NUCCA is proud to announce that we will once again be offering a scholarship contest for the 2011 Spring Conference.

One student from each chiropractic college will be awarded free conference registration to the 2011 Spring Conference in Newport Beach, CA.

Students are asked to address the topic: Defining the NUCCA Practice in the 21st Century. Entries should be submitted via email as a Word document or video to Dr. Stanley Dombroski-drstan@myamazingspine.com or can be mailed to

Entries MUST be received no later than March 31st to be considered for this opportunity. Contestants should include their name, address, school, proposed graduation date, date and phone number.

Please contact the NUCCA office with questions at 800-451-5799. Please visit the NUCCA website for conference details.

Is practice what you thought it would be?

• Is your record keeping focused on providing quality care, or treading through a minefield designed to reduce or eliminate payment for services you have provided in good faith?
• Are you selecting codes not based on what you’ve done, but what will provide maximal reimbursement to the patient?
• Are you only getting paid a portion of what you should because of third party payment fee schedules?
• Is your record keeping based on disease and symptom treatment rather than being health care focused?
• Are offering super bills that still leave you vulnerable to post payment audits, even if you’re not submitting for the patient?

Dr. Lee Yardley presents options for practicing upper cervical chiropractic in a high volume practice, without super bills, PI, work-comp, insurance, or even Medicare.

Learn how to exit the practice of medical care by a chiropractor, and simply practice chiropractic.

Register for Practice Innovation 2011, and do it by December 31, 2010.

This seminar features instructors who are highly successful upper cervical doctors with a diversity of expertise who will be sharing their practice principles, experiences, and insights to help create a prosperous, fulfilling upper cervical practice. (This is not a technical instruction seminar.)

The range of topics and speakers present is available at the NUCCA website.

One of the unique features of this short but sweet practice building seminar is it’s unique format: both nights will feature a several hour open forum with a panel of experts (and cash bar) allowing a free and open exchange on business principles from a variety of perspectives.

You won’t want to miss it.

Mark the date for our second annual Innovation seminar, a terrific opportunity for an intensive look at what our most successful doctors incorporate into their practices for personal and professional success! Schedule and registration are coming soon both on the NUCCA website and upcoming Atlanta conference. Stay tuned!

Part of the “back to school ritual” for many students is the routine physical at their medical doctor’s office. While many parents may think about the health of their child’s lungs, heart, or if they are sick often–they’re immune system–most parents don’t often consider the health of their child’s spine. Or how the health of that spine may be related to the health of their child.

But just like adults, children can face an upper cervical spinal misalignment that impacts their health. A misalignment can happen at birth, tumbling as a toddler, playing sports in middle school, or while putting dent in the family car as a teenager. Wherever kids get knocked down, take a tumble, or are under physical stress the atlas can be affected.

Dr. Robert Brooks of Tulsa, Oklahoma answers all of the common parent questions about NUCCA Chiropractic care and children, including:

• How old do you have to be to receive NUCCA care?
• How do misalingments happen?
• What about children and x-rays?

Click the interview above to listen.

It’s physical time. That means kids everywhere are having physicians look in their throats, their ears, and listening to their hearts.

But when was the last time a doctor examined your child’s posture? Or assessed the health of his spine? If all she’s gotten is the “once over” check for spinal scoliosis, then maybe it’s time for her to get checked again.

While children don’t typically have the same kinds of back pain as adults, they still have the same hectic schedules, carry the same loads, and sit for hours in the same desks and chairs, and put their bodies through the same rigorous sports.

And that can mean adult like problems, like headaches, neck pains, and breathing problems. Problems that can originate in troubled spinal alignment.

It’s physical time. After the doctor looks in your daughter’s ears, and checks your son’s lungs, why don’t you head on over to your NUCCA doctor and make sure his or her spine is okay too.

You may find those adult troubles go away–as easy as 1,2,3. And that will help him be a kid again.

Contributed by Dr. Zachary Ward.

Did these medications help with the pain? No.

But they reduced his awareness enough to make him feel like he was on a separate planet from the pain. Of course, he also wound up relating to the rest of his family, friends, and community as though he was on a separate planet.

Was there hope?

That’s the question his wife posed to me one day. I told her I didn’t know, but that if I could examine Ed, I’d have a better idea. After worrying about it for a week, this very stressed couple came in to my office.

Have you ever looked at a big project and found your legs grow weak under you? Climbing a very large mountain, or paddling some very high water?

When Ed tottered in, I felt that way. All 400+ pounds of Ed leaned uncomfortably in my office chair, a grand flying buttress of a cane keeping him up. My job was to find the underlying problem, and if it was in my scope of practice, to correct it.

It was obvious through the exam that the broken fibula had been displaced laterally (I’ve never seen that before), and that the screaming, hypersensitive nerve endings in that leg were the main issue for Ed. A more detailed look showed a twisted pelvis, back muscles in spasm and nerve pressure where the head and neck meet.

What’s the key to all these apparently unrelated facts? Can I wave my hands and make the nerve pain go away, the pelvis un-twist, and the muscle spasms vanish? Is that going to be one incantation or three?

Mikki’s Headaches

Mikki had a nasty headache. It started right after the car accident. It would not go away. Even though the car accident had finished three months before, the headache stuck around. It was one of those headaches that made you sick to your stomach. It was one of those headaches that threaten your career. MRI studies showed nothing amiss.

Was there hope?

Rebecca’s Son
Rebecca loved her son deeply. She loved her son enough to ignore the doctor’s advice to abort the child due to genetic problems. She loved her son enough that when he was born with hemi-megaloencephaly, a cleft palate, blind in one eye, and was told he would never walk without the help of surgery, she cuddled and fed and played with him, expecting the best.

At two years of age, he had spent two weeks of every month sick in the hospital.

Was there hope?

What do they have in common?

As diverse as these cases are, the underlying problem was the same. The neurologic tests, orthopedic tests, and chiropractic tests showed different aspects of the underlying problem – loss of brain-to-body communication.

Within the chiropractic profession, specifically NUCCA, this problem is called the Atlas Subluxation Complex. The atlas (C1) is the first bone in the neck, a small, two-ounce ring of bone which supports the head.

When NUCCA chiropractors use the phrase, “Atlas Subluxation Complex,” it means more than just the atlas. It tells us that we have to look at the relationship between the head and the atlas, the atlas and C2 (the axis), and all of that in relation to the neck below. It is a “complex” of structures that enable the body to work right when they are right, and interfere with the body when they are wrong.

Did anyone else know about this before?

If you didn’t flunk out of high school biology, you may recall some lessons in the nerve system. That’s the system that runs everything in the body. It controls and coordinates the growth and development of all the other systems in the body. It began doing that in the third week of the developing embryo. It’s in our nature.

So if the nerve system controls everything, doesn’t it make sense to monitor it and make sure it’s running without interference?

NUCCA and the Atlas Subluxation Complex

The NUCCA procedure (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association) was developed 60 years ago to accurately identify and correct the Atlas Subluxation Complex.

This light-handed procedure is responsible for hundreds of thousands of people regaining health. The goal in using the NUCCA procedure is to restore the body’s natural communication system which has broken down. When this broken link has been re-established, the body can begin healing itself.

Rebecca’s Son

Rebecca’s son stopped getting sick after his first, and only, head-neck correction. He also began walking shortly after that. Four years later, he is still holding his adjustment, his back is strong, his legs support him and he shows that he can see out of both eyes.

Mikki’s Headaches

Mikki’s headaches vanished within days of her first gentle head-neck correction. The only time they return is when she hurts herself and loses her adjustment.

Ed’s Leg Pain

Ed’s leg pain began diminishing within days. Interestingly enough, the lateral fibula went back in line immediately after the first head-neck correction and hasn’t slipped out since. Within four weeks he lost his dependence on his “flying buttress” cane and began sitting up straight, supporting his magnificent girth by his own strong back. At six weeks his dependence on drugs diminished to the point where he is feeling present again.

The importance of the nerve system

Does everyone who gets this type of correction get relief? In my opinion, yes, but results vary depending on many other factors in a person’s life and condition. Some people take longer to heal. Some people have deep chemical or emotional imbalances that require either more time or other types of concurrent care. Despite the variations in response times and variations in amounts of relief, one fact is clear from clinical experience; correction of the brain-to-body communication system is first in restoring natural healing processes.

When considering the question of hope, do you think that starting with the nerve system, where nature starts, is a good plan?

Provided by Dr. Philip Schalow in Rockford, Illinois.

You can think of it like this:

What if you asked me for directions to my house and I said, “Go down to the corner, turn right, then go a little while and turn left. Go ahead some more and my house should be on the right.”

What are the chances that you are going to make it to my house? Not very good.

What if instead I said, “Go out and get in my car. I have a GPS already set to direct you from my office to my house.”

Now what are the chances of getting to my house? Much higher.

The difference between each set of directions illustrates the difference between the NUCCA approach and general spinal manipulation. The goal of NUCCA, like a car GPS, is to rely on pinpoint accuracy to get you to your destination. General manipulation is okay with getting you into the neighborhood.

For many patients that means the precise approach may provide more predictable results in the correction of the spine. So even if you have tried general spinal manipulation, you may still benefit from the precise and gentle approach of NUCCA.

Because when the head is on straight, everything changes.

Provided by Dr. Bill Davis in Vista, California.

And the NUCCA course handbook is now online!

Read how your upper cervical education will be broadened at the NUCCA conference, whether you are a student, doctor of chiropractic, or upper cervical practitioner.

They are listed here for your convenience. For more information please see the contact information included.

• July 9th Life Chiropractic College West Seminar Hayward, CA An all school event entitled Seminar is being held at Life Chiropractic College West offering a range of chiropractic workshops. Call 510/780-4500 for information.

• July 9th, 10th – Taking Care of People San Mateo Foster City, CA Dr. Robert Brooks will be presenting his popular weekend seminar entitled Taking Care of People as part of the Life West Seminar event. For registration and details: healing@brooksspinalcare.com

• July 23rd, 24th Lyceum – A Gathering of Light Castro, CA Dr. Jack Stockwell and Dr. Robert Brooks will be presenting a program at the Castro Valley Masonic Center sponsored by the Delta Sigma Chi fraternity entitled “Lyceum – A Gathering of Light.” For tickets and details: www.dscnu.com

• September 23rd – 25th – Fusion San Jose, CA Fusion: An Overview of Five Upper Cervical Perspectives, a unique first time conference. Register at http://uppercervicalfusion.com

• October 13th -16th – NUCCA Fall Conference Atlanta, GA
  Join us for an innovative academic program, job fair, wine and cheese event and special guest speaker Paul Chek.