NUCCA/Atlas Chiropractic

What Is NUCCA?

NUCCA stands for the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association. This type of chiropractic manipulation is focused on the neck, though its results will affect the entire body -- including all of its systems and the spine. At Kilian Upper Cervical, we offer NUCCA chiropractic treatment to residents of Aldergrove, Langley and Abbottsford.

Why? This type of treatment focuses on the brain stem and central nervous system — in other words, the control centre of the body.

What Is an Atlas Misalignment?

The C-1 vertebrae located on the spine is also called the Atlas. It’s found on the top of the spine near the base of the skull and is a small donut-shaped bone. If your spine experiences too much stress, the Atlas can become misaligned.

Your spinal column nerves are incredibly perceptive to factors like stress and pressure. When your spine is misaligned, it puts even more stress on the nerves and, in turn, affects your entire body and its systems.

The body’s central nervous system has a handful of essential jobs relating to the health of your body, including:

Controlling the voluntary muscle movements of your body
Regulating your sensation of things like temperature, touch, pain and pressure
Monitoring functions such as urination, blood pressure levels, body temperature, digestion and your heart rate

The Atlas itself also serves a few important purposes, such as balancing your head, protecting the brain stem and allowing for a healthy range of motion.

Who Needs an Atlas Alignment?

One of the most common ways to develop an Atlas misalignment is trauma. That can come in many forms, from car accidents to assault to slip-and-fall accidents to injuries from sports.

If you have an Atlas misalignment, you might experience discomfit in the form of:

Chronic headaches
Neck, hip, back or shoulder pain
Decreased mobility

This could mean you will be a good candidate for the NUCCA chiropractic procedure. Like many things, it all depends on your individual situation. An experienced chiropractor can tell you what will be best.

How Is an Atlas Alignment Fixed?

Once you’ve made the decision to correct an Atlas misalignment, your next step is finding and meeting a NUCCA chiropractor. From there, the chiropractor will take a deep dive into your health history. Have you ever been in a car accident or had surgeries recently?

These are good things to keep in mind when meeting with your chiropractor. They’ll determine whether or not you have an Atlas misalignment. Next, you can move forward with the NUCCA chiropractic procedure.

During your Atlas chiropractic treatment, the chiropractor will take X-rays to further visualize the issue. This will allow him to see the location and the misalignment degree. Then, they will review the X-rays with you to demonstrate the findings and how the misalignment might be negatively affecting your health.

After this is completed, you can move forward with the non-invasive, gentle procedure. There won’t be any frightening cracking or popping noises, meaning you can relax as your chiropractor performs the adjustment. Finally, your chiropractor will go over the pre- and post-adjustment X-rays to easily show you the changes made to your spine.