Can NUCCA Help Depression?
The most common misconception about NUCCA care is that it only helps back and neck pain. Although our doctors can certainly help those who come to us seeking relief from back and neck pain, these patients represent a small percentage of those helped by NUCCA doctors. Patients suffering from a variety of conditions, including depression, have had their health restored through NUCCA care. NUCCA chiropractors recognize that the body is a self-healing organism controlled and coordinated by the central nervous system, which is protected by the skull and spine.
NUCCA Care – A Simple Concept
NUCCA care is based on the universal law of cause and effect. For every effect or symptom, physical or mental, there must be a cause. NUCCA doctors focus on locating and removing interference on the nervous system that can be the cause of the health condition. Removing this interference allows the body to heal itself naturally without drugs or surgery. A NUCCA correction is very controlled; there is no twisting, popping or cracking of the spine. This precise yet gentle touch allows the head, neck, and spine to return to the proper position, thus removing the interference and restoring balance to the body.
Depression
Millions of Americans swallow pills daily hoping they will work some kind of magic and make their lives easier, less stressful. Maybe this pill, that white powder, or these capsules will make them feel better once they dissolve in their stomach, enter their blood stream, and travel to the brain. They have put their faith in medication, hoping it will relieve their present state of dis-ease.
Antidepressant pharmaceuticals are a multi-billion dollar industry. Every media is bombarded by ads for these drugs. As you watch these commercials, note the careful language they use in suggesting that depression “may” be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. They go on to tell you how the medication “can correct” this biochemical imbalance. What many Americans don’t know is that there has never been definitive research that proves depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. The problem with the theory that depression is a consequence of a “chemical imbalance in the brain” is that depression can be both triggered and resolved by life events. The truth is the relationship between the brain chemistry and life experience is a two-directional phenomenon: Life experience affects brain chemistry at least as much as brain chemistry affects life experience.
A true diagnosis of major depression involves a combination of the most of the following: inability to feel pleasure of any kind, loss of interest in most everything, self-hatred or guilt, inability to concentrate or do the simplest things, sleeping all the time or not being able to sleep at all, dramatic weight gain or loss, and suicidal thoughts or actions. Truly depressed people seldom smile or laugh; they may not talk; they are not fun to be with; they do not wish to be visited. They may not eat, and sometimes have to be fed with feeding tubes to keep them alive. They exude a palpable sense of pain. Depression is thing unto itself, an undeniably physical and medical affliction.
A Growing Trend
Of the 17 million children worldwide taking prescribed psychiatric drugs, 10 million are in the United States. These drugs include addictive stimulants, antidepressants, and other psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs for educational and behavioral purposes.
In 2003, the FDA approved Prozac for treating depression to children under eighteen. Then reports of young people attempting or committing suicide while using the drug became too numerous to ignore. The following year, the FDA reviewed 24 studies and concluded that the drugs in question doubled the risk for suicidal behavior.
By 2004, the FDA ordered the most serious alerts called “black-box warning,” be added to all antidepressants drug labels. This warning clearly states that antidepressants raise the risk of suicidal thoughts and hostile behavior in children and adolescents. In spite of the evidence and clear warnings, preschoolers are now the fastest growing age group taking antidepressants.
Health or Money?
David Healy in Let Them Eat Prozac (NYU Press, 2004), calls it “a creation of depression on so extraordinary and unwarranted a scale as to raise questions whether pharmaceutical and other health care companies are more wedded to making profits from health than contributing to it.” Dr. Irving Kirsh, a University of Connecticut psychology professor had to use the Freedom of Information Act to extract startling information from the Food and Drug Administration. In over 50% of the trails used by the FDA to approve the six leading antidepressants, the drug failed to outperform the placebo sugar pill.
Upper Cervical Care & Depression
Even a mild concussion to the head, neck or upper back can increase the risk of depression. Studies show that depression is common diagnosis in patients with whiplash, an injury that can directly affect the upper neck and lower brain stem. Following the trauma, mood disorders can be triggered immediately, or they can take months or even years to develop.
While science has not determined the exact cause of depression, research has pointed to a likely involvement of the brain stem and upper cervical spine in many mood disorders. This seems logical as the lower portion of the brain is located in the uppermost part of the spine and is involved in the regulation and control of brain chemistry as well as other vital functions.
Exciting new studies show “significant improvement” in depression test scores after specific Upper Cervical corrections. This safe, noninvasive alternative should be the starting point in seeking treatment for anyone suffering from debilitating depression.
Although Upper Cervical care is not considered a cure for depression, studies show that patients suffering from depression benefit greatly from Upper Cervical or NUCCA care. To see if NUCCA can bring them the same, positive results, depression patients should schedule a spine and nervous system examination by a NUCCA chiropractor.
Our team at Corrective Spinal Care of Colorado is always ready to answer any questions you have, call us today!
