What Is Upper Cervical Chiropractic?
By Dr. Casey Weerheim
In Sioux Falls, SD, Upper Cervical chiropractic care is an advanced, focused form of healthcare that zeroes in on the first two bones in the neck (the atlas and axis) and their crucial relationship with the brain stem and nervous system.
The Control Center for Your Health
This relationship is essential to the body’s ability to preserve and restore health and general well-being. Many comparisons have been made of the brain stem as the control center that extends down an opening in the base of your skull. This area is vulnerable to injuries or irritation around the upper neck. The brain stem works like a telephone cable with thousands of individual wires (nerve fibers) sending signals back and forth between the brain and spinal cord to every system, organ, and cell in the body. Every nerve impulse between the brain and the body must pass through the brain stem.
The nervous system acts as the master communication network in your body—controlling immunity, hormone balance, digestion, breathing, circulation, posture, muscle coordination, and more. Even slight interference at the upper cervical spine can disrupt these vital functions, contributing to symptoms across many systems. Irritation or pressure within the central nervous system can interrupt communication between the body and brain, creating a variety of health issues that can be helped with a chiropractor.
Vulnerable to Injury
Because the atlas and axis are so mobile, they lack the stabilizing support that other spinal segments enjoy. Trauma (falls, whiplash, birth stress, everyday micro-trauma) can lead to subtle shifts or misalignments that go unnoticed for years—yet still interfere with your nervous system. If neglected, an Upper Cervical misalignment can lead to irreversible spinal degeneration and chronic ill health.
A Gentle, Targeted Treatment
Upper Cervical of Sioux Falls bases our care on the universal law of cause and effect. For every effect or symptom (physical or mental), there must be a cause. Upper Cervical doctors focus their efforts on locating and correcting interference to the nervous system that may be the cause of your health condition. Correcting this interference can allow the body to heal itself naturally without the use of potentially harmful drugs or surgery.
Unlike many conventional chiropractic approaches, our Blair upper cervical corrections are extremely gentle—there’s no forceful twisting, cracking, or popping of the neck. Each adjustment is highly controlled and customized to the unique position of your vertebrae. The correction is applied using an exact and controlled technique that allows the head, neck, and spine to return to their proper positions. This restores balance to the body and removes the interference.
Why We’re Unique
If you want things to be different, you must change the things you are doing. Fitness, health, finances, relationships, etc…none of these things will ever change without direct action on the part of the individual. If your health or the health of a loved one is suffering, then you must change your actions. You must seek out a new process or a new procedure; something must change if you are to see a change in your current health status.
A Technique You Can’t Find Anywhere Else in Sioux Falls
As the only Blair upper cervical practice in Sioux Falls, we pair precision digital x-ray analysis and thermographic imaging with Blair’s methodical adjustment procedures. This extra layer of precision allows us to detect and correct subluxations that many general chiropractors may miss.
Most other forms of chiropractic care involve less specialized treatments to general areas of a person’s head, neck, or back to reduce tension, improve circulation, and relieve pressure.
Focused on Discovering the Root Cause of Health Issues
By focusing on the upper portion of the neck, Upper Cervical of Sioux Falls is able to remove and monitor neurological/vascular/biomechanical imbalances that are often the root cause of many chronic and acute illnesses.
If you live in Sioux Falls or nearby communities and are searching for a gentle, precise approach to total-body health, schedule a Blair upper cervical consultation with Dr. Casey today. Let us help you correct the root cause of your symptoms instead of masking them. Call 605-275-6900 or contact us online now.
The Blair Technique
The Blair chiropractic technique used at Upper Cervical of Sioux Falls is a particular method for analyzing and adjusting the upper cervical vertebrae of the spinal column. When these vertebrae misalign, it can disrupt the brain stem and spinal cord as they exit through the floor of the skull and into the neural canal. Particular attention is delivered to the first two cervical vertebrae, the atlas and axis. These are the 
most freely moveable vertebrae in the spinal column as well as the ones most typically misaligned.
Finding the Weakest Link
After many years of researching the techniques that were available at the time, Dr. B.J. Palmer (the developer of chiropractic) realized that the only place a person could truly have interference to
the nervous system was at the level of the base of the skull – the atlas and axis vertebrae. There are no intervertebral discs between the skull and the atlas, or between the atlas and axis vertebrae. Most motions of the head and neck occur at this joint. The joint surfaces at this location move more on a horizontal plane instead of the vertical plane found in the rest of the spine. This area is not supplied with the wealth of supporting ligaments that are found throughout the rest of the spine. Due to these characteristics of the cervical spine, it becomes the weakest link in the chain when exposed to the forces of trauma, such as falls, stress, birth process, car accidents, etc.
Dr. Palmer carried out studies in Germany, finding that the brain stem (medulla) extended into the neural canal down to the level of the lamina of the second cervical vertebrae. Then it becomes the spinal cord extending downward. The brain stem has actually been called “Houston Control” since it is the area where nerve cell centers are located. These control many of the major functions of the body like respiration, digestion, heart beat, elimination, our heating and cooling mechanism, constriction and dilation of the veins and arteries, muscle coordination, etc. Most body functions which aren’t consciously controlled are controlled at the brain stem level.
Supporting the Master System
The brain stem at the level of the atlas vertebrae includes approximately ten billion nerve fibers, all sending messages through the spinal cord to the cells of the body and from the cells back to the brain. These nerve fibers are organized in small bunches called nerve tracts. These nerve tracts are either motor or sensory. The sensory nerves allow us function of the organs and systems while moving the body about its environment, via the musculoskeletal system. Gray’s Anatomy states, “the nervous system is the master system of the body, controlling and coordinating all the functions of the body and relating the individual to his environment.”
The atlas and axis are the only vertebrae in proximity to the brain stem. When they misalign and put pressure on the spinal cord and/or brain stem, they hinder the vital messages being sent to and from the brain to all segments of the body. For example, if the atlas is impinged against the part of the cord that sends messages to the left hand, that individual may experience burning, tingling, or numbness in that hand. If the nerve tracts at the brain stem level going to the heart are being impinged, that patient may experience palpitations, high blood pressure, or an irregular heartbeat. Since almost all nerves pass through this area, almost any part of the body can be affected when there is pressure on the brain stem or spinal cord.
How a Subluxation Occurs
A subluxation is a vertebral misalignment that interferes with nerve impulses. It can persist quietly for months or years before symptoms surface. With specialized neurological tests, heat-sensitive instrumentation, and precise x-rays, we locate these subluxations exactly. Then we apply a highly specific Blair upper cervical adjustment tailored to your anatomy, helping restore proper neural communication and allowing your body to heal itself.
Treating a Subluxation Through Chiropractic Care
Upper Cervical of Sioux Falls, SD utilizes neurological tests, heat sensitive instrumentation, and other means for detecting if the vertebral subluxation is present or absent. An adjustment is administered only when nerve pressure is found. The Blair chiropractic technique uses precise x-rays of the upper cervical area to determine which way the vertebrae has misaligned. This information is used to create a precise and specific adjustment tailored and administered to that patient.
Treating What You Can Expect After Upper Cervical Care
Many patients begin to feel subtle shifts—less tension, better head posture, improved sleep or energy—within a few visits. As alignment stabilizes, benefits often deepen, including reduced pain, improved mobility, and better systemic health. Once your upper cervical spine maintains alignment, we shift into maintenance checkups—typically spaced weeks to months apart—so your results last long-term.
Check out our Upper Cervical of Sioux Falls Reviews