THROUGH SPECIAL PROCEDURE

 Phenomenal Woman Returns to Work,

Gives Birth, Starts National Campaign

By John Sandoz

 

“I use my arms to function, so when they don’t work, it’s life threatening,” explained polio survivor Louella J. Harris of Lakeland, Florida .

Her loss of arm control began about 13 years ago when she was 38. Pain started in her left arm and during the next five months spread to her neck, shoulders and back. “It was excruciating,” she remembered. “I experienced what it’s like to be a quadriplegic. The pain was so bad that my husband had to dress and feed me and brush my teeth,” she said of her debilitating ordeal. “It was very frightening.”

Louella visited a number of doctors, searching for a cure. But test after test came back negative.

“If nothing shows up on tests, medical doctors infer it’s all in your mind,” she said. “The last doctor finally diagnosed it as a combination of Fibromyalgia and post-polio syndrome. But all he could offer me was painkillers and the advice to live with it. My life became the four walls of my bedroom.”

She had been in pain for 18 months when a friend asked if she had ever heard of upper cervical [spine] healthcare, a procedure that focuses on a meticulous repositioning of the C1, or atlas to restore proper circulation and electrical energy flow from the brainstem area to the entire body. It was a method that balances the entire skeletal structure, but her friend made the mistake of mentioning it was a little known type of chiropractic care.

Skeptical of chiropractors, Louella put up with the pain for another six months. But finally as a last resort, she made an appointment. After a thorough examination, Louella underwent the treatment, which takes only minutes. Although she barely felt the adjustment, it produced dramatic results.

“Pain started washing out of my body within 30 seconds after my atlas was corrected,” Louella said. It was the first time that she was pain free in a year and a half.

A useful gauge to determine the treatment’s effectiveness is comparing leg lengths. Her right leg, which always had been 1¾ inch shorter due to scoliosis, was only half an inch shorter after treatment. Correcting the atlas had a domino effect all the way down the spine, helping to straighten her pelvis and S-shaped spine. She continued the treatment until her atlas and spine “learned” to stay straight after years of misalignment. 

She returned to work and even started driving again. Then the most startling thing in her life happened. She became pregnant.

“It was my upper cervical miracle,” she said. “And it shows what can happen when an upper cervical misalignment is corrected. It can help all kinds of problems you would never think were being caused by a two ounce bone being out of place at the base of the skull.”

Four-foot, seven-inch Louella, who weighed only 92 pounds at the time, gave birth to a healthy baby daughter…with a perfectly straight spine.

Louella, who also holds a masters degree in rehabilitation counseling, created something else—the non-profit, National Awareness Campaign for Upper Cervical Care.

“My husband and I started the educational campaign to tell the public about the life-changing benefits of aligning the atlas. It’s the first step any adult should take for any condition. But if parents will get their children under this care, it can prevent multiple problems from developing later on,” she explained.

Harris said there are several types of Upper Cervical chiropractic that require intensive training, one method being the NUCCA procedure. Although there are fewer than 500 NUCCA practitioners in the United States , Richard and Louella’s staff has located one in this local area, Dr. Andrew Smyth of New England Spinal Care, in Norwood .

The treatment that Smyth administers is gentle, effective and requires no prescription medication. Although it feels like a simple massage at the base of the ear, Smyth has had to learn 52 different steps to master the procedure.  “The one warning I give my patients is that they are going to be “underwhelmed” Dr. Smyth said. “The adjustment is so light, they wonder if I’ve done anything for them at all. Then, when they feel their bodies healing, they know I have. How nice to be able to experience the effects of the balanced spine with such a light touch! This is a very controlled adjustment designed to relieve the pressure on the brainstem and spinal cord. The smiles I get from my patients when the pain goes away and their function returns is worth the hundreds of hours of training it took to learn NUCCA.”

Louella is smiling, too and getting on TV and radio around the country to share her story. On one interview she said, “Grandparents used to say we needed to get our heads on straight. Well,” she laughed, “they were right! When these bones at the base of the skull are misaligned, they pull the head off center of the body. That can cause all kinds of health problems including migraines, lowered immune systems, Attention Deficit Disorder, shoulder, neck and hip pain.

Getting her atlas corrected handed the reins of life back into Louella’s hands.

Her advice to others in pain: “Don’t wait.”

“Your health, both present and future, is dependent upon a correctly aligned atlas,” Louella added. “It’s the foundation to health because it determines if your entire skeleton is balanced and if your organs and tissues are getting proper electrical flow from the brain. Millions of people with all kinds of conditions are suffering needlessly because they don’t know this.”

For more information or to make an appointment,

call Dr. Andrew Smyth, D.C. at: (781) 255-5565.