SPINAL ADJUSTMENTS
CRANIAL ADJUSTMENTS
By
George A. Cole, D.C.
Dean, Cottam Cole Chiropractic College
Foreword
The brain is the controlling ganglion of the nervous system. It is the dynamo that makes the body go. The brain regulates all bodily activities and supervises all body repairs. In matters of health and strength the brain is the first part of the body to be regarded.
Copyright 1930 George A. Cole
Cranial Adjustments
Under spinal adjustments all of the life current that the brain generates for the organs of the body reaches these organs.
In some cases the brain cannot generate current in amount to make the patient well. In other cases the brain furnishes to get the patient well, but not sufficient to give the patient much strength.
The inability of the brain to generate ample life current for the patient’s needs is generally due to an abnormal pressure of the bones of the head on the brain.
Modern chiropractors now include in their work a new system of adjustments called CRANIAL ADJUSTMENTS, to take this abnormal pressure off the brain.
CRANIAL ADJUSTMENTS are made clear in the following eleven statements:
- The power house of the body—the brain—in order to furnish power to the chemical factories, or organs, of the body, must have room in which to work.
- The brain is enclosed in a bony case called the head, skull, or cranium.
- The bones forming the cranium are vertebrae, too. They are cranial vertebrae. (The greatest text-book on anatomy in the world calls them vertebrae.)
- Instead of being shaped like the spinal vertebrae to form a tunnel to enclose and protect a cable, cranial vertebrae are shaped to form a basin, or bowl, to enclose or protect a bulk—the bulk of the brain.
- These cranial vertebrae are joined together at their edges by seams called sutures.
- At times the brain needs an increased blood for particularly hard work that it is doing. More blood to the brain calls for more room in the cranium, and therefore an enlargement of the cranium. The tissues that bind the cranial bones together along the sutures then expand to permit this enlargement. (Cranial vertebrae are dovetailed together to prevent them from separating too far.) When the increased flow of blood to the brain subsides, the tissues along the sutures contract and reduce the cranium to fit the brain when doing lighter work.
- Very commonly the tissues along these sutures contract abnormally—that is, too much—and thus draw the cranial vertebrae so tightly that they press on the brain and hinder it in its work of furnishing power for the body organs.
- Then the body fails in its functions and becomes liable to every form of mental and physical weakness and ailment that a human being can have. (No person can be well and strong in his body or in his mind—he cannot work well nor play well, nor be himself—when the bones of the head are squeezing his brain.)
- With specific thrusts of the hands on the cranial vertebrae, the chiropractor can break these contractions and enlarge the cranium to its normal size.
- Then the brain again furnishes a normal service of life current to be transmitted over the nerves to the organs of the body.
- If the spinal vertebrae are in proper alignment to permit this transmission, the body organs gradually resume their functions. The patient again becomes a going concern, healthy and strong in his body, clear in his mind, and able to work and to play at his best.
The one effect of this increased brain activity that anybody can see at the time of the cranial adjustment, is a correction of the distortions of the pelvis. The pelvis is the bony basin that holds up the abdomen, and is itself supported by the legs. When we walk the swinging legs hangs from it. Very often the tissues that bind its parts together, contract and pull it out of shape so as to draw one leg up above the other and make the feet uneven.
After a cranial adjustment the brain as a rule, corrects these pelvic distortions and draws the feet even.
Sometimes the brain and the contracted pelvic tissues stage a tug of war. The brain pulls the pelvis into shape. The contracted pelvic tissues pull the pelvis out of shape again. Once more the brain makes the correction. Again the contracted tissues win, and then the brain again.
This tugging back and forth may go on for several minutes, and may continue through several treatments. But the brain wins in time. It reduces the contractions and makes the pelvis level and the feet even, to stay so.
Under CRANIAL ADJUSTMENTS the brain puts increased life and activity into all the organs of the body. The heart grows stronger, low blood pressure rises, high blood pressure drops. In some cases the bowels begin at once to roll and rumble.
It is thus clear that as a general rule, in all cases of weakness or illness, the brain is the first and the best remedy. The one treatment for the brain is CRANIAL ADJUSTMENTS to give it working space.
To sum up the value of CRANIAL ADJUSTMENTS, chiropractors, by adding them to SPINAL ADJUSTMENTS, can get their patients well in a shorter time. They can relieve cases that they could not otherwise reach, even their former impossible cases that they have given up. They can also improve the personalities and the looks of well people, and help them to greater strength for the things they want to do.
These adjustments are pleasant to take. Patients like them. Many feel their helpful effects right at the time.
CRANIAL ADJUSTMENTS are the discovery and the invention of Dr. Nephi Cottam of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Doctors who are authorized and trained to make these adjustments have in their offices a diploma from the Cottam Cole Chiropractic College of Salt Lake City.