Head shaking

[kim]

Wanted to share that my oldest son had his 1 yr. xrays done.

 

He recently had a flair of the good ole head shaking tic. He was getting head aches.

 

Dr. looked at his xrays and said "Are you having head aches?"

 

They do three points of measurements. One shows the alignment from the inside of the mounth, one measures rotation around the base of the neck, and one is a shot from the top of the head down. There was improvement in two area's, but the base of the neck shot showed worsening.

 

He showed us where an artery runs through a hole in the vertebrae. With the misalignment, it will cause pressure on the artery and cause Headaches, fogginess, balance problems etc.

 

I believe the worsening in this area was caused by the head shaking, not vise versa.

 

Anyway, he made adjustments to the way he was "adjusting" and my son walked out, SO much better.

 

Head aches are gone. Head shaking is greatly reduced (not quite gone).

 

I have always said that once it starts, it gets to be like a cycle. Constantly shaking his head to kind of check the level of pain it causes. Does that make sense?

 

The Chiropractor explained that once these misalignments start, the ligament that support the spine will grow in the position that the spine is in, making it harder to correct as the child gets older.

 

Just wanted to share this for anyone that deals with this awful tic.

 

These sites might explain the holes that the artery runs through (I never knew!) better, and a diagram on the second page.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervical_vertebrae

 

In humans, cervical vertebrae (Vertebrae cervicales) are the smallest of the true vertebrae, and can be readily distinguished from those of the thoracic or lumbar regions by the presence of a foramen (hole) in each transverse process, through which passes the vertebral artery.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertebral_artery

[quan_daniel]

Kim,

I think I told u in a PM...

when my child had neck tic around his birthday on July ...lasted for about a week or less..

 

I immediately went to attack the problem...

from past experience we know the muscle between the sholder blad and neck area are always tender

when he has this tic..we immediately get a cloth soaked in epsome salt water and put it on his sholder and neck

for about 10 minutes each morning..

 

His neck tics lifted about 4 days later...past experience do help...

 

Just like the chiro is able to re-align to reduce inflammation in joints and muscles..

 

all related...

[Chemar]

Hi Kim

 

this is one of the reasons why I feel that Chiropracty is an essential part of the overall treatment regimin for people who have tics

 

we also found that my son's tics would lead to misalignment which in turn would lead to discomfort and/or pain which in turn would trigger more tics!!

 

the NUCCA training that certain chiros have is especially beneficial for these head/neck tics

[kim]

Chemar,

 

I totally agree. I wish I would have started taking my soon to turn 14 yr. old, when the head shaking started around the age of 7/8.