Should We Be Looking NORTH of C1?
TECHNIQUE
George Roth
DC, ND, CMRP
As chiropractors, we stress the importance of the nervous system, and the structures related to it. This is a commendable pursuit since the nervous system is vital to health and survival. This fact is typified by how aggressively the central nervous system is protected by the spinal column and the cranium.
The focus of our attention has been the spinal column, a complex interconnected array of boney, ligamentous, cartilaginous and muscular supporting elements, designed to allow for complex motion, while also limiting damaging forces to the spinal cord. The importance of the spinal cord is based on the fact that it provides connections to almost every part of the body. Injury to this vital conduit, can result in catastrophic health consequences, including death. The spinal cord is composed of approximately 15 billion neurons.
On the other hand, the brain, a vastly complex mass of neurological elements, is also highly protected by an enveloping boney cranial vault, supported by specialized membranes (the meninges) and a nutrient and waste exchange system (the blood-brain barrier, choroid plexus, cerebrospinal fluid and ventricles). The brain is composed of approximately 85 billion neurons!
Based on numerical considerations alone, it seems somewhat baffling that a profession, which holds as a primary element of its focus, the care of the nervous system, overlooks the major contributor to it.
As a chiropractor who has explored the area of concussion and traumatic brain injury for over 30 years, I cannot imagine why our profession has not considered this crucial area of the body in much greater depth.
Cost: Human and Economic
Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability in persons under 45 years old, occurring more frequently than breast cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injury combined.
Based on the most recent data*:
• There were approximately 223,135 TBI-related hospitalizations in 2019* and 69,473 TBI-related deaths in 2021.1
° This represents more than 611 TBI-related hospitalizations and 190 TBI-related deaths per day.
° These estimates do not include the many TBIs that are only treated in the emergency department, primary care, urgent care, or those that go untreated.2
• People aged 75 years and older had the highest numbers and rates of TBI-related hospitalizations* and deaths.1 This age group accounts for about 32% of TBI-related hospitalizations and 28% of TBI-related deaths.
• Males were nearly two times more likely to be hospitalized (79.9 age-adjusted rate versus 43.7) and three times more likely to diel from aTBI than females (28.3 versus 8.4).
* Source: CDC, Traumatic Brain Injury & Concussion
Can Chiropractors Resolve the Effects of Concussion?
A concussion is an injury to the head area that may cause instant loss of awareness or alertness for a few minutes up to a few hours after the traumatic event3. It can occur as result of direct or indirect injury. Direct injury involves a blow to the cranial vault or the face. This is common with many contact or high-speed sports, motor vehicle collisions and slip-and-fall injuries. Indirect injuries occur as the result of these and other incidents, where the force is transmitted to the cranial vault from the cervical spine, as energy from those events is transmitted upward into the occipital bone and then on to the cranial vault from below.
A New Understanding of the Mechanism of Injury: Treatment Options
It has now been established that bone, as in the spine and cranium, is altered in size and shape by impact4 and has distinct piezoelectric properties5. These osseous changes can exert abnormal stress on the delicate neural structures housed within the cranium and spinal column6.
Over the past 35 years, I have been exploring various methods to address these properties. I have discovered that there are actually ways that we can restore optimal structural integrity to the cranium and upper cervical spine to provide rapid and profound clinical improvement7. The effectiveness of these approaches has been verified by independent researchers8. Other chiropractors, who have learned and applied these methods, are experiencing similar outcomes.
I believe that, as experts in the field of structural balance and neurology, it is crucial that we direct our attention to the 85% of the central nervous system that is present ‘north of C! ’. We owe it to our patients and the integrity of our profession. Resolving the effects of concussion and the many cases of traumatic brain injury suffered by millions of our fellow human beings, is within our reach.
Dr. George Roth, DC, ND, CMRP, is recognized as an authority and pioneer in the field of physical medicine. He is the author of The Matrix Repatterning Program for Pain Relief and his contribution to the treatment of concussion has been acknowledged by Dr. Norman Doidge in his best-selling book, The Brain’s Way of Healing. For more information, visit www.matrixinstitute.net or contact him at [email protected].
References:
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics: Mortality Data on CDC WONDER. Accessed April 2023, www.wonder.cdc.gov/mcd.html.
2. Bell JM, Breiding MJ, DePadilla L. CDC's efforts to improve traumatic brain injury surveillance. ./ Safely Res. 2017:62:253 -256.
3. Johns Hopkins: www.iohnshopkinsmedicine. org._
4. Fantner GE, Hassenkam T, Kindt JH, Weaver JC, Birkedal H, Pechenik L, Cutroni JA, Cidade GA, Stucky GD, Morse DE, Hansma PK, Sacrificial bonds and hidden length dissipate energy as mineralized fibrils separate during bone fracture, Nat Mater. 2005 Aug;4(8):612-6. Epub 2005 Jul 17.
5. Sierpowska J, et al. Predictions of mechanical properties of human trabecular bone by electrical measurements. Physiol. Meas. 26S119-S131, 2005.
6. Zimmer C, What happens to linebacker's neurons? In: Discover Magazine, July-August 2010.
7. Matrix Repatteming, Practitioner Manual, GB Roth, Matrix Institute, Toronto, 2022.
8. Doidge N., The Brain's Way of Healing: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, Penguin Books, New York, 2016.
