Schedule of care at Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock, TX.

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is: “How often do I need to come?”

The goal is to not see you because you are well. Dr. Gordon elder explains the process to get you there.

Once the spine has been injured and it’s affecting the central nervous system, the brain, or the brain stem spinal cord, it takes a while for it to heal. Now, different tissues in the body heal at different rates. Ligaments heal at a different rate than muscles. Nerves, blood vessels, they all have different rates of healing. We have observed that people tend to heal in cycles. And sometimes one thing has to heal before another thing can heal.

So as a chiropractor, once somebody has injured themselves, and I correct the problem that’s keeping them from healing themselves, then I want to check more often in the beginning. Usually, we start out at twice a week. Now, that’s not necessarily a treatment twice a week. I hope it isn’t, but it’s a check to make sure that things are still progressing. And then, we go down to once a week, and then once every other week, and then once a month. My goal is to get you to the point where I’m checking you, if possible, once every six months again without finding anything, in the same way, that a dentist would be looking at your teeth, not wanting to find a cavity.

We don’t rely on symptoms to tell us when to treat you. When something needs to be fixed because as the body starts to go back to its normal position sometimes things will hurt, muscles will get stretched.

So, we do not rely primarily on how you feel to know what you need. We use objective tests for that and that’s what those tests are for.

We know that in the beginning, the bones are more likely to go back out of alignment, and so we check more often. You’re not necessarily going to know, at that time, whether it’s in or out. It may feel like it’s out and it’s not. Or it may feel great, and it’s actually just gone out of alignment and needs to be fixed before you do feel something. So that’s why we design each treatment plan for the patient. But also based on the scientific knowledge we have of how fast things heal and what cycles people go through in that healing process.

About 50% of my patients don’t need another upper neck adjustment during the first three months, but I don’t know which 50% you’re going to fall into. I want to catch it almost as soon as it happens.

In the beginning, if you go back out of alignment relatively quickly, you tend to lose progress or regress relatively quickly. As time goes on you could go out of alignment and the body is stronger. And so you don’t regress quite so quickly so, we don’t need to catch it quite as quickly.

It’s best to keep to the recommended schedule.

There are two common mistakes people make:

1. They start feeling better right away and they stop coming in.

2. The other one is that it takes a while for them to start feeling better, so they get discouraged and stop coming in.

We found that the first three months is the most critical time period. If we can make it through the first three months or three month period without having to readjust the spine, we know that it’s getting pretty stable. So in the beginning you may feel real good, but it’s not stable. So we need to keep checking it to make sure that it stays in alignment long enough to get stable.

On the other end I’ve had patients come in where it’s taken almost three months before they really started feeling better. Just the process that the body had to take to get to that point.

And so I encourage people: Go through the schedule that I recommend at least for the first three months. Once you commit to that and we get through that, then we will discuss what the next step is.

I try not to check you more than I really need to,

and so we will space those off but, based on particular times where we know, okay, things are going to be about this stable at this point. And as we go on, you’re going to become more stable and there are certain mileposts, that once we hit, we know that we can safely go on to the next level. 

Heart Palpitations

Dr. Gordon Elder , Director of the Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock, TX discusses his experience with helping people with rapid heartbeat.

I know from experience the neck can affect the heart.

I had a patient come in several years ago in January. Over the Christmas vacation, she had been to the emergency room a couple times for rapid heart beat. In fact, it was so rapid, the doctors thought it was impossible and tested it a few times because they couldn’t believe how fast her heart was beating.

She told me that her heart had actually been beating faster before she went to the emergency room and they measured it. She said her whole shirt was vibrating.

The typical intervention for this in a severe case was to go in and burn out some of the nerves in the heart. Now in my opinion, we probably need most of the parts that we have in our body. Occasionally something needs to be removed and medicine is great at doing that. But sometimes parts are removed when something else maybe was the problem.

I asked her to not get the surgery right away (a little risky on my part, right, we are dealing with the heart) and I found a problem and said that I thought it could be relevant. I ran my hand down her back and right in the top part of her back there was one bone that when I touched it, she almost screamed. It’s one of the bones where nerves actually come out and go to the heart and then back up. Now the heart gets its innervation from a couple different places, not just the spine. When that bone was that tender, I thought, okay this is probably a mechanical problem, not an organic one that needs to be dealt with with surgery.

I said, “Don’t do the surgery yet, give me a little while, I am going to adjust your neck and see what happens.” I adjusted her neck, the hot spot in her upper back went away, and her heart calmed down. Every once in a while it would come back and we’d check and sure enough, she was out of alignment again. So I know from experience- and I’ve had other patients after that (not as dramatic)- that the neck can affect the heart.

Children's Conditions & How Upper Cervical Chiropractic Can Help

Upper Cervical Chiropractic has been proven to help children with colic, chronic ear infections, and more.

If I could just take care of children all the time, I would. No offense to you adults, but children are really fun to take care of.  The thing is, children usually don’t need chiropractic care. However, they should be checked because if they do need it, we want to make the corrections while they’re young so they don’t grow crooked. 

If children don't need upper cervical care, that’s great and that’s the best thing possible. When they’re born, children’s bones are still soft and not totally solidified so they can take a lot of tumbles without sustaining any major damage. There are obviously limits to this. For example, sometimes if a child has some type of in-utero constraint before they’re born, that can cause a neck injury. If a child is born by C-Section, it often becomes a neck injury. A difficult or prolonged vaginal birth also can cause a neck injury. Since the body is meant to take a lot of these stresses, most children are fine when they are born. 

One of the things that give us a clue that a child may have a problem early in life or infancy, is colic. Colic is one of the big things, also when the head twists and they can’t seem to straighten out, often seems to be related. Another sign can be when a baby isn’t nursing well on one side. What we've found is that usually, those children have a neck issue that, once corrected, the neck muscles relax, the muscles in the digestive system relax, and everything starts doing their jobs properly. 

Another symptom that’s usually seen in children as they get a little older is chronic ear infection. However, it’s important to make the distinction between ear infections every once in a while or getting sick every once in a while, versus a chronic condition. Getting sick on occasion is a baby’s natural immunity being built, and it’s important to their overall health as they get older. If a child doesn’t get sick occasionally or if they live in a hermetically sealed environment, they are probably going to grow up and have lots of other issues. But, occasional ear infection or getting sick is perfectly normal.  We just want to ride those out, and give them proper nutrition. Try not to have to give them any drugs that will inhibit them from developing an immune response. 

HERE’S THE DIFFERENCE: If your child develops a chronic ear infection, perhaps their pediatrician is saying they need to use tubes in the ears – In my experience, this is most often a neck problem. Every child that I’ve had come into my office with these issues have seen their symptoms clear up. When we find a neck problem, we corrected the neck problem. The immune system corrects itself, and the body starts functioning properly. In children, the eustachian tubes (the connection between the tongue and the back of the throat) that should remain clear, are fairly straight. Therefore they don’t drain properly and can get ear infections. But, if they get chronic ear infections, a lot of times the muscles around them tighten and so it blocks things. If the neck is out of alignment, the adjustment we make allows those eustachian tubes to open back up again and properly drain. 

Another issue I’ve seen commonly in children a little bit older than the toddler is the bed-wetting. Often that’s just because you know that those children should be able to sleep through the night without wetting their bed. There can be many issues that can cause bedwetting, but one of them does seem to be a neurological issue caused by a problem in the neck. I’ve had some patients come in as children, I’ve adjusted them, and its cleared up, I’ve had some where it hasn’t, it was some other issue but they did have some neck problem and it may have been part of the whole equation. 

If your child is experiencing colic, chronic ear infections, or any of the other symptoms and conditions listed above, we would love to see how we can help. Upper Cervical Chiropractic care has shown tremendous success in helping to eliminate these issues in children.  At Blair Chiropractic Clinic, we want to fix the problem you’re having.  Our motto is “Find it, fix it, then leave it alone”.  Visit www.blairclinic.com or call (806) 747-2735 today to speak with a member of our staff about scheduling a screening.  

https://www.blairchiropractic.com/

https://www.uppercervicalcare.com/healthconditions

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Upper Cervical Chiropractic [Video]

Dr Gordon D. Elder of The Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock Texas explains how Upper Cervical Chiropractic can help Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue
syndrome often go together.

Fibromyalgia is an interesting diagnosis, often in the past is called the trash can diagnosis. In other words, we’ve ruled out everything else and you’ve got muscle pain. So we’re going to give you a diagnosis that in another language means muscle pain. Chronic fatigue syndrome often goes with it.  The people who have muscle pain in eleven of these eighteen particular points and we can’t find any other reason for it are often chronically tired as well. A scientific study recently in the last few years found that the hole in the bottom of the skull where the brain stem the brain sends all the messages through or most of them through. In many and a high percentage of the population it is smaller than average. What they do is they would surgically bore that hole out larger and would it immediately give them some results but it caused more problems later.

So my feeling on that is your body is made with its own intelligence and that intelligence tells it how to make different things. So usually it’s not going to make things wrong but if you have a small hole for a lack of better word in the bottom of your skull where all the nerves are going through and the bone right directly underneath is not lined up properly, well now that small hole is even smaller. That can cause some severe problems one of which is fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I have had several patients over the years come in with one or both of those diagnoses. We’ve adjusted them and they’ve gotten better. Sometimes, it’s just that they can manage the muscle pain and the fatigue better. Sometimes it’s cleared up and it seems to go away entirely.

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic and tagged chiropractic adjustment, Chiropractor, chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Lubbock Texas, muscle pain, pain symptoms

Your Body is Your Best Doctor!

Everything in the body is controlled by the brain, including things like the immune system and hormones.  The brain talks with the rest of the body through nerve fibers. The brain and nerves together make up the nervous system.

Most nerves travel from the brain down through the spine, or back bone.  The weakest part of the spine is the neck (also known as the cervical spine), especially at the very top where it joins the head.

Inside the spine all the nerves are grouped together to form the spinal cord.  The most important part of the spinal cord is also at the top where over ten billion nerves come together in an area the size of your thumb!

The Problem

The top bone in the neck can slightly dislocate from the head, creating a misalignment.  A misalignment that causes interference to the nerves is called a Vertebral Subluxation.

In order to reduce some of the interference to nerves the body will change its posture to protect the nerves in the neck. Many symptoms are related to this change in posture rather than the original problem: the Vertebral Subluxation.

Symptoms of the Vertebral Subluxation can be almost anything.  Low back pain, pain between the shoulders, neck pain, and headaches are among the most common, but any breakdown in health may be a result of the Vertebral Subluxation.

Treating symptoms or just loosening up the spine, does not fix the original problem and the symptoms will just come back or show up somewhere else.

The Solution

The solution is to find the original problem and fix it only!  Once the blockage at the top of the neck is removed there is no longer any reason for the body to compensate with bad posture and so it begins to grow back into its normal shape.  The combination of these two things permits your body to heal properly.

All chiropractors adjust the neck.  Only Blair Upper-Cervical chiropractors take into account the fact that no two bodies are the same, and the inside is as different as the outside.  Specialized x-rays allow for the design of a very light adjustment tailored especially for each individual body and condition that will slide the bone back into place without twisting or “popping” the neck.

Most people report that the first adjustment was so gentle they couldn’t tell that something had actually happened until their symptoms started to change and go away.

Because of the precision of the analysis and adjustment, most people require about 90 percent fewer adjustments than with most other chiropractic techniques.

The Results

Does this really work?  In Dr. Elder’s practice alone, he has seen the health of hundreds of patients improve after a Blair Upper-Cervical adjustment.  Although he does not specifically treat the following health conditions or symptoms, his patients report improvement or complete freedom from:

• High blood pressure

• Diabetes Mellitus

• Mutliple Sclerosis

• Scoliosis

• Migraine Headaches

• Tension Headaches

• Cluster Headaches

• TMJ Syndrome

• Neck pain

• Upper back pain

• Lower back pain

• Numbness and Tingling

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

• Whiplash

• Heart Palpitations

• Chronic ear infections

• Colic

• Blurry vision

• Sciatica

• Muscle weakness

• Indigestion

• Stiffness

• Hip pain

• Ringing in the ears

• Dizziness

• Pinched nerves

• Arthritis

• Asthma

• Facial pain

• Sleeping disorders

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

• Fibromyalgia

• Slipped discs

• …and more!

Your body has wonderful healing abilities.  Dr. Elder is committed to a chiropractic technique that gives your body the opportunity to restore itself naturally.

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic and tagged arthritis, fatigue, headaches, healing, health, high blood pressure, muscle weakness, pain, recovery, TMJ Syndrome, whiplash

My big pain in the neck

Warning: This is long, and yet this is my story extremely abbreviated.

If you have pain anywhere in your body and you don’t know what to do, you may relate, and it may be worth reading until the very end.

When I was 6 years old, I remember crying because the bottom of my back hurt so bad I had to stop what I was doing. Today I am 46. I can still remember the sharp pains where my hips attached to the spine radiating out from the middle.

In elementary school,

I almost always missed most of December and all the fun Christmas preparations and parties. Why? Pneumonia, Bronchitis, Sinus infections, high fevers, you name it. When other people got a cold, I would come down with severe, stubborn infections. I remember spending days and nights in my parents’ bed. My mom didn’t want me to be left unattended due to the high fevers.

In 4th grade, we had music right after lunch. Every week half way through class my head would start to pound so horrendously that I could not hold the tears back. I would be sent home.

February 5th grade: The left side of my upper back (all around my shoulder blade) locked up and swelled up. It felt like a knife stabbing me at every breath. Any movement was unbearable. Three weeks of school was lost while I mostly laid flat on my back between doctor’s appointments. My most vivid memory from this period wasgetting a shot directly into the center of the worst muscle spasm. The tears flew uncontrollably out of my eyes. This was done with the intention of pain relief, but the traumatic experience changed nothing. It seemed like this episode connected my headaches to my lower back pain. Everything between my face, forehead, across the top of my head, the back of my head, neck, shoulder blades and into my lower spine never stopped from that day.

People say they get headaches or backpain.

Not me. I had a headache. An 18-year headache.

It would vary in intensity but never go away. The best it ever got was always annoying and exhausting. At worst I could not get out of bed or sit or be in the light. I could not finish speaking sentences because of the intense pain. During this time and onward I would have recurring nightmares at night that there was a tumor inside my upper spine that was killing me. During the day I just felt like there was pressure on the nerves in my upper neck. Whenever I would express this to doctors they would just say “that can’t happen.”

I could continue sharing these vivid memories and all the details. For weeks my neck locked up so I could not turn my head at all. You could not see where my neck stopped and shoulders started because it was so inflamed. For a couple of years I could not hold a pen or sign my name with my dominant hand due to severe tennis elbow. (If only I could have played tennis.) I could describe in detail the discouragement during the six months I could not taste any of my food.  It was a sinus infection that the doctors and antibiotics were not able to tame. Or all the terrible memories of 10 months straight with severe hives. Swollen itchy bumps covered my body from the bottoms of my feet to the inside of my mouth and even my eyelids. On several occasions, I had to go to the emergency room. I carried medication in my purse in case the swelling would be in a place that would keep me from breathing.

Do I need to say I was desperate? Depressed?

My parents, myself and later my husband all were trying everything.

I have been through tests, specialists and treatment methods both traditional and alternative. I even went to a Chiropractor and decided never to do that again as I had never been worse than right after my chiropractic manipulation.

After all those years of trying everything, it would be easy to give up.
I am glad I didn’t give up.

At age 22 I moved with my husband from Norway to California. My husband had been seeing Dr. Muncy, a Blair upper cervical chiropractor since he was 10 years old. He wanted me to see him and thought he could probably help me.
He knew about my terrible previous experience with a Chiropractor, but I trusted him. Besides I had heard how much help my mother- in- law had been helped with her severe headaches. After trying everything for so long the decision to go to another expert was tricky. I desperately wanted help. I also didn’t want to waste my money, time and get my hopes up once again for something that didn’t help.

Here’s what happened when I went in for my upper cervical appointment:

The Dr. wanted to run some tests before I told him what was going on because he wanted to keep it objective. The tests didn’t hurt. After 5 minutes he gently touched the place in my upper neck that I was having nightmares about. He said: “You have a bone out of alignment right here and it is putting pressure on the nerves that lead to the rest of the body”

Finally a Doctor who saw the origin of the pain problem.

He took some X-Rays and made a precision adjustment based on what he saw. Then he adjusted 3 bones in my neck and explained how extremely rare it would be to have 3 misalignments. I was told I must have had a trauma to my neck when I was little. This is consistent with what I know. It also explains why my health problems started when I was just a little girl. The adjustments didn’t hurt at all, unlike my previous experience. Inside me, I felt like something relaxed a little. I slept through the whole night for the first time in my life.

A healing process had begun.

My symptoms didn’t go away overnight, but clearly, I was getting gradually better instead of gradually worse.

I was actually improving, not just managing my pain. A few years after this first adjustment I had an A-Ha moment in the car driving home from the gym and grocery store: “I have no pain! My muscles don’t ache. MY HEAD DOESN’T HURT.” This day was the end of my 18year headache. I wish I could say I have never had them since. Unfortunately, I still get headaches when my neck slips back out of alignment, but they go away or get a lot better when I get put back in alignment.

Moving Forward:

It turned out that the injuries in my neck were substantial enough and had been going on long enough that I have some permanent damage.  I will require lifetime maintenance Chiropractic care. The good news about this is that because of this husband, Gordon decided to devote his life to taking care of me and others like me. He continues after almost 20 years as an Upper Cervical Chiropractor to study hard so he can always improve and help even the most stubborn health problems. It is our purpose in life to help as many people as possible have as much healing as possible, first in California and now in Lubbock, TX. We moved to Lubbock because this is where Dr. Blair made the discoveries that led to my health. This is where we feel we can make the most impact to do the same. I feel deeply on my own body the difference between pain and desperation that chokes off all hope versus life flowing healing powers that live in my own body.

If you have been reading all this, there is a good chance you have questions. Maybe questions about me or possibly you have questions about the Blair Upper Cervical technique that got me started on the way to health. Do you have questions about your own situation? It will make me happy to discuss this with you. Feel free to call me or E-mail from anywhere, or make an appointment if you live in Lubbock. If you do not live in Lubbock, I will be happy to help you find the closes upper cervical doctor to where you live. I was able to find help and you can too!

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic, Conditions, Kids, Upper Cervical Doctor and tagged Blair Chiropractic Clinic, blair upper cervical, bronchitis, children, depressed, exhausted, headaches, healing process, hip pain, hives, inflammation, low back pain, Lubbock, misalignment, neck pain, nerve pressure, out of alignment, pneumonia, shoulder pain, sinus infections, tendinitis, tennis elbow

The Lubbock Legacy Continues

In the beginnning...

 

Dr.William G. Blair adjusted his first patient in Lubbock,Christmas 1949.

He decided to become a Chiropractor after suffering from severe asthma and getting near immediate relief after his first Upper Cervical adjustment.  A perfectionist, he worked tirelessly to improve imaging and adjusting techniques in order to help more people. They started flocking into his office in more numbers than he could imagine. The Blair Chiropractic Clinic was built in 1955 in its current location on Ave Q.  Dr. Blair  treated thousands of patients before his lungs forced him to retire in 1984. Dr. Blair also developed a curriculum to teach other DCs how to practice his specialized technique and handpicked Dr. R. Weldon Muncy in California to carry the torch as head instructor for the Blair technique. Today there are Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractors as far away as Australia and Europe with a concentration in California.

Continuing to carry the torch...

 

Dr. E.A. Addington considers himself Dr. Blair’s last student.

With his analytical mind and attention to detail he has continued to provide excellent quality care to the people of Lubbock and surrounding areas. He was awarded the distinction of Blair Chiropractor of the Year by the Blair Chiropractic Society in 2014. Due to a genetic condition and  several bad accidents, his health has been failing and he has been unable to accept new patients the last 6 years.However, Dr. Addington has sacrificed greatly  to continue the legacy of  caring for people despite severe pain and reliance on a walker.

This takes us up to present day: November 1st marks the date Dr. Gordon Elder moved into town from California as the third Director of the Blair Chiropractic Clinic.

To infinity and beyond...

 

Dr. Gordon D. Elder was introduced to Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic as a child

His mother brought him to Dr. R. Weldon Muncy for chronic sinus infections that cleared up when he was in alignment. His mother had been suffering from debilitating headaches24-7 that improved under Dr. Muncy’s care.The Blair Technique once again changed Dr. Elder’s  life after he fell in love and married his Norwegian wife, Ruth. Ruth was almost crippled by pain and chronic illness growing up. She was unable to participate in many normal  activities. This all started to change after she trusted her husband’s advice and sought Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic care. For the first time in her life she began to sleep through the night and started a long healing process. (Now 24 years later she is a personal trainer and exercise instructor! A bit of a transformation !?)

Gordon was unhappy with his college major and as soon as he decided to become a Chiropractor his calling was found. During his time at Cleveland Chiropractic College he excelled academically. Simultaneously he attended continuing education seminars in the Blair method as well as extensive one-on-one mentoring by Dr. Muncy who had been handpicked by Dr. Blair to continue as the head teacher for the Blair technique. Dr. Elder is Certified as an Advanced Instructor in the Blair Technique.

Dr. Elder has practiced the Blair Upper Cervical technique exclusively since he graduated in Dec.99. It is with great humility and dedication that Dr. Elder and Ruth decided to transfer their patients to other Doctors in California and relocate along with their children to Lubbock to continue providing specific Blair Upper Cervical care to West Texas.

What does this mean for you?

 We would love to meet you and hear your story.

First: Come in for a  screening!

This is a quick appointment designed to see if you have a bone out of alignement in the spine causing nerve impingement.  It is for you to decide if you want to give us a try .It would be an honor and privilege to partner with you in your quest for good health.

If you decide this type of treatment seems tight for you we will provide receipts with all the codes insurance companies need including Medicare.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Second: Tell a Friend!

We rely on people who understand the power of specific Chiropractic Care to spread the word that we once again accept new patients across all age groups here in Lubbock ,South Plains and all of West Texas.

For questions or to make an appointment, please  give our office a call. We’d love to talk to you.

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic, Upper Cervical Doctor and tagged asthma, blair upper cervical, Chiropractc adjustment, Chiropractic, Dr. Addington, free screening, headaches, healing process, health insurance, hisotry, legacy, Lubbock, medicare, pain, relief, sinus infections, West Texas

Neurocalometer, and other $40 words

By Gordon Elder, D.C. and Philip Kennedy, D.C.

Skin temperature has played an important role in analyzing disease from ancient times. Hippocrates would put mud on a patient’s back and would note where it dried first, indicating higher temperatures and therefore disruption of normal physiological function.

In the early part of the 1900’s chiropractors, in much the same way, would move the back of the hand up a patient’s spine to locate “hot boxes,” areas of increased temperature. The increased temperature indicated to them, as to Hippocrates, an area of dysfunction and therefore possibly an area in need of a chiropractic adjustment.

As the century and technology progressed, chiropractic analysis became more refined. In 1922 the Neurocalometer (meaning nerve-heat-meter) was invented.

Dossa Evins, an engineer, contracted tuberculosis which then caused kidney failure. The effect that this had on Evins was that, since waste could not leave the body via urine, he excreted it through his sweat glands (called uremic frost) – which didn’t exactly provide a pleasant body odor. In his search for health he got under the care of a chiropractor in San Antonio, Texas. Evins noted that when his spine was in alignment his kidney function improved and he didn’t have the uremic frost. He also noted that the chiropractor analyzed his spine by using the above described method of sensing hot boxes with the back of his hand. Being an engineer, and figuring that if he could help the chiropractor do his job better he would benefit as well, Evins began working on a thermocouple device that would measure and compare skin temperature on either side of the spine. At the same time (1920) he enrolled in the Palmer School of Chiropractic. By 1922 the Neurocalometer was finished and in 1924 it had been tested and retested and was submitted to the chiropractic profession.

Our modern heat-sensing instruments are similar to the one developed by Dossa Evins and our understanding of the meaning of temperature imbalances has advanced since the 1920’s. Chiropractors of that era thought they were detecting the heat of an inflamed nerve, but we now know that the real story is more complex. Abnormal signals generated by spinal misalignments travel into the spinal cord along nerve fibers which connect directly to the part of the nervous system that controls blood flow in the skin. These abnormal signals disrupt the ability of the nervous system to keep the skin temperature even and balanced. The resulting temperature imbalance can be detected using the Neurocalometer or a similar device.

Incidentally, the same part of the nervous system that controls skin temperature also controls many of the major organs and systems of the body. This is why many patients who seek chiropractic care because of back or neck pain also end up noticing improvement of other health problems as well – digestive disorders, asthma, or abnormal heart rhythms, for example.

While many in our profession have abandoned the use of heat-sensing instruments, we at Muncy Chiropractic feel that they have an important place in any program of precise, specific spinal care.

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic and tagged alignment, inflamed nerve, spinal care, temperature

Atlas: Carrying the Weight of the World

Atlas is a character from Greek mythology who supported the world on his shoulders.

In anatomy, the name “atlas” is given to the first bone in the spinal column because it supports the skull, your personal world, on its shoulders.

The atlas is shaped like no other bone in the spinal column.  Looking from above it appears as a giant ring, through which the bottom part of the brain stem runs as it morphs into the spinal cord.  Over ten billion nerve tracks pass through the brainstem at this level on their way to or from the brain to the rest of the body.

The head, normally weighing between eight and ten pounds, must have a strong base as it balances on the slender cervical (neck) portion of the spinal column.  The atlas has broad, cup shaped pads (superior facets) in which the skull rests via short protrusions (occipital condyles).  On these joints the skull can only rock back and forth very slightly in the “yes” motion.  The skull and atlas rotate as a unit around an axle (dens) which protrudes upwards from the neck bone immediately below (the “no” motion).  This bone is aptly named the axis.  By nature the superior facets of the atlas and the occipital condyles of the skull fit together like mirror images.  It is when these mirror images are no longer aligned exactly that the nervous system is affected.  This interference can affect any tissue that receives input from the nervous system causing it to malfunction and be prone to disease.

Because of its position under the skull and on top of a slender column of bone and muscle, the atlas is extremely vulnerable to trauma.

A difficult delivery, a fall on the playground, an auto accident, even a bump on the head at the right time in the right (wrong?) direction can disturb its position.

Many diseases and disorders are related to a misalignment of the atlas, either primarily or secondarily.  Without proper innervation a tissue is less capable of carrying out its tasks, predisposing it to injury and less capable of protecting itself from germs and toxins.

The chiropractic adjustment starts the atlas moving back into its proper position, relieving nerve interference and allowing the body to heal itself.  The atlas connects your brain to your body and your body to health.

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic and tagged atlas, brain stem, chiropractic adjustment, spinal column

How Many Appointments Does Upper Cervical Chiropractic Require [Video]

Dr Gordon D. Elder of The Blair Chiropractic Clinic, Lubbock Texas explains how many sessions people require for Upper Cervical Chiropractic.

One of the biggest objections I’ve heard to chiropractic is once you start going you have to keep on going and in one sense that’s true.

In one sense it’s not or shouldn’t be true. I suppose in really severe occasional cases that that may be the case but if you’re fixing a problem and the body is repairing itself then you should be seeing the chiropractor less and less and less. Most of my patients in the first 90 days I might check them about 12 times. Now that doesn’t mean I’m having to readjust. This isn’t therapy, what I want to do is fix it once and I want it to stay in alignment for the first 90 days. I might have to adjust them a few more times but 50% of my patients I adjust once they hold their alignment let me keep checking. We’re making sure that they’re getting well that they’re staying in alignment for the first 90 days and then I might check them once a month for a little while and then once every two months. We just keep pushing it out. There’s always going to be a little bit of a scar tissue where the damage was, where the soft tissue was torn, where the joint misaligned and got stuck so it’s never gonna be as strong as the natural tissue was before the injury.  So there’s always a little bit of weakness. That doesn’t mean you have symptoms. That doesn’t mean you have to be adjusted all the time. It just means that you need an occasional checkup to make sure that you’re still in alignment. Even if you’re feeling okay because it may take a while before the symptoms to return.

Visit us at

Blair Chiropractic Clinic

1802 E. 50th Street

Lubbock, Texas 79404

Phone: (806) 747-2735

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic and tagged Blair Chiropractic Clinic, chiropractic adjustment, Lubbock appointment, Lubbock Clinic, Lubbock Texas, Upper Cervical Chiropractic

Meet Dr. Elder

Dr. Gordon Elder has been in practice as a Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractor since 2000.

"Dr. Elder has been my chiropractor for 5 years now. I can't imagine what I would be like without upper cervical chiropractics. I've had a lot of back issues throughout my adult life. This type of chiropractics has healed all of them from herniated discs to a weird rash, even my son's scoliosis. Thank you Dr. Elder for all you've done for me and my family!!! You keep us "balanced"

EDUCATION

Dr. Elder graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cleveland Chiropractic College's Los Angeles Campus in December of 1999.  In addition to his Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) degree, he holds a Bachelor's degree in Human Biology, is a Fellow of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, and is an Advanced Instructor for the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Society.

EXPERIENCE

Dr. Elder was trained by R. Weldon Muncy, D.C., Dr. Blair's designated teaching successor and spent his first year of practice in Dr. Muncy's clinic in Lancaster, California. After over 17 years of practice in Lancaster, Dr. Elder was tapped by E.A. Addington, D.C., Dr. Blair's designated clinical successor to take over the directorship of the original Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock, Texas.

Dr. Elder has also served in various ways in the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Society, most notably in the design and organization of the testing system used to certify proficiency and instructors in the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Technique.

Head Carriage

n my office I have a 12 pound shot put. It fits in my hand nicely but it is heavy!  In fact, I think the shipping cost was as much as the original price! It is a bright, shining brass color, but as I didn’t buy it to throw, I’m not worried about marring the finish! I keep it near my feet by my standing desk and I occasionally rest my foot on top of it and roll it around. But I didn’t buy it for that either. I bought it to replace three bowling balls (10, 13 and 14 pounds). As if that explains anything!

Did you know your head is roughly the size and shape of a bowling ball?

Imagine holding up a bowling ball and almost, but not quite, resting it on your shoulder. You could probably hold it there comfortably for quite a while. However, if you were to straighten your elbow a little so that the bowling ball was in front of your shoulder by about 12 inches – how long could you hold that position? After a few moments your forearm and shoulder would start to ache and you’d feel pressure pulling that ball down.

Looking at you from the side, your head is designed to be centered directly above the main part of your body. If it is as much as one inch forward it roughly doubles in weight! Or at least that’s how it feels to your neck.Imagine carrying that around all day! Enough to cover all sorts of aches and pains throughout the body if done day after day, month after month, year after year!

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic and tagged neck, pressure, strain