The Difference is Holdability

Not long ago, a patient arrived came to my St. Louis chiropractic office accompanied by her husband – an executive with Anheuser-Busch (now AB-Inbev). He had some questions about Upper Cervical Care, the first being “How is this different from other styles of chiropractic adjusting?”

I immediately thought of his company’s TV commercials promoting Bud Light’s drinkability, so I used these advertisements as a springboard to answer his question.

A critical difference between Upper Cervical Care and various full-spine chiropractic approaches is holdability.

If it’s true that spinal misalignment impairs the body’s ability to function normally, then a successful outcome for any chiropractic adjustment would be a reduction or complete elimination of this problem. With that being said, the more often a person needs to be adjusted, the longer their body will remain in a state of perpetual malfunction.

I’m of the opinion that the most effective chiropractic techniques consistently achieve lengthy holding times. The longer a patient can maintain one spinal correction, the better off they are…

If a patient isn’t achieving measurable improvement and requires frequent and repetitive adjustments, there are five possible explanations why their correction isn’t holding:

1. The analysis used to determine when and what to adjust is incorrect or incomplete
2. The mechanism of the doctor’s adjustment (the how) is not being applied properly
3. The patient is not doing their part by following their doctor’s home-care instructions
4. The patient is exposed to chemical/emotional stress irrespective of structural balance
5. Matter has exceeded limitations; permanent tissue damage prevents structural stabilization

Upper Cervical chiropractors are acutely aware of the role they play as facilitators of the healing process. If our calculations are wrong, or if our adjusting procedure is incorrect, we’re doing our patients a disservice. Making sure each patient receives a taylor-made adjustment based on their specific misalignment is something we take very seriously.

Among the myriad choices of chiropractic techniques available to doctors and patients today, I’ve found noteworthy consistency among those under the Upper Cervical umbrella. I believe the reason for this is because Upper Cervical Care isn’t merely a “technique” but rather a system of analysis.

The emphasis Upper Cervical doctors place on this system in order to achieve holdability is ultimately what makes all the difference.