Brainstem and Venous Liberation

Among other things, trauma has been associated with what is called Chiari conditions, also know as cerebellum tonsillar ectopia or CTE. Chairi conditions are  classified according to the severity of the depth of penentration of the cerebellum into the foramen magnum. One of the areas often involved are the tonsils of the cerebellum.

I won’t go into all the ramifications of deformation of the relationship between the brain and cord within the foramen magnum and spinal canal here. Suffice it to say, however, that they most likely don’t deform together. Instead the head and neck and the rest of the spine twist and deform around the brainstem and cord.

The brainstem liberation procedure requires reduction of the strain in the structure that surrounds it. By realigning the foramen magnum in base of the skull with the spinal canal the strain and deformation of the brainstem and cord is reduced and their position within thier respective canals, likewise, returns to normal thus liberating the brainstem and vertebral veins.

The upper cervical spine provides the greatest leverage and contact point for attempting to reduce the strain. The upper cervical spine in this case is carefully assessed and realigned to the base of the skull with a thrust from various types of forces in use by different methodologies in chiropractic. Some use their hands. Some use little hammers and some use sound waves. Some use short snappy little thrusts. Others use longer slow sustained  pressure. None are uncomfortable to the patient. No anesthesia is required.

This is an old picture of a knee chest toggle recoil type of upper cervical adjustment, which is the original method developed by BJ Palmer and what I was taught in school. In this case, the force is delivered through a small point of the the pisaform (wrist bone) of the doctor’s contact hand. A quick snap of the arms delivers a precise shallow force, which was followed by an instant recoil of the arms along with a body release by the doctor. Before working on other students we trained our muscles to snap appropriately and worked on mechanical speeders. Chiropractors would have contests at symposiums to see who could work on a speeder, with an egg placed on top, without breaking the egg. It was a tough challenge indeed but the purpose behind it was to demonstrate how shallow a force is needed with the addition of speed to produce a desired result. The desired result being to put the vertebra in motion in the desired direction. The original procedure has gone through many modifications and improvements.

There may be other equally valid ways of liberating the brainstem and vertebral veins, but for now, only upper cervical chiropractic has the research behind it and is the least invasive. This is just as important and just as significant to MS research as the venous stenosis theory. Nobody has all the answers yet. We are simply scratching at the surface of a whole new direction in research far different than the immunological or inflammatory theory paths we have been following for decades without much in the way of results. I am sure that there is going to be much more to this unfolding story. Upright brain scans and MR angiorgrams will provide more clues.