Multiple Sclerosis and the Upper Cervical Spine (C1 and C2)

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a well-known autoimmune condition that effects 2.3million people globally (2015); the cause is said to be idiopathic (unknown).

The estimated prevalence of MS in England is 190 cases per 100,000 population, accounting for 105,800 cases. The prevalence for females is 2.5 times higher than for males, 272 and 106 cases per 100,000 population, respectively. The highest prevalence rates for MS in both sexes occurs in the 60 to 69 years age group (males 228 and females 598 per 100,000) (1)

What Is Multiple Sclerosis

Observations of MS patients have revealed that the fat tissue around the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord, the myelin sheath, is broken down by the body’s immune system which perceive it as foreign material. This causes problems with nerve conduction, as the fat tissue that surrounds the nerve acts as an insulator and no longer functions as it should. The reason why this happens isn’t fully understood.

In 2018, a study examined 77 people who had been diagnosed with MS and chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI). The patents were analysed by x-rays for upper-cervical misalignment and were offered a specific course of upper-cervical chiropractic care to correct the misalignment issues found.

Multiple Sclerosis & Upper Chiropractic Care

The preliminary x-ray and clinical improvements from the upper-cervical chiropractic corrections on C1- C2 on those patients with chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) and MS encouraged the researchers to continue with their studies. They believed that the upper-cervical correction on C1-C2 could be the main non-invasive approach to care of the CCSVI in patients with MS. Further studies are required to evaluate the correlation between the upper-cervical chiropractic correction on C1-C2 on the cerebral venous drainage and the cerebrospinal fluid. (2)

Diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis

One of the main ways to diagnose multiple sclerosis is an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan. Characteristic areas of demyelination will show up on the scans as lesions. On the left is a brain MRI scan of a 35-year-old man with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis that reveals multiple lesions with high T2 signal intensity and one large white matter lesion. The right image shows the cervical spinal cord of a 27-year-old woman representing a multiple sclerosis demyelination and plaque (see arrow).(3)