Fibromyalgia and Upper Cervical Chiropractic

“This type of health care was available all the time I suffered. We just didn’t know about it. It’s one thing to hurt because nothing can be done. It’s entirely another to suffer because of ignorance. That’s tragic.”

Louella Harris, founder of the National Awareness Campaign for Upper Cervical Care and former sufferer of Fibromyalgia.

Over 80% of the people suffering from fibromyalgia are women. Fibromyalgia is a debilitating condition characterized by widespread pain, inability to sleep well, fatigue, headaches, facial pain, digestive problems, and foggy thinking. Many people with fibromyalgia are unable to work or function normally.

The medical literature states that the causes of fibromyalgia are unknown. Some researchers note similarities to chronic fatigue syndrome and chemical sensitivity. Current theories on the causes of fibromyalgia include stress, sleep disturbance, genetic predisposition, serotonin, and dopamine dysfunction, toxins in the environment, bacterial and yeast imbalances in the colon, and psychological factors.

Too commonly, medical doctors attribute fibromyalgia to this last reason. Many women and men go in for help, only to be told that the problem is “all in their head”. These people “look” fine, and since depression is often associated with the condition, many medical doctors think that the depression is causing the illness. In truth, the reverse is more often true: people are depressed because they don’t feel well.

When I was a chiropractic student, the patients of other doctors first taught me that upper cervical care could help fibromyalgia. One such patient was Louella Harris. Before upper cervical care pain and weakness kept her bedridden. Her husband had to come home during lunch breaks to feed her and help her to the restroom. At the urging of a friend, Luella tried upper cervical care. It helped her so much that after a period of recovery, she started the National Awareness Campaign for Upper Cervical Care.

“This procedure is so little known and had such an impact on our lives, Richard and I felt compelled to educate the public on a large scale about it.”Louella Harris

“I experienced pain and weakness in my arms and legs, headaches, interrupted sleep patterns, excessive fatigue and pain in my right knee. Although I had been working with another doctor (chiropractor), after 30 adjustments, none of the corrections held for longer than a couple of days. My friend recommended Dr. Polsinelli.

(Now) my arms and legs are much stronger…. no headaches, fatigue or knee pain. At 58, I’m feeling much better, sleeping through the night and am excited about the program he created for me.”S. Griffith

Before attending Logan College of Chiropractic, Dr. Polsinelli had several years of training in the healing arts, including massage, cranial sacral therapy, positional release, kinesiology, nutrition, and naturopathy. He has been trained in both the Orthospinology, and NUCCA upper cervical chiropractic procedures and is currently the only doctor in Ohio that has passed level 2 in NUCCA certification. He can be reached at 440-461-9774 or here.


While upper cervical care can cure fibromyalgia, sometimes other things need to be addressed. Some of these you can do yourself:

Avoid artificial sweeteners, aspartame (Nutrasweet), MSG, sucralose (Splenda), and other chemical additives. These can cause muscular contraction and inflammation.

Drink enough water, but make sure you are eating salt. Salt deficiency can lead to exhaustion.

Make sure that your atlas is in alignment. When it is not, postural distortion occurs: A hip and shoulder is high, a leg is short, and posture muscles go weak.

Molybdenum is a mineral supplement that helps detoxify aldehydes, a toxin created by yeast overgrowth.

Restore intestinal bacteria balance. When there is an imbalance, the body cannot assimilate nutrients properly, and toxins are created. Dr. Michael Lebowitz developed a great procedure that I use to address this.

Close the ileocecal valve. The ICV connects the large and small intestines. When it is stuck open due to intestinal bacteria imbalance, inflammation throughout the body occurs. Applying an ice pack in the lower right abdominal quadrant for 15 minutes will close the valve, reducing inflammation.

Eat protein to help get off sugar. Some people can not produce energy properly in their body and to compensate will eat lots of sugar or sweet foods. This gives them a quick burst of energy, with a feeling of euphoria, that then leads to a crash. There are eleven nutrients that I test to help the citric acid cycle, or Kreb’s cycle , to work properly. If you are crave sweets on a regular basis, chromium (or sometimes vanadium) can help.

Take care of thyroid. Soy and cabbage depress the thyroid, while iodine and seaweed help increase thyroid function.

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