Q and A #161- current
 

oncause entry #166:

There is an old show business adage, and I am paraphrasing, "Any publicity is good publicity". Well I am not sure this applies to upper cervical chiropractic. If you have seen the NUCCA link to Dr. Hoeller's video of her adjusting you might agree, and what is your opinion?

Any thoughts?

Dr. L.__________, CA

Reply oncause #166:

I agree with the adage, and I'm sure it applies to UC chiropractic. As to my opinion - I don't have one. I have never seen an upper cervical adjustment such as that, but apparently it works pretty well.

oncause entry #165:

Hi Dr M, If my memory serves me correctly, I have noticed that you distance yourself from thermography and its variants based on a lack of valid science or rational hypothesis on how it relates to the subx. Can you share what you have in the way of valid science and rational hypothesis for the purported link between the upper c subx and the sbt.

Dr. D.__________, AU

Reply oncause #165:

Dear Dr. D.

There is no doubt that the pattern of vasodilation and constriction is controlled by the nervous system. Beyond that, we have found no correlation between the characteristics of that pattern that would yield information that could be used in determining either the “when factor” or the “where factor” of the adjustment. 

Lots of indices change in the body as a result of the adjustment; that does not mean that any of those indices could be used in subluxation analysis. 

You could concoct some kind of protocol, but I think that in itself speaks for itself.

oncause entry #164:

We have had many questions concerning the head piece settings (oncause entry U.C. technique #6). Below are some answers.


We do not know what Dr. Sweat is advocating now, but we do have some past information from the A.O. website in which he teaches setting the headpiece both high and low as much a 2.5". We have seen pictures of A.O. headpiece settings, both high and low, in which the patient's cervical spine is in an obviously cramped and distorted position.

The following is a chart that shows how the calculated L.O.D. is altered by modifications in the attitude of the atlas and cervical spine as a result of headpiece setting. As you can see, the L.O.D. is modified grossly. With the headpiece set 2.5" high or 2.5" low, the actual applied vector is changed by plus or minus 26.8 degrees. Unaccounted for and off the graph!

Assuming a five inch distance C7 (V.P.) to E.O.P.

*Rounded to nearest 1/4 inch

oncause entry #163:

Oncause,
Since you have first hand knowledge of Grostic Sr. I have a question regarding his practice. I read in the Upper Cervical Subluxation Complex book, that Grostic saw 100 patients a day, but only accepted 4 new patients a week. These number do not pan out. Any thoughts? It seems like this is not very many new patients for the number of office calls he had.

Dr. R.__________, FL

Reply oncause #163:

We have commented on this previously. However -
Where these notions come from and, more to the point, how they come to appear in a textbook is baffling.
Just reason it! If you are seeing 100 patients per day, would you be able to maintain that level if you saw only 4 new patients per week? The numbers obviously don't correlate. Another way of looking at this and using reason is: at the ratio of 4 new patients per week and 100 office calls per day, you must not be getting much in the way of results. You must be keeping those patients coming for lots of office calls rather than getting them well quickly and on their way.
This patently is just another piece of folklore contrived by people who at best had only 3rd hand information about JFG's practice, and whose professional identities are advanced by creating a fanciful legend.

oncause entry #162:

From what we can tell from our E-mail and from personal conversations with DCs, there seems to be a general buzz of confusion regarding the Atlas Plane Line.

We have addressed this topic, one way or another, in our previous entries on this site.

But let's go over it again. This time we will be a little more specific and more exacting in our description; thus more tedious, but hang in there. If you wish to grasp the whole concept of "vectored adjusting," understanding the what and the why of the A.P.L. is important.

As a side note here: If you have perused our website in any depth, you no doubt know that we do not in any way employ the classic concept of "vectored adjusting" in our practice. However, from an historical standpoint, in order for the other four doctors on our staff to understand how our work developed to its present state, we require that they thoroughly understand the X-ray placement, X-ray analysis and adjusting concepts of "vectored adjusting" technique.

So here we go!

A line is drawn through the inferior attachments of the posterior arch of the atlas.
This line serves two purposes:

First, the measurement of the angle formed by the intersection of this line with CENTRAL SKULL LINE (CSL) yields atlas laterally expressed in degrees.

The second purpose of this line is to determine the attitude of the atlas in reference to the horizon.
When this line is used to express laterality—that is, the angle form by the intersection of this line with the CSL—it is referred to as the attachment line.

When this same line is used to reference the attitude of the atlas to a horizontal plane, it is called the "Atlas Plane Line."

From now on, in this discussion, we will refer to this line as it is used to reference the atlas to the horizon; therefore, we'll use the abbreviation APL to describe it.

When analyzing the nasium film, in order to discern the magnitude of the APL component of the "4 elements," a mark is placed on a point at which that line (also known as the attachment line) intersects with the lateral margin of the ramus of the mandible on the side opposite atlas laterally.

A square is placed along the vertical side of the film, with the horizontal side of the square intersecting the mark that was placed on the ramus of the mandible. A horizontal line is then drawn across the film. The distance between where the "attachment line" (now termed the APL) crosses the lateral aspect of the mandible on the side of laterality and where the horizontal line crosses the lateral aspect of the mandible on the side of laterality is measured. This measurement is expressed in 16ths of an inch. For each 3/16ths of an inch in the distance between these two lines 1 inch is added or subtracted to the other 3 elements of the 4 element factor (height factor) of the Line Of Drive. If the APL crosses the mandible below the horizontal line, the appropriate amount is subtracted. If it crosses the outer margin of the mandible above the horizontal line, the appropriate amount is added to the L.O.D.

However, all of the above not withstanding, it is extremely important to remember that the APL is not part of the subluxation. It is merely a measurement of how the patient happens to be sitting—the patient's postural attitude at the time the nasium film was exposed. And that measurement can, and very frequently does, change with no adjustive intervention.

 
The APL will often vary significantly from morning to evening in the same patient with no chiropractic intervention having occurred. It will vary depending on whether the patient is relaxed or tense when the exposure is made; whether the patient is tired or rested; whether the patient is in pain (antalgic) or not in pain, and when in pain the degree and location of that pain, especially the degree and location of spinal pain.
However, in my experience over the years, watching dozens of "vectored-adjusting" DCs work, by far the largest variable is how the DC places the patient for the nasium—ESPECIALLY WHEN TAKING THE POST X-RAY.

oncause entry #161:

Greetings, Since you come from the era of Dr. Grostic Sr. how popular was his work back in the 60's in the so-called heyday of U.C. Chiropractic? Did he have many students?

Dr. D.__________, CA

Reply oncause #161:

Click on the following link to view a scanned image of the Grostic roster for 1965, one year after his death.  Unfortunately the quality is marginal.  Some names are crossed out because they were deceased, or for other reasons.