Study Finds Special 'Atlas Adjustment' Lowers Blood Pressure:
A special chiropractic adjustment can significantly lower high blood pressure, a placebo-controlled study suggests.
"This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination," study leader George Bakris, MD, tells WebMD. "And it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems," adds Bakris, director of the University of Chicago hypertension center.
Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can't feel the technique, they were unable to tell which group they were in.
X-rays showed that the procedure realigned the Atlas vertebra -- the doughnut-like bone at the very top of the spine -- with the spine in the treated patients, but not in the sham-treated patients.
Compared to the sham-treated patients, those who got the real procedure saw an average 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure count), and an average 8 mm Hg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom blood pressure number).
None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study.
"When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn't believe it. It was way too good to be true," Bakris says. "The statistician said, 'I don't even believe it.' But we checked for everything, and there it was."
Bakris and colleagues report their findings in the advance online issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Friday, 13 November 2009
Success with Torticollis
I had a 2 week old baby come in yesterday with Severe Torticollis. Her head was in extreme right lateral flexion and left rotation. In the past I've used craniosacral and adjustments with the arthrostim to correct it over a series of adjustments. It always worked but it took time. Yesterday I did the meningeal release technique with her head challenged in full rotation to the left, extension, and then in flexion and her head instantly straightened out and she had a huge bowel movement (which was also a problem). The mother hadn't been able to get a proper latch since day one and when I spoke to her last night the baby had nursed well at the breast and her head has remained straight all day. Success!! :)
Danella
Danella
Monday, 15 June 2009
kst...allergies... gone...
from Tedd Koren, D.C.
Your immune system works to keep you 100% natural, organic, unadulterated, you! It recognizes and destroys bacteria, viri, pollutants, dust, pollen, drugs, tumors, debris and artificial substances (metal and plastic, however, don’t trigger an immune reaction).
Many things influence how well your immune system functions: your nervous system, endocrine system, diet, genes and emotions.
Allergens and allergies
The most common immune system disorder is the allergy that occurs when the immune system overreacts to an allergen (dust, pollen, milk, dog or cat dander, strawberries, etc.) and the body produces too many neutralizing chemicals (especially histamines) in response.
KST and allergies
After developing Koren Specific Technique (KST), I was often asked if it could address allergies. I’m happy to report that doctors are finding that KST can be used as a simple, yet powerful, procedure to help allergy sufferers.
The allergy "posture"
First the patient is analyzed and adjusted so they are cleared out: no subluxations. Now the patient is put in the "posture" of the allergy.
How is that done?
It is rather simple to do. All you do is tell the patient to think of their allergy. While they are thinking of it, their body will subluxate into their "allergy pattern."
Now the allergy pattern must be located. I have found this is best done using a dynamic bio-indicator analysis system that is quickly able to locate subluxations. Bio-indicators are used by applied kinesiology (AK); muscle weakness, directional non-force technique (DNFT™) and Activator™ (a derivative of DNFT); the short leg reflex, Toftness ™; skin autonomic response and others.
KST employs the occipital drop (OD) that was discovered by Lowell Ward, DC, developer of Spinal Column Stressology, as a bio-indicator. Dr. Ward discovered that the occiput/mastoid area of the skull will appear to lower on the left when the person is stressed by a subluxation. By using the OD, the patient does not need to lie down to be checked and there is no muscle fatigue.
To continue the allergy protocol: While the patient is thinking of their allergy, the practitioner locates the subluxations that appear. In most cases, the subluxation involves the left and right greater wings of the sphenoid (anterior) and occipital bone (inferior).
In addition, sometimes a subluxation will involve the temporal or upper thoracic.
Now, the correction.
As the patient is thinking of their allergy, their subluxations are corrected or adjusted. I find an adjusting instrument works best, as this permits the patient to stay in one position while the force/energy/information (adjustment) can be directed specifically.
Next, ask the patient to think of the allergen again. There should be no OD. If there is an OD, go through the analysis and adjustment again. You may have missed something.
Are we finished?
Not quite. We have to see if the patient’s relationship with the allergen has been completely defused. Now ask the patient to think about the allergy from a different angle. For example, tell the patient, "Imagine taking the allergen and putting it in your mouth." Then test for an OD. If you get it, locate and correct their subluxations (usually they will be the same ones you already corrected).
Try other statements to defuse the allergy. Tell the patient to imagine how they feel when they have an allergic reaction. Tell them to imagine breathing the allergen. Tell them to imagine clear sinuses or being free of other allergy symptoms.
Go through a number of these exercises until you simply can’t elicit an OD from the patient.
That’s it
It’s usually that simple. You may find an emotional reaction associated with the allergy, but that’s rare.
What exactly are we doing?
As with other allergy elimination protocols (i.e., NAET, JMT) we appear to be breaking a neurological reflex that causes the patient to overreact to an allergen.
With KST, we find that, when putting patients in the toxin posture of subluxation and adjusting them while in that posture, the allergy reflex is broken.
KST is a refinement in locating and correcting subluxations. Using KST procedures, chiropractors can easily and quickly locate and correct subluxations as they reveal themselves in any posture—physical, emotional or chemical.
Koren Specific Technique, developed by Tedd Koren, D.C., is a quick and easy way to locate and correct subluxations; it is gentle and low-force.
Your immune system works to keep you 100% natural, organic, unadulterated, you! It recognizes and destroys bacteria, viri, pollutants, dust, pollen, drugs, tumors, debris and artificial substances (metal and plastic, however, don’t trigger an immune reaction).
Many things influence how well your immune system functions: your nervous system, endocrine system, diet, genes and emotions.
Allergens and allergies
The most common immune system disorder is the allergy that occurs when the immune system overreacts to an allergen (dust, pollen, milk, dog or cat dander, strawberries, etc.) and the body produces too many neutralizing chemicals (especially histamines) in response.
KST and allergies
After developing Koren Specific Technique (KST), I was often asked if it could address allergies. I’m happy to report that doctors are finding that KST can be used as a simple, yet powerful, procedure to help allergy sufferers.
The allergy "posture"
First the patient is analyzed and adjusted so they are cleared out: no subluxations. Now the patient is put in the "posture" of the allergy.
How is that done?
It is rather simple to do. All you do is tell the patient to think of their allergy. While they are thinking of it, their body will subluxate into their "allergy pattern."
Now the allergy pattern must be located. I have found this is best done using a dynamic bio-indicator analysis system that is quickly able to locate subluxations. Bio-indicators are used by applied kinesiology (AK); muscle weakness, directional non-force technique (DNFT™) and Activator™ (a derivative of DNFT); the short leg reflex, Toftness ™; skin autonomic response and others.
KST employs the occipital drop (OD) that was discovered by Lowell Ward, DC, developer of Spinal Column Stressology, as a bio-indicator. Dr. Ward discovered that the occiput/mastoid area of the skull will appear to lower on the left when the person is stressed by a subluxation. By using the OD, the patient does not need to lie down to be checked and there is no muscle fatigue.
To continue the allergy protocol: While the patient is thinking of their allergy, the practitioner locates the subluxations that appear. In most cases, the subluxation involves the left and right greater wings of the sphenoid (anterior) and occipital bone (inferior).
In addition, sometimes a subluxation will involve the temporal or upper thoracic.
Now, the correction.
As the patient is thinking of their allergy, their subluxations are corrected or adjusted. I find an adjusting instrument works best, as this permits the patient to stay in one position while the force/energy/information (adjustment) can be directed specifically.
Next, ask the patient to think of the allergen again. There should be no OD. If there is an OD, go through the analysis and adjustment again. You may have missed something.
Are we finished?
Not quite. We have to see if the patient’s relationship with the allergen has been completely defused. Now ask the patient to think about the allergy from a different angle. For example, tell the patient, "Imagine taking the allergen and putting it in your mouth." Then test for an OD. If you get it, locate and correct their subluxations (usually they will be the same ones you already corrected).
Try other statements to defuse the allergy. Tell the patient to imagine how they feel when they have an allergic reaction. Tell them to imagine breathing the allergen. Tell them to imagine clear sinuses or being free of other allergy symptoms.
Go through a number of these exercises until you simply can’t elicit an OD from the patient.
That’s it
It’s usually that simple. You may find an emotional reaction associated with the allergy, but that’s rare.
What exactly are we doing?
As with other allergy elimination protocols (i.e., NAET, JMT) we appear to be breaking a neurological reflex that causes the patient to overreact to an allergen.
With KST, we find that, when putting patients in the toxin posture of subluxation and adjusting them while in that posture, the allergy reflex is broken.
KST is a refinement in locating and correcting subluxations. Using KST procedures, chiropractors can easily and quickly locate and correct subluxations as they reveal themselves in any posture—physical, emotional or chemical.
Koren Specific Technique, developed by Tedd Koren, D.C., is a quick and easy way to locate and correct subluxations; it is gentle and low-force.
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Koren Specific Technique
Koren Specific Technique (KST).
Dr John Parsons treats patients using a revolutionary treatment called Koren Specific Technique (KST).
The first thing you will appreciate is there is no 'cracking', 'popping', or twisting of your joints. The second great advantage is that you do not have to remove any of your clothing and many of the adjustments during the treatment occur with you standing or sitting.
KST is a gentle yet very powerful treatment. Patients often notice spectacular changes from the first visit. KST means that the body is more likely to hold the correction and therefore the time period between adjustments is longer.
What does KST actually do?
KST allows us to gently, effectively and quickly find and adjust your body for subluxations; wherever in your body they happen to be. This includes the spine, cranial (head), TMJ, (jaw), hips, sternum, ribs, femur, shoulders, feet, hands etc.
What causes subluxation?
Subluxations can be caused by many things including, physical, emotional stress or trauma. This clinic will endeavour to remove this stress from your body and mind to enable you to be fitter both mentally and physically.
Retracing.
Another amazing side to KST is the powerful retracing experience that patients often report. Retracing is the removal of deep seated stress leaving the patients body. This fundamental feature of the treatment gives your body the ability to heal itself. It can involve bringing out old forgotten feelings and emotional stresses.
The Onion Effect!
Your body, like the humble onion has many layers. At each session your body can allow more layers can be revealed and healed to allow you to move forward positively and healthy. Old injuries and emotions can re-surface at later sessions. This is all part of the healing process, and will help your body to be restored to health.
Side effects of Retracing.
Patients often report physical and emotional side effects of KST. These are often short lived and completely normal. Some of the side effects include 'cleansing' style symptoms, such as rash, diarrhoea, mucus, fever etc. Emotional side effects can be laughter, crying, intense dreams etc.
How does the KST work?
If a body part is out of alignment, even slightly, the body will give 'binary neurological feedback' to the practitioner. He will place his hands on the base of your skull, (this is the Occipital Bone). When the body part is challenged, i.e. moved ever so slightly if there is a problem the occipital bone will drop slightly to the left. This is known as the Occipital Drop, (OD). The body part is then adjusted using the Arthrostim® This instrument very gently corrects the misalignment. It is so gentle that children and babies can be adjusted this way with no trauma or upset.
How will I feel after KST?
We are all different and the KST can effect us in various ways. But particular common responses are a feeling of lightness and well-being. As well as their structural changes feeling easier or often completely healed, patients can have an emotional release and be able to breathe more deeply.
Some people feel as though they have completed a work out, others report improved eyesight and greater peripheral vision. You may experience none or just a few of the above. Please take note and report back to us over the next few days following your treatment.
Phone 01304 813903 to book an appointment.
Dr John Parsons treats patients using a revolutionary treatment called Koren Specific Technique (KST).
The first thing you will appreciate is there is no 'cracking', 'popping', or twisting of your joints. The second great advantage is that you do not have to remove any of your clothing and many of the adjustments during the treatment occur with you standing or sitting.
KST is a gentle yet very powerful treatment. Patients often notice spectacular changes from the first visit. KST means that the body is more likely to hold the correction and therefore the time period between adjustments is longer.
What does KST actually do?
KST allows us to gently, effectively and quickly find and adjust your body for subluxations; wherever in your body they happen to be. This includes the spine, cranial (head), TMJ, (jaw), hips, sternum, ribs, femur, shoulders, feet, hands etc.
What causes subluxation?
Subluxations can be caused by many things including, physical, emotional stress or trauma. This clinic will endeavour to remove this stress from your body and mind to enable you to be fitter both mentally and physically.
Retracing.
Another amazing side to KST is the powerful retracing experience that patients often report. Retracing is the removal of deep seated stress leaving the patients body. This fundamental feature of the treatment gives your body the ability to heal itself. It can involve bringing out old forgotten feelings and emotional stresses.
The Onion Effect!
Your body, like the humble onion has many layers. At each session your body can allow more layers can be revealed and healed to allow you to move forward positively and healthy. Old injuries and emotions can re-surface at later sessions. This is all part of the healing process, and will help your body to be restored to health.
Side effects of Retracing.
Patients often report physical and emotional side effects of KST. These are often short lived and completely normal. Some of the side effects include 'cleansing' style symptoms, such as rash, diarrhoea, mucus, fever etc. Emotional side effects can be laughter, crying, intense dreams etc.
How does the KST work?
If a body part is out of alignment, even slightly, the body will give 'binary neurological feedback' to the practitioner. He will place his hands on the base of your skull, (this is the Occipital Bone). When the body part is challenged, i.e. moved ever so slightly if there is a problem the occipital bone will drop slightly to the left. This is known as the Occipital Drop, (OD). The body part is then adjusted using the Arthrostim® This instrument very gently corrects the misalignment. It is so gentle that children and babies can be adjusted this way with no trauma or upset.
How will I feel after KST?
We are all different and the KST can effect us in various ways. But particular common responses are a feeling of lightness and well-being. As well as their structural changes feeling easier or often completely healed, patients can have an emotional release and be able to breathe more deeply.
Some people feel as though they have completed a work out, others report improved eyesight and greater peripheral vision. You may experience none or just a few of the above. Please take note and report back to us over the next few days following your treatment.
Phone 01304 813903 to book an appointment.
KOREN SPECIFIC TECHNIQUE
my thanks to chiropractor, Dr Allyn Edwards for this description:
Koren Specific Technique
Koren Specific Technique, or KST for short, is a relatively new style of chiropractic, although some of the components have been around for more than seventy years. In 2003 Tedd Koren, an American chiropractor, put the final touches to the technique he had been developing and started teaching it in 2005.
What chiropractors do
All chiropractors, of what ever persuasion, do three things.
1. They detect subluxations, the misalignments which compromise the nervous system.
2. They determine their listings, which means they decide how the subluxations need to be corrected.
3. They adjust the subluxations.
KST is no different. It does all these three things, it's just that the way it does these three things is very different to the styles of chiropractic we already practise and you are used to. The methods KST use are more towards the esoteric or vitalistic end of the spectrum as opposed to the exoteric or mechanistic end. In fact it utilises some very cutting edge neurological and physiological discoveries.
Detecting Subluxations
There is a phenomenon in neurology know as an ideo-motor response. What this means is that the motor nerve will respond to an idea of an action as though it was the action itself. Motor nerves carry information from the brain to the tissues etc. So for example if you think about lifting up your arm all the motor neurons needed to do that will fire, whether you actually lift your arm up or not. This is one of the reasons why sports people and athletes can improve their performance by visualising their actions in advance.
Now when a subluxation happens the body has in-built mechanisms to correct them. When the body can't correct them for some reason it doesn't mean it stops trying. The muscles will continue to try to do what they are supposed to do and so initiate an ideo-motor response.
If we can work out how to detect the ideo-motor response we can effectively detect the subluxation. You're probably already ahead of me here. KST uses a binary bio-indicator to detect the ideo-motor response.
What the heck is a binary bio-indicator when it's at home?
A binary bio-indicator is a reaction in a body part that either happens or doesn't happen (hence the binary); a yes or a no. There are surprisingly many of these in the body. You may have heard about kinesiology or muscle testing. This is a bio-indicator using relevant changes in muscle strength to give the yes or no answer.
The bio indicator chosen for KST is the occiput, the bone at the back of the skull. The occiput is intimately linked to the central nervous system and so is particularly useful for detecting ideo-motor responses in the motor nerves.
The Occipital Drop
In the presence of an ideo-motor response, one side of the occiput will appear to distort very slightly with respect to the other side. Once you have learnt to feel for it, it feels like one side has dropped down towards your feet slightly with respect to the other side, which is why it is called the Occipital Drop, or OD for short.
Most people can learn to feel this effect in a relatively short period of time, although it takes quite a lot of practise to become expert at it.
Determining the listings
Once you can feel the OD it is relatively easy do decide how to correct the subluxation. Let's suppose that you have got an OD on a particular bone. You simply wiggle the bone in different ways and see what it does to the OD. If it makes the OD larger then it's the wrong way. If it makes the OD smaller then it's the right way. So you simple wiggle the bone in all the ways it can move and after each wiggle check the OD. When the OD disappears you have found the direction to correct.
Of course what I have just written is an obvious simplification, you have to understand the underlying anatomy but you get the idea.
How the adjustment is done
Well instead of using our hands to do the adjusting we us an adjusting instrument called an AthroStim. (I prefer to call it my "Device". Only because in the film Barbarella the baddy, Duran Duran, says "I'll just get my device" and I've always wanted to be able to say it too.)
It is designed to give twelve taps a second using a very light force. In fact it is much much gentler than a McTimoney adjustment.
Why twelve taps a second?
There are structures in the muscles called beta mechanoreceptors whose job it is to make the muscles move in certain ways. These can be triggered by a twelve cycle a second impetus. If you can find the correct spot to apply the AthroStim then a very gentle twelve taps a second will make the muscle adjust the subluxation itself.
And it works beautifully!
That's not all though
We can do more with this than we can with the other styles of chiropractic that we practise. You can apply KST in the position of pain. Say for example it only hurts when you sit on your bike, we can get you sitting on your bike and check and adjust you in situ.
We can also detect more and different subluxations than we could with our other techniques, and also adjust structures in the body in different directions which wouldn't be possible with our hands.
We can also adjust some soft tissue structures too, like discs for instance.
Koren Specific Technique
Koren Specific Technique, or KST for short, is a relatively new style of chiropractic, although some of the components have been around for more than seventy years. In 2003 Tedd Koren, an American chiropractor, put the final touches to the technique he had been developing and started teaching it in 2005.
What chiropractors do
All chiropractors, of what ever persuasion, do three things.
1. They detect subluxations, the misalignments which compromise the nervous system.
2. They determine their listings, which means they decide how the subluxations need to be corrected.
3. They adjust the subluxations.
KST is no different. It does all these three things, it's just that the way it does these three things is very different to the styles of chiropractic we already practise and you are used to. The methods KST use are more towards the esoteric or vitalistic end of the spectrum as opposed to the exoteric or mechanistic end. In fact it utilises some very cutting edge neurological and physiological discoveries.
Detecting Subluxations
There is a phenomenon in neurology know as an ideo-motor response. What this means is that the motor nerve will respond to an idea of an action as though it was the action itself. Motor nerves carry information from the brain to the tissues etc. So for example if you think about lifting up your arm all the motor neurons needed to do that will fire, whether you actually lift your arm up or not. This is one of the reasons why sports people and athletes can improve their performance by visualising their actions in advance.
Now when a subluxation happens the body has in-built mechanisms to correct them. When the body can't correct them for some reason it doesn't mean it stops trying. The muscles will continue to try to do what they are supposed to do and so initiate an ideo-motor response.
If we can work out how to detect the ideo-motor response we can effectively detect the subluxation. You're probably already ahead of me here. KST uses a binary bio-indicator to detect the ideo-motor response.
What the heck is a binary bio-indicator when it's at home?
A binary bio-indicator is a reaction in a body part that either happens or doesn't happen (hence the binary); a yes or a no. There are surprisingly many of these in the body. You may have heard about kinesiology or muscle testing. This is a bio-indicator using relevant changes in muscle strength to give the yes or no answer.
The bio indicator chosen for KST is the occiput, the bone at the back of the skull. The occiput is intimately linked to the central nervous system and so is particularly useful for detecting ideo-motor responses in the motor nerves.
The Occipital Drop
In the presence of an ideo-motor response, one side of the occiput will appear to distort very slightly with respect to the other side. Once you have learnt to feel for it, it feels like one side has dropped down towards your feet slightly with respect to the other side, which is why it is called the Occipital Drop, or OD for short.
Most people can learn to feel this effect in a relatively short period of time, although it takes quite a lot of practise to become expert at it.
Determining the listings
Once you can feel the OD it is relatively easy do decide how to correct the subluxation. Let's suppose that you have got an OD on a particular bone. You simply wiggle the bone in different ways and see what it does to the OD. If it makes the OD larger then it's the wrong way. If it makes the OD smaller then it's the right way. So you simple wiggle the bone in all the ways it can move and after each wiggle check the OD. When the OD disappears you have found the direction to correct.
Of course what I have just written is an obvious simplification, you have to understand the underlying anatomy but you get the idea.
How the adjustment is done
Well instead of using our hands to do the adjusting we us an adjusting instrument called an AthroStim. (I prefer to call it my "Device". Only because in the film Barbarella the baddy, Duran Duran, says "I'll just get my device" and I've always wanted to be able to say it too.)
It is designed to give twelve taps a second using a very light force. In fact it is much much gentler than a McTimoney adjustment.
Why twelve taps a second?
There are structures in the muscles called beta mechanoreceptors whose job it is to make the muscles move in certain ways. These can be triggered by a twelve cycle a second impetus. If you can find the correct spot to apply the AthroStim then a very gentle twelve taps a second will make the muscle adjust the subluxation itself.
And it works beautifully!
That's not all though
We can do more with this than we can with the other styles of chiropractic that we practise. You can apply KST in the position of pain. Say for example it only hurts when you sit on your bike, we can get you sitting on your bike and check and adjust you in situ.
We can also detect more and different subluxations than we could with our other techniques, and also adjust structures in the body in different directions which wouldn't be possible with our hands.
We can also adjust some soft tissue structures too, like discs for instance.
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