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
2. Moderate exercise, such as walking for half and hour each day.
3. Stress management exercises daily for an hour, such as meditation.

These take focus to accomplish, but they are pretty straight-forward.  I expect that there are others as well, including sleep and upper cervical chiropractic.

Take the step today to implement one lifestyle change into your life. Pick one that is reasonable.  Make sure that it won’t overwhelm you so that you will continue doing it.  Perhaps it is exercising for 15-30 minutes a day.  If you are in pain and can’t do that, see a NUCCA doctor to help rid your body of pain.

Take that one step today and find someone to keep you accountable!  You can do it!

• Drink a lot of water.  Drink water (not other beverages – they’re not all equal) until your urine output is very light yellow, unless you’re taking a multi-vitamin with B vitamins, as it changes the color.
• Limit sugar intake. Sugar will tax your body and increase your susceptibility to getting sick.
• Exercise regularly.  If you are stressed out, avoid exercising strenuously, as it will tax your body too much, so just exercise with mild exertion.  Exercising will improve your circulation and allow the white blood cells, T cells and antibodies to get to where they need to go to fight off the infection.
• Homeopathic remedies can be helpful as well, especially if you see a homeopath or a naturopath who can prescribe the right ones.
• Sleep.  This is extremely important, as your body heals while you sleep.
• Take Vitamin D.  If you take a significant amount of vitamin D, you may want to get your levels checked via a blood test, because it can be toxic in high doses, but it’s invaluable for your immune system as well as bone health and a plethora of other things.
• NUCCA care boosts your immune system by improving the nerve information to allow it to function properly.  Your immune system is a highly specialized system which requires the proper amount of stimulation and suppression.
• Get sick!  This may surprise you, but the more times you get sick, the healthier you’ll be, because it creates memory cells which will then be able to fight off the same antigens quicker next time.  For most diseases or illnesses, you’ll be immune to them forever if your body goes through the immune response.  The same is not true with vaccines.  This is why boosters are given.  Your immune response is not the same.

I’ve seen many people who tell me that they no longer get sick as much as they used to before NUCCA care.  Wouldn’t you like to feel better?  If you’re in the Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, San Ramon area, you’re in my backyard!  Call me at 925-829-7900.

It can inhibit us from washing our hair, or sleeping soundly, even the ability to do our job or take care of our children.

Just last week I lost my NUCCA adjustment and my neck was so painful, that I had to turn my whole body instead of just my head.  It wasn’t that I couldn’t function; it was just that I didn’t want to live with it.  I knew it could get better!  If you are like some people, you may not know that relief is possible with anything other than pain-killers temporarily relieving the symptoms.

There are some symptoms that you should go to the emergency room for (specifically the inability to flex your chin to your chest due to extreme and sudden stiffness), but most neck pain symptoms can be dealt with by addressing the musculoskeletal  component.

• Muscle strains or sprains, including whiplash
• Compressed nerves due to bone spurs or herniated discs
• Arthritis
• Torticollis

These are all musculoskeletal issues.  If a nerve is involved (numbness and tingling and sharp, shooting pain are symptoms of nerve involvement), it needs to be addressed as quickly as possible so that there is the largest chance that the nerve can heal and regenerate.  Otherwise, if the nerve is compressed for too long, it may not heal, and the numbness or pain may be permanent.

I have seen wonderful improvement in neck pain, both chronic neck pain and acute (sudden-onset) neck pain through NUCCA therapy.  NUCCA addresses the atlas, the first vertebra in the neck, and corrects its alignment with the skull and the rest of the spine.  There is no twisting or popping of the spine.

Simply by realigning the spine with NUCCA, many of these symptoms will go away.  This aligning of the spine will also allow the tissues to heal with the proper length and strength and allow the blood to flow into and out of the area properly for optimal healing.  Additionally, it will improve the range of motion (C-ROM) of the neck.

Call Dr. Andrea Pritchett today to have your neck checked to see if you need a NUCCA adjustment.  Call and ask for a complimentary consultation at our Dublin, CA location.

Do you have diarrhea?

Do you have tachycardia or a too-fast heart rate?

These are all signs of being hyper-sympathetic, and I’m not talking about having too much empathy!

Your autonomic nervous system has two parts: sympathetic and parasympathetic.

• The sympathetic nervous system is the “fight or flight,” which is the body’s stress response.  It allows us to fight off a foe or flee from a scene.  Your blood pressure and pulse increase and blood flows to the large muscle-groups and away from your gut.  This is why your mom told you not to swim right after eating.  If you don’t relax when you eat, your food doesn’t digest properly and ulcers can develop over time.
• The parasympathetic nervous system is the “rest and digest” part, which allows your body to relax, recuperate, and properly digest your food.

Those who are constantly stressed will be overly sympathetic and their bodies are not able to regenerate and heal properly.  This can cause many long-term problems!

As demonstrated by the reduction in blood pressure by the NUCCA technique in the peer-reviewed study at the University of Chicago, NUCCA helps with balancing the autonomic nervous system.  This can help you to deal with stress better as well as improve your health!

It was a ground-breaking study showing that NUCCA improves the physiological function of individuals. This can spread beyond hypertension and aids the autonomic nervous system which controls many aspects of the body, including digestive function, saliva production, vision, urinary tract function, heart rate and breathing.

In this 8-week study, there were 50 Stage 1 Hypertensive patients on two blood pressure medications.  They were all taken off of their medications while observed by a medical doctor at the University of Chicago.  Half of them received NUCCA care and the other half received a sham adjustment and were part of the placebo group.  Because of the gentleness of the adjustment, many of those adjusted thought they were in the placebo group.

Those in the adjustment group had a reduction of blood pressure equivalent to two blood pressure medications taken in tandem. At the end of the 8 weeks, the blood pressure was still reduced.  Those in the placebo group had essentially no change.

If you have high blood pressure, come in for NUCCA care and see how it works for you.  If your blood pressure drops, you can talk to your medical doctor about changing your meds.

In July 2008, I was interviewed by Dr. Richard Gracer of Gracer Medical Group in San Ramon, CA.  He was interested in the article published in the Journal of Human Hypertension, a peer-reviewed journal, regarding the study done at the University of Chicago showing that NUCCA reduces blood pressure.  The 50 person pilot-study showed that NUCCA reduced the blood pressure of the individuals who received treatment roughly the equivalent of two blood pressure medications taken in tandem, compared to the placebo group with essentially no change.

Here is the link to the interview: http://www.gracermedicalgroup.com/node/96

Enjoy!

Andrea Pritchett, D.C.

To read a story about one man’s decision to commit suicide to finally get relief from his trigeminal neuralgia, and his subsequent upper cervical (NUCCA) adjustment just in time to save his life, check out this website.  This man, James Tomasi, has an amazing purpose in life to share the news about upper cervical chiropractic and its impact on his life as well as the lives of others.  He is passionate about saving other lives!

NUCCA can help with trigeminal neuralgia, or facial pain.  It’ll take time, due to the nature of chronic pain.  However, it has helped time and again and it could possibly help you.  The idea is to get the proper blood flow to and from the nerves enabling it to get oxygen and get rid of waste products. It also helps take pressure off of the nerve in some cases.  Nerves take a long time to heal, but they can often heal if given the chance.

Call (925) 829-7900 to set up an appointment for relief for your chronic pain.  We are located in Dublin, CA.