Atlas subluxation is a condition that can be solved with a simple slight pressure and with that procedure dozens of health conditions can be improved. Dozens. If you think that's too good to be true, you are right: It is not true. And it is dangerous.
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C-1, the first neck vertebra, or Atlas, is a small ring at the top of the spine. When that small bone is misaligned we have Atlas subluxation (slight misalignment). That misalignment, it is believed by some, can cause dozens of health conditions, some of which can't be explained by modern medicine.
Now, having in mind that all messages going to and from the brain must travel through the nerves via upper neck region, we might be thinking that some "misalignment" may spoil all that and cause a range of problems.
Here are some of the conditions that, "experts" claim, can be healed by atlas alignment: migraine, headache, dizziness, sinusitis, asthma, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, herniated disc, asymmetry of the pelvis, allergies... You don't have to be a doctor to see that, for example, the connection between tennis elbow and a small structure in the neck looks very suspicious.
Let us first say one or two about that magic pressure that can "solve" atlas subluxation. When you see your chiropractor, (s)he will (probably) see your X-ray scans, measure the length of your legs and come up with the diagnosis. After that, you will lay down on the table, she will apply a slight pressure on your neck and that's it. Maybe you will need to visit her a few more times but that's basically it.
The idea behind that procedure is to allow the spine cord to be free of any pressure and that makes sense. But, let's take a closer look at that misalignment.
The first problem we have is that the displacement of the atlas is often a millimetre or less and patients don't feel any pain or discomfort in that area. Thus, we need studies that will connect the displacement with the range of the problems. Indeed, there are studies that show some progress after "putting atlas back in positions" but those are rare and we can't spread their conclusions to all people.
Then, the atlas can move a few millimetres in many directions to facilitate head movement. Ligaments are there to prevent it to go too far and it is hard to imagine that damage in ligaments would go unnoticed, allowing atlas to end up in an unnatural position. Since atlas' movements are very small, we don't see how that can affect the normal functioning of the nerves, brainstem, and the whole organism.
Without deep medical knowledge, just using common sense, it's hard to believe that moving the atlas a fraction of a millimetre can cause such a different conditions such as migraine, epilepsy, Parkinson's... And what that has to do with length of your legs, that's another mystery.
The second problem is the treatment itself. While it is true that some "doctors" are using X-ray scans, our common sense is telling us that it is impossible to put our fingers precisely and move the atlas a fraction of the millimetre back to its positions. Not to mention that some misalignment of a fraction of a millimetre can be very difficult to spot on the scan.
There is a third problem, often overlooked but very important. You see, there are a well-established pattern how to become an "expert" in all things atlas. First, you read a book from 1924 or something like that. Then you spend a few days (week) listening to somebody who read the same book before you. Then, your ad is all over the internet. That's not the way to go for someone who claims to heal people.
One of the common methods to check is the atlas slightly misaligned is to measure the length of your legs. There are two problems with that method: without an MRI scan it is impossible to measure the length precisely, and if your legs are of different length, you can find the problem between toes and hips, not above it. Not to mention that there are a lot of perfectly healthy people with slightly different legs because our body is not perfectly symmetrical, that's not how we are built.
Then, some "experts" may use thermography to measure skin temperature over the cervical spine or an apparatus that measures postural imbalance. All of that, to put it simply, is highly inaccurate and absolutely not enough to conclude that something is wrong with C-1.
But, let assume for a moment that the atlas is slightly misaligned and that someone put it back in the previous position. Again, we have a problem: if you move your head to the right, the atlas will move with it. If you move it to the left, it will move again. So, even if we "align" the atlas, when you move your head it will move to another position because that's what it does, it is free to move as the structure around it moves. So, there's no way to keep it in a "perfect" position.
To summarize: Even without deep medical knowledge, it is obvious that claims that the atlas can solve dozens of problems look very suspicious. And to say that leg length is connected to some structure in your neck is the same as saying that people with larger liver have stronger right arm. And don't forget that pressure on your neck can cause serious problem with arteries so choose very carefully on which table you are ready to lay down. ■