Written by Alastair Sherlock, Osteopath
27 April 2023
A misalignment of the head and neck can lead to many unwanted symptoms. If your atlas and axis shift off of the center of your spine, your head and neck will become misaligned, which can cause interference to the normal flow of your nervous system. This interference or irritation is called upper cervical subluxation.
Osteopath, Alastair Sherlock, explains this topic in more detail and shares his insight on how he helps his clients with this problem.
“There are some uniquely unpleasant symptoms that can arise out of positioning of the last two cervical vertebrae at the top of the neck where they meet the skull. This is a highly well reported area by the brain for its proprioception (the brain’s situational awareness).
If these two areas are not coordinating with each other correctly it can produce alarming symptoms such as vertigo, extreme nausea, headaches, blurry vision amongst a series of others. As an Osteopath I assess and correct this mispositioning with manipulation of the spine. I also look for all predisposing and maintain postural causes so it doesn’t return. Mechanical compression is usually the cause but we have to be mindful of a couple of other causes which can be threatening and lead to aberrant blood supply to the brain that can cause stroke. If this is the case, I would use orthopedic testing and refer to emergency care. This is rare though, and I’ve only encountered it five times in patients in my fifteen years’ of working experience. Another is a dislodgement of crystal in the ear canal that can be rectified with positioning the patient a certain way.
The symptoms caused can be very disturbing and in most cases can be corrected with the right treatment. Please reach out to me if you need support in this area.”