Do I have a short leg?
Do I have a short leg? What does it mean? When the head is not balanced well on the atlas, the body will have to fight to compensate to keep the body upright. This results in physical pain where the compensation is highest. Visually, that leads to the illusion of a short leg. Once the atlas subluxation (misalignment) is corrected, the leg length will even out and the body can function optimally again.
"Leg length discrepancy”; that’s a fancy term for having one shorter leg compared to the other. Often times, prospective patients come and cite they have been told by a doctor or physiotherapist that there is a short leg which results in their hip pain, back pain, and/or poor posture. With concern in their eyes, the followup question being: Is that treatable? YES! It absolutely is! (read on)
When someone presents with a short leg, its usually not because of an actual short leg, but from the nervous system. All muscles and organs are controlled by nerve signals. In a misaligned spine, nerves that over react lead to spastic (tight) muscles throughout parts of the body; pulling said side of the body up to give the illusion of a short leg. This commonly also lead to back and hip pain. So the solution to a leg length inequality is to clear the nerve miscommunication from the source in order for the proper transmission to corresponding muscles.
BUT…
Where is this misalignment coming from? What is the source? Believe it or not, the source is not the low back or pelvis. The nerve control comes from the brainstem which is in a very delicate area of the upper neck involving the Atlas (Cervical bone #1 aka C1 for short). The atlas cradles the head and support the weight of the head on its condyles. When our first vertebra is misaligned, the weight of the head is no longer evenly distributed over the neck and the rest of the body. The many postural muscles that are constantly contracting and relaxing in response to normal body movements to prevent us from falling over and keeping us in an upright posture now have to respond to this imbalance by contracting different postural muscles in an attempt to maintain an upright posture. It is the reflexive contractions of the postural muscles that result in the contracted/ shortened leg.
A leg length difference can be an indication of imbalance tone in your body’s musculature and therefore is one of our objective measures to determine whether or not you are in need of an adjustment. After an adjustment we will often check leg-length again and find that legs to be of balanced length.
Want to see and visualise if you may be out of alignment? Stand in front of a mirror. Close your eyes and shake the body up as a reset. Don’t move a muscle. Open your eyes…what do you see? Is your head tilting to one side? Is one shoulder higher? Is your torso rotated? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, there’s a high likelihood you may be out of alignment. If you’re still unsure. Contact A Balanced Atlas for a free consultation. & for more information check out: www.mymisalignment.com/abalancedatlas/
Catch your Zzz’s
Sleep can make or break your day. How can we optimise our downtime so we can use our days to the fullest? Is your posture affecting your sleep?
Sleep: Can’t live without it..literally. We need it to process the things we learn, to rejuvenate cells, to heal the body through the immune system, and now there’s even statistic on how it affects the cardiovascular system. Annually, with daylight sayings when we loose an hour of sleep in the spring. There’s a marked 24% increase in heart attacks the day after. In the autumn, when we gain an hour of sleep. There’s a 21% reduction in heart attacks respectively (Dr. Matt Walker). This also applies toward auto accidents. All of this change from just a simple one hour change to sleep. Needless to say, sleep is quite an important aspect of daily living. In fact, its 1/3 of our life. Any health professional can agree that a person’s overall health is at its best with adequate sleep.
Which is why through out time, there’s always been debates, studies, discussions surrounding sleep. So many different articles on the best sleeping position, the best pillow, the best mattress, and even the best temperature to fall asleep in. Of course, the best of the best would be whatever works well for your Zzz’s. With so many consumer options to perfect your sleep (including numerous apps available for white noise, sleep tracker, & the likes); sleep has been muddled with seemingly infinite combinations. In reality, its a simple yes/no question: did you sleep well? with many follow up questions of “do you feel well rested? are you tired/groggy? and did you dream?”
Aside from following the typical rules that have been written serving as a guideline for “good” sleep: limiting caffeine by a certain time, cutting the alcohol, working out, eating the last meal before 7pm, avoiding triggers such as the news and screen time at night. There are additional physical factors to focus on. As a chiropractor, I have to be slightly biased and say the key to great sleep and energy the morning after is the neck positioning during sleep. Why? Your upper neck specifically houses your brainstem, which allows for proper nerve flow and sensory that control your whole body. Neutral positioning of your head, neck, and shoulders allow for a stress free brainstem, leading to a betters sleep for a better morning after, which leads to a healthier you.
How do we achieve that neutral head/neck position? Choice of mattress is a very personal one and it needs not be discussed for the purpose of this piece. Find one that you are comfortable with and can fall asleep with easily based on comfort and temperature. With more and more mattress companies including a free trial run with purchase, its easier to find the perfect mattress to your spinal liking. The pillow, however, can be a little bit more complicated. The ultimate goal of a pillow is proper (and neutral) neck and head support. Imagine as you are upright, a straight line running midline down from centre of your skull, thru the glabella (between the eyebrow), nose, and sternum (aim for midline between your shoulders). That line as you are vertical needs to be maintained when you are on your side. Any pillow that influences the integrity of said line is not a good pillow. Seems simple enough right? When in doubt, ask your local chiropractor for help. Sometimes, your general physical discomfort upon waking up or even pain during the night can be a result of the nervous system misfiring due to the atlas misalignment.
Sleep is as important as eating and breathing. Without it, our bodies will shut down.
Vertigo alone is not a diagnosis
Vertigo can be an inner ear problem or a symptom based on the misalignment of the neck. Upper Cervical misalignment can shift the body’s sensory system. So by fixing the misalignment if it causes vertigo, the symptom can then be remedied.
Vertigo is becoming a more common problem for office visits to primary doctors, ear, nose and throat specialists, neurologists and physical therapists. Vertigo is a symptom that causes a person to feel like they are moving when they really are not. Sometimes a person with vertigo can feel like the walls and the floor are moving, resulting in associated symptoms of nausea, vomiting, sweating or walking difficulties. Activities of daily living can become difficult and at times, intimidating.
When someone says they have vertigo, this is a description of a symptom that may be associated with different conditions such as Meniere’s disease, infection, multiple sclerosis, migraine, head trauma, brain tumor and others. However, in a majority of the cases, a structural shift of the head and neck position known as atlas displacement complex can be a contributor to vertigo symptoms. In a neurological sense, the neck position tells the brain where the body is in space. With the neck off-center, the body’s sensory systems will not have the right information, leading to a sense of imbalance.
The top of the neck, where the atlas bone cradles the head, houses more sensory receptors than the rest of the body, and injuries to this area such whiplash and concussion will disturb the balance of the sensory receptors. Typically, a person with vertigo symptoms have had injuries to the upper neck or head. By fixing this misalignment of the upper neck, the major contributor to vertigo can be corrected.
Vertigo
There’s no question if you have it when you have it.
The Jaw – Spinal Cord Connection A Simple Check-up Can Make All the Difference in One’s Overall Health
Are you a pain victim of your dental appliance? Why checking the upper neck alignment is key before dental work.
The TMJ can lead to many painful issues. Often times, its caused by misalignment of the C1/Atlas.
More often when we think of mouth guard, its a common need for athletes. Its also used as a daily/nightly dental protection device. Are both needed? The simple answer is yes and yes, but it is important to understand its function. A mouth guard is a covering that is placed on the upper or lower teeth to protect the teeth from injury.
There are two parts to the jaw: the maxilla, which is the upper part of the skull, or the non-moveable part with teeth, and the mandible, or the moveable part with teeth. The connecting location is the TMJ. What holds these two parts together are the muscles and ligaments, which are all controlled by facial nerves that come from the brainstem and are connected to the first vertebrae (also called the atlas).
A more thorough dental version of a mouth guard, known as an appliance, will also protect the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), from injury during periods of grinding and or clenching.
Over-the-counter mouth guards are manufactured predominantly in two premade forms that protect the teeth, but a custom appliance made at a dental office also maintains the balance between the upper and lower jaw so that dysfunction or destruction do not occur. Its focus is to maintain a proper fluid motion of the TMJ to avoid injury or pain. Symptoms of imbalance include tooth pain, facial pain, headaches and neck pain. Using the latest technology, dentists have tools to identify many problems in the TMJ to make better diagnoses and appliances that prevent further damage to teeth and the TMJ joint.
The use of a dental appliance is important for the treatment of several jaw-related problems and appliances are also being used to address sleep apnea and snoring with great success. However, another aspect of a patient’s well-being is how the fit of that appliance affects the neurological flow of the entire body.
If the atlas is in alignment and the brainstem is firing its signals correctly, allowing the nerves to function as they should, an improperly set appliance will put pressure onto the nerves and actually be capable of taking the patient out of alignment at the atlas, causing the nerves to not fire correctly, and giving way to symptoms such as headaches, vertigo, TMJ issues and even low back pain.
A simple check can determine if the dental appliance is affecting the spinal alignment and nerve flow. If the nerves are not firing correctly, that is considered a misalignment. If it is determined that the mouth guard is causing a misalignment, having that appliance refit by a dentist that understands the jaw/ spinal cord connection and can work with your spinal health practitioner is key.
While mouth guards and dental appliances are valuable protective tools for a patient to continuously feel well, the combination of having a properly set dental appliance and staying in alignment is key.