The First Correction
The very first Upper Cervical adjustment was performed in 1895 on a man who was deaf. Of course, it wasn’t called Upper Cervical at the time. Actually, it wasn’t called anything. And DD Palmer, the man that performed that correction, didn’t fully realize what he had done or started. But out of that first correction an entire profession was born: Chiropractic. And the deaf guy…well he got his hearing back. A pretty cool start to a profession. Sounds like there is a little more to it than just back pain.
Finding the Specific
DD Palmer’s son, BJ Palmer, is referred to as the “Developer of Chiropractic.” He was called this because he was the one that took what his father had started and advanced it. He was insistent on developing Chiropractic into a reproducible science, and not just a random manipulation with random results. At first, chiropractic was all about moving as many bones as possible. The earliest and most general forms of the care involved adjusting the entire spine. They would push up and down the spine until they had popped everything that could be popped. They noticed that some people and conditions would improve but it wasn’t reproducible. It wasn’t consistent. BJ Palmer insisted that there was something Specific that was the cause of health problems. So they started fine tuning their care. They became less general in their approach and were laser beam focused on trying to find the Specific. And finally through much trial and error, BJ Palmer had done it. He found the Specific and he was ready to tell the world.
Upper Cervical Introduced
In the 1930′s, BJ Palmer had discovered what he called the Specific or what we now call Upper Cervical. He had determined that the most consistent and reproducible way to make chiropractic effective at getting sick people well was by making precise corrections to the upper neck. Research discovered that pressure being put on the nervous system was coming from the upper neck and the majority of spinal misalignments in other parts of the body were compensations resulting from a head/neck alignment. By the time BJ Palmer had made this discovery, more than 30 years had passed since the birth of the chiropractic profession. There were doctors and schools who were set on teaching the old way of doing chiropractic, so the profession as a whole rejected BJ Palmer’s advancements, content to do things they way they have always been done.
So What Now?
Once BJ Palmer discovered Upper Cervical, it became his method for getting sick people well, and he practiced the procedure for the remainder of his life. And even though the chiropractic profession as a whole rejected BJ Palmer’s plan for Upper Cervical, there were a select number of doctors who were trained in BJ Palmer’s methods and have since taught other doctors about the Specific. Up until the last few years, those who choose to practice Upper Cervical were referred to as Specific Chiropractors. Even today there are a lot of doctors who still use the term as a way of identifying with BJ Palmer and his work. Over the last few years, there has been a shift amongst Specific Chiropractors. Many of them have exclusively used the term Upper Cervical to describe their work in an attempt to bring more awareness to the procedure. Thankfully, Upper Cervical is gaining in popularity. It has recently gotten national attention by being highlighted on shows like Good Morning America and The Montel Williams Show. More and more people are becoming aware of the benefits of Upper Cervical. We are looking forward to the day where Upper Cervical Care is a household name in health care and is easily accessible to patients all around the world.
