The Atlas of Life Chiropractic

A Reminder on the Importance of Ergonomics

Brandon Harshe, DC — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:33:58 +0000

Here is a really good video on how to properly position yourself when working on a laptop. It’s no secret that for many people, posture and pain are two things that usually accompany computer work. This is a good reminder we can all follow, myself included. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Truth of Chiropractic

Brandon Harshe, DC — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:00:35 +0000

Another video to blow you away. Dr. Ian Bulow nails down what Chiropractic is all about in the following video. Enjoy!

Balancing the Spine Through Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care

Brandon Harshe, DC — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:51:57 +0000

I found this video of Dr. Noah Kaplan discussing Upper Cervical Chiropractic care and found it extremely well done! Take a look for yourself, and see if it doesn’t also give you a better understanding of what Chiropractic is all about.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to Get More Energy for Healing, Digestion, and Thinking

Brandon Harshe, DC — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:00:40 +0000

“Better than 90% of the brain’s output is directed towards maintaining your body in its gravitational field. Therefore, the less energy one spends on one’s posture, the more energy is available for healing, digestion and thinking.” -Roger Sperry, 1981 Nobel Prize winner for brain research

The first cervical vertebra, Atlas or C1, is the most freely movable vertebra in the spine, and the one most likely to cause irritation or tension to the spinal cord. It pivots around the second cervical vertebra, Axis or C2, connected only by ligaments and tendons, but no disc as in the rest of the spine. This is what allows the majority of spinal rotation to occur, but at the price of instability. In most cases, you will not feel the vertebral subluxation in your upper cervical spine.

When a vertebral subluxation occurs in the upper cervical spine, you won’t feel it in most cases, but it will have a number of negative effects on the body. Because it is causing irritation and/or tension near the brain stem, vital organ function can be negatively impacted. Conditions such as high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, and digestive problems can arise. Because of a high number of sensory nerves in the upper cervical spine called mechanoreceptors, a vertebral subluxation can manifest itself in various conditions such as neck pain or stiffness, or tension headaches. You could even experience other conditions like migraines or vertigo as a result of having an upper cervical vertebral subluxation.

A vertebral subluxation can also cause an overall body imbalance that, because of the misalignment component of the upper cervical spine, will result in overall spinal compensation. This will be characterized by spinal curvature, contracted or tight muscles on one side of the spine, postural imbalances such as a tilted head, high shoulder, and high hip, and an imbalance in leg lengths. Over time this will lead to advanced forms of degeneration like bone spurs and fusion of the vertebrae, as well as back and shoulder pain, and even herniated discs.

So restoring proper position to the Atlas and Axis vertebrae have more of an effect on your overall well being than you have ever imagined. If you haven’t had your nervous system and upper cervical spine checked, it’s time you did.

1 Last Sign that Moving to Childress, TX was the Right Choice

Brandon Harshe, DC — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:24:37 +0000

If you read my blog post last week about the reasons for moving to and setting up shop in Childress, TX, the reasons for all this happening were definitely out of my hands, that’s for sure.

As if all that wasn’t enough, here’s one more sign that Childress is the right place for me and my family. The day we moved into our house, I went out into the backyard to look around at everything. I glanced down at an arrangement of bricks right outside our back door and saw this brick.

Having experienced a number of amazing events that led to our arrival here in Childress, this is simply icing on the cake. How likely is that of all towns, of all houses, someone like me, a Chiropractor (and not to mention one who specializes in the upper cervical spine and predominantly focuses on the Atlas (C1) vertebra) would find a brick with ATLAS engraved on it in the backyard?

(Update: Come check us out at Childress Specific Chiropractic today!)

Kennedy Ng’ang’a is a Kenyan Quadriplegic Who Needs Your Help ASAP!

Brandon Harshe, DC — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:40:18 +0000

For the past year or so, I have been friends on Facebook with an individual by the name of Kennedy Ng’ang’a, who currently lives in Mombasa, Kenya. Kennedy used to be an avid swimmer until a diving accident in 1992 left him a quadriplegic. Kennedy was told by doctors that he would never do anything productive again. It is common for quadriplegics to die in the first year following injuries like this, yet Kennedy is still going strong… and in Kenya nonetheless!

Kennedy’s father died in 1997, leaving the responsibility of providing for the family to fall on his older brother, who in turn died in 2007. After that, his mom was left to provide for him, living in a small shack with dirt for a floor and no electricity and no running water. But that all ended when Kennedy’s mother passed away in June of this year. Now he is alone without a caregiver and living in extreme poverty half a world away.

Yet through this all, Kennedy has tapped into an amazing gift. He has painted dozens of paintings, all of which are amazing considering the physical limitations he suffers from. Things like a laptop and a wheelchair have been donated to him, but he needs much more help than just these items, thus the reason why an online store was set up for him to sell these paintings.

What I am asking everyone reading this to do is go to Kennedy’s online store here and take a look at his paintings. Find one you like and PLEASE BUY IT.

Yes, the economy is in a downward spiral and many people have lost jobs, but I know many of the people reading this blog can probably afford one of these paintings. Yes, things may be tougher in this country than they have been in the past. I understand that and lived it up until recently. But even still, we as Americans enjoy a standard of living that someone like Kennedy would consider extreme wealth. So please share some of that wealth and help out my buddy Kennedy.

He truly deserves it.

Putting Bricks in Your Purse and Wearing it on Your Shoulder = BAD

Brandon Harshe, DC — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:30:51 +0000

This post is primarily for the female readers of this blog, though if you are a man and wear one of those “man-bags” or “murses,” I suppose this is for you, too.

If you are anything like my wife January, and you put bricks in your purse to make it as heavy as you can (which I think she does sometimes), please don’t wear it on your shoulder if at all possible. I know habits are hard to break and you need your hands free, but when you put that added weight on one shoulder instead of equally distributed across the upper back (or not at all), it pulls down on that side of your upper body. This causes you to lean more to one side, putting added and unnecessary weight and strain on that side of your body, which only adds to the body imbalance you may be experiencing if you haven’t been under Upper Cervical Chiropractic care.

If you have been under Upper Cervical Chiropractic care, then this sort of strain on one side of your body on a repeated basis will undoubtedly contribute to you losing the restored alignment of your spine, causing you to need another adjustment sooner than later. And as you know, when your spine is out of alignment, due to a vertebral subluxation that is causing stress and tension on the spinal cord, this will ultimately affect your entire body i.e. organs, glands, blood vessels, nerves, muscles, and joints.

So you see, putting bricks in your purse to make it as heavy as possible, and then wearing it on one shoulder, might actually be putting a damper on your health.

Great Upper Cervical Safety Study by Eriksen et al.

Brandon Harshe, DC — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:58:17 +0000

Last week a new safety and efficacy study in regards to Upper Cervical Chiropractic was published. This study was conducted by Dr. Kirk Eriksen, with help from Dr. Bo Rochester and Dr. Eric Hurwitz to conduct the statistical analysis.

Overall, 83 Upper Cervical Chiropractors submitted information on 1,090 patients, which totaled 4,920 office visits (4.5 per patient) requiring 2,653 upper cervical adjustments (2.4 per patient) over 17 days. After this initial course of care, patient satisfaction was a 9.1 out of 10. It was fairly common for patients to report a worsening of or new symptoms in the first 24 hours of care, but this is not surprising considering the realigning the spine goes through and healing the body begins to do when the upper cervical spine is restored to its proper juxtaposition. What’s really remarkable, but not surprising, is that all 83 Chiropractors have delivered over 5 million adjustments with no reported incidence of serious adverse events.

I uploaded a copy of the study for you to see here. Enjoy!

A Funny Thing Happened to Me in Childress…

Brandon Harshe, DC — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:01:39 +0000

Needless to say I have been incognito on this site for a few weeks. For those not in the know, I am now practicing full time in Childress, TX (in West Texas, near the panhandle) and I only go back to The Atlas of Life Chiropractic in Carrollton, TX on the 1st and 3rd Friday-Saturday of each month.

How did this happen, only 6 months into practice in North Dallas?

Well, in short, none of it was my doing. That’s for sure. God certainly had His hand in this, because it was nothing I would have thought of on my own, and certainly did not either.

As one of seven Chiropractors on the same intersection in Carrollton, I think there was something to be said of saturation, which I have never put any stock into until recently. I always believed I would build a big practice, helping a ton of people experience better health, and there was no alternative to this outcome in my mind, despite so many other Chiropractors near me. Period.

But after knocking on approximately 2,000 doors, doing three spinal screenings a week for months, going around to different businesses to meet people (just to name a few of the things I did), and seeing a very, very minimal interest, it was hard not to feel discouraged. But I kept at it.

After seeing 9 new patients in Carrollton in June, I ended up only seeing 3 in July. It wasn’t for a lack of trying either. I was bewildered by the lack of interest I was experiencing as a new Chiropractor, despite pounding the pavement to get my name out there. It was shocking, frustrating, and disheartening… just to name a few of the emotions I felt.

Then a patient of mine asked me if I would be interested in seeing some patients in Childress, TX a couple times a month at her sister’s health spa. We talked more and more and decided I should head out and see what kind of interest there would be. On August 13th, I left Dallas at 3am, drove four hours to Childress, and from 7:30am to 7:30pm, I checked and adjusted 23 new patients! I drove home that same night, and literally needed the next three days to recover physically.

I went back on August 26-27 and saw another 24 new patients, along with almost everyone I saw on the 13th. All in all, 47 new patients in three days total time in Childress was more new patients than I had seen in the previous 11 months since moving back to Dallas combined!

At that point, serious discussions about moving to Childress began, and after coming back on September 9-10 and seeing the same volume as the previous two visits, we made the final decision to move out to West Texas.

And it hasn’t been a mistake. People are excited about the changes that are being made in their health, and they are telling all their friends and family… literally! I am blessed every day to see so much health and healing taking place in people who have been given no hope in the past.

I am so grateful to have this opportunity to serve the people of Childress and the surrounding communities of Wellington, Quanah, Paducah, Turkey, Canadian, Memphis, Clarendon, Hollis, and more. It has been a blessing to me and my family, as well as the people we’ve been able to help.

(Update: I have opened up a full time practice in Childress called Childress Specific Chiropractic.)

6 Blog Posts to Help You Remember Chiropractic’s 116th Birthday

Brandon Harshe, DC — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:00:38 +0000

116 years ago today, on September 18th, 1895, Harvey Lillard told such a funny joke that D.D. Palmer playfully slapped him in the back with a heavy book and it miraculously restored his hearing.

Just kidding. No one really believes that, do they? I didn’t think so… well, maybe they do at National University of Health Sciences.

Anyhow, as I did last week on B.J. Palmer’s birthday, today I am giving link love to some D.D. Palmer-related posts, as well as some chiropractic history-related posts. Enjoy!

1.) Old Dad Chiro: D.D. Palmer’s Discovery of Chiropractic

2.) D.D. Palmer on Trial: His Address To The Grand Jury

3.) Going to Jail For the Principle: Dr. Herbert Ross Reaver

4.) Remembering An Upper Cervical Chiropractic Legend: Dr. Mary Ann Pruitt

5.) Words of Wisdom From The Great Dr. Ralph Gregory

6.) Quotes From Old School Chiropractic Big Shots