Chiropractic Treatment Helps With Blood Pressure

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High blood pressure affects millions of Americans; one out of every three. If left untreated, it can be deadly. Most people take medication to control but some patients have found a simple way to keep their numbers down without drugs. They're turning to chiropractic care.

The mad dash to get the kids off to school, the crazy commute and work, they are enough to raise anyone's blood pressure.

Just ask Adrian Caspar. "We work on deadlines, and that's what makes it difficult," said the busy accountant. "All the changes in the law keep me in business, but keeps us also pretty stressed out," he added.

Like many people, the stress began to take its toll and Caspar was forced to go on medication for his high blood pressure.

Caspar didn't like the idea of being on medication so he decided to visit chiropractor Dr. Peter Martone. Dr. Martone has been using a new adjustment to the neck to help bring down blood pressure.

"If the bone is out of alignment and putting pressure on a nerve, it interferes with the ability of the heart to function properly," Martone explained.

After a few visits, Caspar's blood pressure was normal.

Bill Bird also has a stressful job. He's a car salesman. He was also on blood pressure medication but wanted to try to control his numbers naturally. His daughter suggested a visit to Dr. Martone.

A few adjustments later and Bird's primary care physician cut his medication in half.

"Another 30 to 45 days, if my blood pressure stays at this level, I'm going to be off it 100 percent," he said, enthusiastically.

The treatment is experimental, but studies show it might actually work.

"This is a very novel concept," explained blood pressure specialist Dr. George Bakris.

Dr. Bakris conducted a small, carefully controlled study with some of his patients.

He sent them to a chiropractor for the same adjustment Dr. Martone uses.

"We saw miraculous changes in blood pressure," Dr. Bakris explained.

The results were dramatic enough to catch the attention of the federal government.

The National Institutes of Health is now funding a study to see if the findings can be duplicated.

While Dr. Bakris believes the study is exciting, he admits there are a lot of unanswered questions.

"I think we'd have to really find out what is going on, why this is happening," he said.

Caspar and Bird say they have all the proof they need.

"I just feel better and feeling better is the way to be," Caspar said.

Bird agreed. "I feel younger. I've never felt better," he said.

Dr. Bakris believes this is most likely to work on people who have had some sort of neck trauma in their lives, even if it was falling off a swing as a child.

He believes if your hypertension is hereditary, this may not work for you. The experts also warn that patients should not stop taking their blood pressure medication without talking to their doctor first.

SUBLUXATION VS. COMPENSATION

SUBLUXATION VS. COMPENSATION

Assume you were standing on the floor with only one shoe having a 2” heel on your right foot. Immediately every muscle, bone, ligament, tendon, etc. in your body would “compensate" to keep your eyes parallel to the ground. Go ahead, try it! Really! Your right knee bends, the left hip rotates high, and the spine begins to look like an “S”. The right shoulder goes high and the head tilts to the right. If you remain in this posture for any period of time your joints and muscles will begin to speak to you (via pain and discomfort) letting you know that there is something wrong, that there is imbalance throughout the system.

If left this way long enough certain muscles will “grow” longer while others will shorten. Bones will begin to “remodel” or change and grow to their new stress, or new positions. You might experience knee, low back, mid-back, and/or neck pain. This pain is an important signal or alarm that lets you know there is imbalance, that something is wrong.

We could put ointment on your knee, “crack” your low back, do “therapies” to your mid-back, or “manipulate” your neck. And although it may “feel” better in the short term we would have done nothing to correct the underlying problem. On the other hand, we could “adjust” the cause of the problem and remove the shoe on the right foot. Your body would immediately begin a “process” of resetting and re-balancing every bone, muscle, ligament and tendon in your body, or its “effects”.

Does this mean all of your pain would immediately go away? Of course not. It simply means that over time, after your body re-aligned, reset, re-grew and re-balanced, there would be no need for the signal or alarm, and then there would be no need for pain. The pain would eventually go away.