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CRANIAL ADJUSTING

Who should be evaluated for cranial misalignments?

Anyone who has suffered a trauma to the head should be examined for skull bone misalignments, especially if the injured person begins to experience, what may seem as, unrelated health problems after a head injury. Anyone who has suffered a head trauma during his or her birthing process should also be examined for skull misalignments. Instrumentation such as forceps, suction, and vacuum extractors are common causes of misaligned skulls.

Anyone who is currently afflicted with any of the health conditions listed below:

• ADD/ADHD
• Headaches
• Earaches
• Autism
• Learning Difficulties
• Seizures
• Dyslexia
• Learning Disabilities
• Sports Injuries
• Migraines
• Post Concussion Syndrome
• Sinus Problems
• Head Injuries
• Depression

Or anyone looking for the following:

• Improved focus/concentration
• Mental Clarity
• Memory Improvements

Background and Description:

There are twenty-two bones in the cranium (not including the mandible or the ossicles of the ear). Eight of these bones completely encircle the brain. The bones meet at suture lines, complex joints that provide sliding between bones. At birth, the bones are not fully formed and are in fact quite far apart from one another. As the infant passes through the birth canal, the bones slide over one another and re-expand afterwards to resume their normal positions. This physiologic compressibility minimizes brain damage and allows for maximum brain capacity. Throughout infancy the brain is constantly undulating and cerebral spinal fluid is constantly fluctuating. As the bones gradually grow to approximate one another they remain in constant motion. This movement keeps the sutures open. Just like any other joint, the sutures contain blood vessels, nerve fibers and connective tissue. The amount of movement between sutures is approximately 100ths of an inch. Dr. John Upledger and a team of researchers at Michigan State University proved this movement in the mid 1970s.

The brain and spinal cord undulate rhythmically. As the brain coils and uncoils, the ventricles, cavities within the brain, and the cisterns, cavities around the brain, change shape.

During the inhalation or flexion phase, the brain and the cranium get shorter and wider. During the exhalation or extension phase the brain and cranium get taller and narrower. As these shape changes take place, the cerebral spinal fluid fluctuates rhythmically. Cerebro-spinal fluid is considered to play a very potent nutritive role for all tissues of the body.

The meninges, membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, contain cerebro-spinal fluid. The outer most layer of the meninges is the toughest layer called the Dura Mater. The internal architecture of the Dura Mater is comprised of 3 sickles. The Falx Cerebri is the sickle that runs from back to front and separates the two cerebral hemispheres. On either side of the falx cerebri are two other sickles called the tentorium cerebelli. They also run back to front but are almost parallel to the floor. The tentorium cerebelli gets its name from being "tent" shaped. The dura covering the outside of the brain then attaches firmly to the foramen magnum (large hole at the base of the skull) and the upper cervical vertebrae (bones of the upper neck), surrounds the spinal cord and descends to attach to the sacrum at the 2nd sacral segment. These dural membranes are under constant tension. If you pull on one end of the membrane, the tension from the pull is transmitted throughout. When the head is traumatized and the cranial bones move from their proper alignment, the dural membranes may become twisted and compressed. This in turn puts unnecessary tension on certain areas of the brain depending on which cranial bone is affected.