Message from the President

The recent NUCCA spring conference in St. Louis was truly a stimulating and heartwarming event! Dr. Bakris' research presentation was outstanding! He tells us that we need more certified NUCCA doctors and our number of members is bound to increase because of the growing public awareness regarding our research. Our current Blood Flow study is sure to bring even more light to the profound effects of the NUCCA work. To help support these projects, we asked our members for more support for NUCCA and the research initiative, and received an overwhelming response as doctors stepped up to the Gregory Circle level of membership. We need your financial support to carry out our mission. If you haven't signed up yet, now is the time.

Dr. Dickholtz, Sr. and I were presenters at the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) in Montreal the week after the conference where there were doctors of many disciplines from 34 different countries. We presented the NUCCA research initiative and Dr. Dickholtz presented his Hypertension study along with his other projects. The WFC basically does not agree with parts of our procedure such as pre and post x-rays. They are strictly musculo-skeletal. We were some of the first upper cervical doctors ever to present to this organization. Dr. Clum, President of Life Chiropractic College West is also past WFC president and his efforts definitely help put us on that stage. We appreciate all of his strong support for NUCCA.

With Susan Wikler's expertise, we not only have a quarterly newsletter, we will soon have more public presence with a new blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. This will help us to stay in touch with the public and with our NUCCA members as well.

NUCCA has been asked to teach classes at two more Chiropractic Colleges. Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles and Life University School of Chiropractic in Atlanta have both asked that NUCCA become more involved in their academic programs. This is clearly a sign that we are benefiting from increased public awareness within our profession and the public at large.

We will soon have a fund raising event to contact anyone who hasn't considered the Gregory Circle. With your support we can create a world full of informed NUCCA patients!

Dr. Robert Goodman
NUCCA President

NUCCA Spring Conference Exceeds Expectation

To say NUCCA is in the process of transformation is an understatement! Although we come together for educational seminars twice yearly, the accelerating pace of progress has been mounting increasingly during each interim. NUCCA has become the leading branch of upper cervical research and performance, clearly in the spotlight with our light growing constantly brighter - and the St. Louis conference profoundly reflected this.

Thanks to the dedication and expertise of Dr. Lee Yardley, Education Committee Chair, our educational format was tighter than ever before offering more Continuing Education credits and strong tools for evaluation and achievement. Each one of our valued instructors, all of whom serve on a purely volunteer basis, presented innovative approaches to their content and coursework.

The true highlight of the event was the input from our Research Team and the Upper Cervical Research Foundation who along with the NUCCA Board of Directors featured George Bakris, M.D., an international authority on hypertension and lead researcher on the nationally acclaimed hypertension study. He is Professor of Medicine and Director of Hypertensive Diseases in the section of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, serves on numerous committees and boards, and has authored more than 400 articles and book chapters in the areas of kidney disease, hypertension and progression of nephropathy.

Dr. Bakris' refined and upbeat speaking style made it even easier to take in the wealth of information he shared regarding lifestyle, well-being, hypertension, blood flow, and their relationship to the NUCCA procedure. Dr. Bakris has been involved with the NUCCA work for many years and was among the first within the medical community to acknowledge and support evidence of the profoundly positive results the procedure can impact. The reward of our work being validated by the medical community is clearly the vehicle for bringing NUCCA to mainstream healthcare. (A video recording of this inspiring, educational presentation will soon be posted on the Upper Cervical Research Foundation website at www.ucrf.org and the NUCCA website at www.nucca.org)

The day after Dr. Bakris addressed our conference, the Research Team presented a first time panel discussion moderated by Dr. Robert Brooks with participants including Dr. Christine Goertz Choate, Director of Research, Palmer College of Chiropractic; Dr. Dale Johnson, Research Director Life Chiropractic College West; Dr. Marshall Dickholtz, Sr., UCRF lead researcher; Dr. Keith Denton, Upper Cervical Research Foundation President; Dr. Charles Woodfield, UCRF researcher and Life Chiropractic College West liaison; Dr. Marshall Dickholtz, Jr. and Dr. Jeffrey Scholten, UCRF directors; and UCRF Research Director, Jim Palmer. This special event provided opportunities for direct input from each researcher regarding his/her projects. Please refer to Research Update section below for further detail.

In addition, NUCCA conducted its general meeting at the conference and elected officers (NUCCA/UCRF), appointed committee members and set the intention for a remarkable year ahead.

Be sure to mark your calendars now for the fall conference entitled: The Time is Now, slated for October 7th - 10th in Dallas, Texas. Registration and exhibitor information will be posted on the NUCCA website at http://www.nucca.org/conferences

Upper Cervical Council
Formed By International
Chiropractors Association

The Council on Upper Cervical Care has created an area of advanced expertise for the upper cervical spine within the chiropractic profession. To this end, the Council on Upper Cervical Care is developing a post-doctoral curriculum that includes the clinical findings and research from a number of approaches shown to identify and correct upper cervical misalignments that have an impact on health and well being and which affect a significant segment of the population.

The purpose of this diplomate program is to provide the chiropractic practitioner with additional education and technical expertise and to improve clinical results in the removal/minimization of the upper cervical subluxation complex. The curriculum will focus on a strengthened fundamental basic science background, an emphasis on the unique considerations in the upper cervical spine, and an in depth study of several approaches.

The Council will also pursue advancement of upper cervical research. The diplomate program is designed to support the development of research programs to increase the body of evidence associated with this practice and to further safeguard public health.

Of particular importance to the Council is the collection, analysis and dissemination of information about upper cervical chiropractic care. Further, the Council seeks to be a voice for upper cervical chiropractic in research, academic, clinical and policy-making environments to assure that the unique interests and needs of upper cervical practitioners are thoughtfully and thoroughly considered. This effort would include input in matters related to practice guidelines and third-party payment criteria. A specific concern is the use of ionizing radiation to detect the upper cervical subluxation complex and to determine and validate the correction.

To help advance these important programs and initiatives, the Council seeks to build participation and support by all upper cervical practitioners and groups through membership in the Council on Upper Cervical Care. Annual dues for Council membership are just $150 and include a series of benefits including discounts on select products and services, informational networking, and featured listings in the ICA Science Councils Referral Directory. Council membership application forms are available through the Council, and inquiries for more information on the Council can be directed to uppercervical@chiropractic.org.

Research Update

2009 has been a momentous year for UCRF/NUCCA research and it's not half over! With the addition of Dr. Charles Woodfield to the UCRF research department, who is also on staff with Life Chiropractic College West (LCCW) in Hayward, California, and our existing Research Director, Jim Palmer who is on staff at the University of Toledo, we now have the ability to address much more of the research opportunities available to us. In addition, Dr. Gerry Clum, LCCW President and Dr. Dale Johnson, Director of Research have been instrumental in supporting our research efforts and assisting NUCCA with more exposure to the student chiropractic community and profession as a whole.

As a result, UCRF now has three proposals being considered by The National Institutes of Health (NIH), several papers submitted for publication (see JVSR article below) and more than six projects in progress. We have also been awarded a $100,000 matching funds gift from the Tao Foundation of Canada for the innovative Phase Contrast study. This is a two-part project that incorporates a sophisticated diagnostic imaging tool to measure blood flow and its effect on migraine headaches and hypertension. UCRF also launched the Practice Based Research Project which will reveal relationships between lifestyle, posture, and numerous other conditions as related to well-being and an aligned atlas vertebra. To read more about these and other UCRF/NUCCA research, visit www.ucrf.org/projects-funding/project-descriptions. Please feel free to submit questions or comments regarding research to info@ucrf.org.

Just Published in JVSR!

The Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research (www.jvsr.com), the only peer-reviewed, online publication dedicated to the subluxation, is featuring a paper this month written by Dr. Marshall Dickholtz, Sr. lead researcher for the Upper Cervical Research Foundation (UCRF), and Jim Palmer, Research Director for UCRF entitled: Improvement in Radiographic Measurements, Posture, Pain, & Quality of Life in Non-migraine Headache Patients Undergoing Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care: A Retrospective Practice Based Study.

The study can be found under the 'Original Research' section of the journal dated June 4, 2009. Its key points focus on the fact that 35 of the 47 subjects received only one adjustment. A time-series analysis using these 35 subjects fitting an exponential decay curve on pain intensity using the visual analog scale for non-migraine headache pain is provided in the paper. Results show significant reduction in pain intensity within two weeks of a single treatment and an approximately a 75 percent reduction over the study period. The study also illustrates the potential of Practice Based Research, and has University of Toledo Biomedical IRB approval.

How You Can Help

YOU can help change lives and make a significant difference in the health, well-being, and evolution of humankind by supporting the Upper Cervical Research Foundation.

Your generous support allows the Upper Cervical Research Foundation to continue its tradition of conducting research and educational initiatives to improve the quality and efficacy of health care. There are many ways to make a tax-deductible contribution, and a variety of areas to which you may consider directing your gift.

Among these options is a matching funds gift of $100,000 UCRF recently received from the Tao Foundation, Canada to help support the Phase Contrast study currently in progress. We need to raise $100,000 to receive their pledge and we've been working hard to earn it. You can read more about this study by visiting the UCRF website at www.ucrf.org and checking the list of project descriptions.

Your donation can be made as either as a one-time contribution or by pledging donations throughout the year. You may also want to honor a special occasion or the memory of a loved one. As a non-profit organization, we rely heavily upon the support of our donors, and hope you will choose to join this important membership while gaining valuable tax and financial benefits. Please contact the NUCCA office at 800/541-5799 or 702/966-8479 or donate online by visiting www.ucrf.org/donate/donate-now. In Canada, the Ralph R. Gregory Foundation can be reached toll-free 866/342-4479 or direct at 404/243-0155.

Member Spotlight

Mikael Reney
Quebec, Canada

Now seven years into his Quebec practice, Dr. Mikael Reney describes himself as someone who loves building structures, "especially," he says "when the structures serve something higher than me...I like building things with hands, head and heart!" Dr. Reney's current project is building NUCCA/UCRF's Practice Based Research (PBR) software. When asked what inspired him to write it, he explains that the work needed to be done because the software didn't exist, so he took on the task.

Put simply, the Practice Based Research project essentially uses computer programming to document numerous patient profile and progress factors such as symptoms, lifestyle habits, physical, emotional, mental conditions, etc. Data is gathered upon intake, at specific periodic update markers, and will soon record input on a day- to -day basis. This personalized information will reveal patterns in recovery, lifestyle and well-being as well as new and/or unexpected data.

Dr. Reney sees PBR as a key tool for identifying, clarifying, and discovering new relationships between upper cervical alignment, healing, and well-being. NUCCA is a profoundly effective procedure, but the exploration and documentation of the work and its effects are still new and growing territory. In due time, we may be able to see new relationships between symptoms and subluxation, posture, emotional and mental conditions as well and other significant lifestyle patterns.

On another note, Dr. Reney reveals that one of the greatest challenges for him is operating a bi-lingual practice. He says a large portion of his patients are French speaking and cannot understand the current data or educational NUCCA materials including video presentations. In an age when communication is more advanced than ever, this aspect of presenting NUCCA support and updates to the patient base is very much lacking. If you know of anyone who has expertise in this area or who has translated NUCCA content into French, please contact Dr. Reney at mr@kiro.ca.

Dr. Mikael Reney began practicing NUCCA during his third trimester at Palmer College a result of an Australian classmate introducing him to the procedure to which he has been committed ever since.

He now lives with his wife and three children and in his free time likes to ski and rollerblade!

For more detail on PBR please visit the Upper Cervical Research Foundation website at www.ucrf.org and go to the Research Project tab.