Dr. H's Blog

Case Study #9: "Doctor, I just lost some of my eyesight! Can You help me? "

Kim is a 54 year old woman is tip-top shape who called me in a panic this past weekend. She was already a patient so we had a professional relationship established. Kim told me on the phone that she was sitting at home watching a movie when she noticed a dark spot in the middle of her vision field. She thought she might be having a stroke. I went to see the patient on a Sunday night. I took her blood pressure, performed reflexes, postural appreciation, light touch and basic range of motion of her neck and low back. All was normal. I next performed a simple set of Cranial Nerve checks with emphasis on Cranial I, II, III, IV, VI. All of these inventories were normal as well.

What Kim was describing was a "scotoma." A scotoma is a darkend area in your field of vision. It often looks like a black spot. See Picture: 

Scotomas are defined as temporary (sometimes permanent) blind spots in a person's field of vision. The usual culprits for this are optic lesions such as optis neuritis, macular degeneration, glaucoma, clorioretinitis. Migraine headaches can also cause this as well as diabetes. Stroke maybe but very rarely.

In lieu of an opthalmological exam which I can't do, I opted to chiropractically adjust Kim's mid back. We are all familiar with the so-called "autonomic" nervous system. That's the system of nerves that controls blood flow, adrenaline, heart rate, respiratory rate and adjusts your body according to your needs. It is "sympathetic" to your needs at any given moment. We should also be familiar with some of the miraculous cures that have been affected by chiropractic adjustments to the spine that, in effect, re-calibrate the sympathetic nervous system. The legend of Harvey Lillard is a good example: This is how chiropractic got its modern name of expression when bonesetter DD Palmer adjusted Harvey's neck when Mr. Lillard claimed he had gone deaf years before when he heard a crack in his neck. The adjustment restored Harvey's hearing. In 1990, in the Journal of Opthamology, a man who had gone blind after a fall had his vision restored after chiropractic adjustments to his neck. This after all conventional treatment failed.

The common problem in all these scenarios including Kim is this; blood flow was interupted to the various organs in question. The organs themselves were normal. Chiropractic adjustments that affected the sympathetic nervous system restored normal blood flow and special senses were restored. It is an old story. Kim's scotoma was irradicated instantaneously with one adjustment to the mid back. Case Closed.

Case Study #8: "My low back is constantly aching!" 

In our case study today, we have a 37 year old African American man named Jon who came to us with a history of low back pain, bilateral sciatica and occasional headaches. Interestingly, he also mentioned that through an MRI when he was 22, an incidental finding of Arnold-Chiari Malformation 1 was noticed. This is a semi-rare conditiion where part of the Cerebellum slides through the foramen magnum (big hole in the bottom of the skull where the brain stem and spinal cord exits from the brain) and lodges in the upper cervical area. He was otherwise in good physical condition. His low back X-Rays were largely unremarkable: alignment was good, disc spacing, the lordotic curve in the lateral view was maintained. There didn't seem to be a reason for his continual LBP. Incidentally, Jon has sought and received chiropractic care for years with other doctors and quite enjoyed the relief he got. BUT, no chiropractor would touch his neck or even X-Ray the area because of the Arnold-Chiari 1 issue. Here now, Jon's cervical films:

Note total loss of normal lordosis in this lateral view of Jon's cervical spine.

Jon's open mouth view revealed pinching of the C1-C2 interspace but the region was otherwise intact.

We've seen Jon a few times already and I am adjusting his cervical spine, below the C1-C2 complex with excellent results already. He has responded well and I am confident we can irradicate the troublesome sciatic and LB issues by working on the entire spine in this case.

Moral to the story: barring absolute contraindications, the entire spine should be evaluated and treated by a chiropractor as needed. With AC-1 malformations, the literature is admittedly split on whether or not chiropractic manipulation should or should not be performed. In Jon's case, the manipulative reductions are very gentle and below the upper cervical area. The results have been astounding.

Dr. Haberstroh is a Boston and Somerville Chiropractor.