| Dr. James Pietrek, NUCCA Chiropractor |
 | |  |
October 7, 2006 Meeting
James Peitrik, DC
NUCCA (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association)
6904 Miramar Road #214
San Diego, CA 92121
Phone # 858-472-1366
drpietrek@pietrekspinalcare.com
Recap by: Cherie Sato, SGL
Dr. James Peitrik has been in practice for about 2 1/2 years. He grew up in Minnesota and practiced there for about 6
months then his family came out to California.
The only method of chiropractic that James does is NUCCA. This is because he had a really, really good experience
with it. He suffered with severe mid-back pain all throughout high school, which affected my ability to play sports. With
the severity of his scoliosis, he was referred to a spinal surgeon to be closely monitored (just in case his spine got to
the point that he would need surgery). Nobody said anything about chiropractic. He went to many different doctors for
help.
James met a chiropractor one day over the summer of 1998 who he said he could help him with his back pain. “And
help me he did!” It was the first time James remembered being pain-free in over six years. But that’s not all he did for
James. He taught him that the body has the ability to heal itself, and that is what got James excited about chiropractic.
And so he decided that he would like to help people feel better and teach about the benefits of chiropractic too. James
was getting good pain relief but not good structural correction.
James wanted to learn the best method of chiropractic and he feels that NUCCA is the best, most gentle method out
there. This is the one where people are getting well with as few adjustments as possible. It’s not the chiropractor that is
doing the healing; it’s your body is doing the healing. So the less that a chiropractor has to do for you the better you
will be.
We are celebrating the 111th year of chiropractic. DD Palmer did the very first chiropractic method on Harvey Lillard in
1895. Harvey bent over to pick something up then he felt a snap in his neck and lost his hearing. DD knew that there
was something neurologically or structurally wrong and was wondering if the spine was out of balance. After
persuading the man, Palmer was able to make the man lie down on his stomach and applied a firm pressure to the
spine with his hands. The vertebrata was moved to its place and miraculously the man could hear after being deaf for
so long! Dr. Palmer was a magnetic healer who wanted to treat the sick and to try finding the cause of disease
This is a good philosophy of thinking how the structural functioning of the spine is. Ever since 1895 the art and
science of chiropractic has been developed. The philosophy had always been there. It’s like a chair sitting on an
electrical cord and removing it of taking of the pressure and let the healing energy flow from above down and from the
inside out.
James learned from us about TN, some of the procedures we have had and the medications that we are on or were
on. He was very interested in this since he knows nothing about TN. TN is something new to him and is willing to learn
about as much as he can. James knows that NUCCA has helped so many people.
Most people who come to see James are for cervical genetic types of headaches and joint mandibular problems, TMJ.
The point is that those areas between the jaw and the upper neck are very highly sensitive areas which are related to
the muscles and ligaments. The framework holds it all together. So, if one of them is off, then it’s likely that there is a
problem with another area. A lot of the times you have to treat the area and whatever else goes along with it.
Structurally, this area of the spine is the trickiest. There area more asymmetries in this area of the body than any
other part of the body with the exception the sacrum, the tailbone. When you are born the tailbone has basically 5
separate parts but by the time you are through your second year they fuse together into one plate about the size of
your fist. So you can see if they do not fuse exactly side by side that it would be a funny look or asymmetric.
The same thing with the atlas bone up in your neck, structurally the weakest link you have small muscles that hold it in
place as opposed to a big thick disc as a cushion opposed to what the other 23 bones in the spine have. So this area
is in a pretty compromised place already. Let alone that the human head is approximately 13 pounds being held up
with this atlas. And if the head is not sitting properly on the top of the neck and the rest of the spine, that 2 ounce
atlas, has to adapt to that misalignment. The rest of the spine will adapt to the atlas being off center.
We are the exact opposite, structurally, from a skyscraper for example. If you are going to build a skyscraper you have
start at ground zero and put in a good foundation in there then build the first floor, second floor, etc. all the way to the
top.
But with a human body the first thing to develop in the first couple of weeks of conception is what resembles the brain
and spinal cord and from there everything branches out. In terms of you walking around and having to keep your
body in balance, it starts at the top and works it’s way down. We have to have balance in our life. So if you walk at an
angle your structure will all be off. The nerve tissue is very import in the neck not only to sense pain but for you to
function the best you can.
Why are the Nerves so important?
If there is a structural neurological component there and something can be done in addition to surgery or before you
have surgery, NUCCA might be a better first resort.
In James’ opinion is that we should be doing is “the insides out, (rely on that first) out sides in and then the insides
out”. James’ is not saying to “NOT” take your medication or to do surgery since this is not part of his practice but this
is not just a method to help you with your health now but also with your health in the future.
No one is going to question the fact that it is undeniable, invisible, intangible, but that the undeniable truth that our
nerves system are the biological system that controls everything that you do. Your ability to heal, grow up, etc. Say
you cut your finger even if you are not thinking about it and there is proper nerve supply and it will heal on it’s own. It’s
very important to make sure that your nerves are happy. He means that “nerves being happy” that you put them at top
priority.
There are different ways to treat different things. People come into his office since they are in pain and their muscles
are tightened and spammed and they want to get a massage done right away. He asked them what is the purpose of
the muscle, what does it do? They will say that it helps them to throw a baseball, drive car, or something. Basically,
yes, it’s a motor function. You tell the muscle what to do and it does it. What’s the function of the ligament or
connective tissue? The ligaments or connective tissue are what keeps things together, it’s like Elmer’s glue of the
spine.
What’s the function of the nerve? 9% of the nerves transmits pain signals but that 9% plus the other 91% controls the
function. It tells the muscle what to do. It tells the ligament how relaxed or taut it has to be. The upper cervical area it’s
like a puppeteer of the entire spine and it tells the cerebellum how to control your equilibrium. Not only does it control
the motor function going down but also the information coming into our bodies the motor function going up. There are
millions of functions that are traveling through that area.
The upper cervical area, and this is where the Trigeminal nerve comes through that area, the cerebellum, and the
puppeteer you might say, which controls the entire spine. Not only does it control the motor functions going down but
also the information coming into our bodies right now. Millions of functions that you may be doing right now but may
not be aware of are doing and they tell your brain how to respond in an appropriate manner.
When it shows that the upper cervical area is significantly out of balance, the information going to the hypothalamus,
or the higher center of your brain the middle of your brain, that is really in control. It’s the main part of your brain. It
has to figure out what’s important of all the stimuli that’s going to you right now what do deal with and how to deal with
it. When this area is out of balance, there is extra information going to that hypothalamus saying that the body is out
of alignment, it’s out of proper position and can’t correct itself. So that means that your hypothalamus will sort of spin
its wheels and won’t be able to have as have as much energy going to have as much creative thought or remembering
certain things like, “where did I put my keys”, or why you went into the room, etc.
We haven’t discovered what all functions of the brain are yet, but out of 100% of the brain that we do know is that 10%
of it is at a conscience level. Nobel Prize winner in 1981 was Roger Sperry and he discovered that our left side of the
brain controls the right side of the body. He discovered that the other 90% of the brain that we don’t use consciously
is going to maintaining your environment that you living in. The fact that I am standing today is that there is more
traffic on my freeway on my spinal cord in the nerves because it takes more energy to stand up than to sit down.
What does this have to do with trigeminal neuralgia anyway? If the nerves in this area are affected, it can affect your
entire overall health. And I know from my expertise, I’m not a trigeminal neuralgia specialist, but with me upper cervical
specialty and I know when this area is irritated it’s impossible to live up to your fullest health potential. And it can
manifest in different people in different ways.
Some people will develop a scoliosis and you can have a genetic predisposition to that. Some can have a problem
with trigeminal neuralgia where there can be some relations to what is going on in the upper neck. It all has to do with
your own individual health history, genetic makeup, the mental, physical, chemical and emotional stressor we
encounter each day. How well you respond to those, how well you adapt to things in life. If they come to too many or
too extreme, that can cause even more imbalance to that cervical area.
If you are having constant pain, you need to have some sort of peace of mind. You can function and not have these
debilitating stabbings, etc. And that’s where a medication can be a blessing. It can give you that short term function
so that you can do what you need to do at that time.
But at the same time I want you to think about the long term as well because all of us have a lot more years here. So,
what are we going to be doing in 30, 40, 50 years. Some of you are chuckling but did you know that the centurions
they were not expected to live beyond 50 years old. So, if people can take decent care of themselves, before they get
into their 70’s are going to have a lot more time. We are talking about increasing quality of life, years out of life.
So, a little about NUCCA and an interesting thing about this it’s under the alternative therapy on the website and it had
different kinds of approaches it had UCC on there. It doesn’t have chiropractor on there, which I think is kind of neat. I
know that a lot of people have had good results.
What isn’t NUCCA? NUCCA is not alternative medicine or therapy. I can’t stress that enough. It’s not even medicine. I’
m in the health care field; I’m not a doctor. Medicine is the practice of giving medications and surgeries. NUCCA is an
entirely a different thing.
You have a doctor inside of you. So let that be the primary care for you. People know little about how the human body
works. We are learning new things every year. Realizing that the old things that we thought we knew wasn’t really
knowledge at all. We know about 10-20% of how your body works, but your body knows what works. Your body knows
what is normal for you. Different statistics and different ranges can say what is average for the human population but
only your body knows what is normal. And that’s why I believe and we are not alternative medicine not alternative
therapy and we don’t treat various aliments.
Here I am talking about TN but I don’t treat various aliments. Again, I look at one cause of a persons potential health
problem, not the effect but a cause, and I go about correcting that certain cause. When that certain cause gets
corrected profound things can happen for that persons health. In my opinion, is that an Upper Cervical a good cervical
adjustment is the most powerful thing that can be done for somebody’s health. I believe that miracles can happen, that
people can learn and reproduce and I really believe in this work.
What is NUCCA? NUCCA is a complete and distant approach to better health.
James showed us a video of how the NUCCA works and you can see how gentle it is. Most of what we saw on the
video James had already spoken about. The primary part of NUCCA is done on the back in the upper neck area and
helps to keep your head on straight with the adjustments that are done.
When the atlas is off we call this the ASC (Atlas Subluxation Complex) syndrome. Even a slight imbalance to the upper
cervical area can cause stress to the spinal column. By making a slight adjustment at the upper part of the cervical
section you can get the body back into balance.
When you visit a NUCCA doctor an extensive evaluation process begins. The severity of each misalignment is unique
to each person. The process begins by taking a detailed history of the person. This includes the chief complaints, the
location of the systems in the body, how they began and how long have they been present. Also, is there are any
other health problems, injuries, and surgeries, along with any other treatment programs in your past. It includes
diagnostic tests and x-rays are also evaluated and assessed.
After all this has been done then the doctor goes over everything with you and explains what is out of alignment and
what needs to be done in order to correct this misalignment and to put it back into balance.
You will be asked to lay on a table to check for leg length differences, also know as the short leg phenomenon. This is
where the leg is not really short but your hips are out of balance. Precise measurements of your spinal balance are
taken to see where there is an imbalance. This tells the doctor where the adjustment is needed and when more
adjustments may be needed.
The NUCCA x-ray settings are low so as not to be harmful to anyone and to future reduce x-ray exposure to the patient.
The adjustments are done near your ear. This is in line of the first vertebrae and the doctor make some subtle and
slight adjustments. It takes very little adjusting to relieve nerve pressure. The whole procedure takes about an hour
and a half between taking x-rays and adjustments. Then there will be follow up appointments.
Return to Home Page
James Peitrik, DC
NUCCA (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association)
6904 Miramar Road #214
San Diego, CA 92121
Phone # 858-472-1366
drpietrek@pietrekspinalcare.com
Recap by: Cherie Sato, SGL
Dr. James Peitrik has been in practice for about 2 1/2 years. He grew up in Minnesota and practiced there for about 6
months then his family came out to California.
The only method of chiropractic that James does is NUCCA. This is because he had a really, really good experience
with it. He suffered with severe mid-back pain all throughout high school, which affected my ability to play sports. With
the severity of his scoliosis, he was referred to a spinal surgeon to be closely monitored (just in case his spine got to
the point that he would need surgery). Nobody said anything about chiropractic. He went to many different doctors for
help.
James met a chiropractor one day over the summer of 1998 who he said he could help him with his back pain. “And
help me he did!” It was the first time James remembered being pain-free in over six years. But that’s not all he did for
James. He taught him that the body has the ability to heal itself, and that is what got James excited about chiropractic.
And so he decided that he would like to help people feel better and teach about the benefits of chiropractic too. James
was getting good pain relief but not good structural correction.
James wanted to learn the best method of chiropractic and he feels that NUCCA is the best, most gentle method out
there. This is the one where people are getting well with as few adjustments as possible. It’s not the chiropractor that is
doing the healing; it’s your body is doing the healing. So the less that a chiropractor has to do for you the better you
will be.
We are celebrating the 111th year of chiropractic. DD Palmer did the very first chiropractic method on Harvey Lillard in
1895. Harvey bent over to pick something up then he felt a snap in his neck and lost his hearing. DD knew that there
was something neurologically or structurally wrong and was wondering if the spine was out of balance. After
persuading the man, Palmer was able to make the man lie down on his stomach and applied a firm pressure to the
spine with his hands. The vertebrata was moved to its place and miraculously the man could hear after being deaf for
so long! Dr. Palmer was a magnetic healer who wanted to treat the sick and to try finding the cause of disease
This is a good philosophy of thinking how the structural functioning of the spine is. Ever since 1895 the art and
science of chiropractic has been developed. The philosophy had always been there. It’s like a chair sitting on an
electrical cord and removing it of taking of the pressure and let the healing energy flow from above down and from the
inside out.
James learned from us about TN, some of the procedures we have had and the medications that we are on or were
on. He was very interested in this since he knows nothing about TN. TN is something new to him and is willing to learn
about as much as he can. James knows that NUCCA has helped so many people.
Most people who come to see James are for cervical genetic types of headaches and joint mandibular problems, TMJ.
The point is that those areas between the jaw and the upper neck are very highly sensitive areas which are related to
the muscles and ligaments. The framework holds it all together. So, if one of them is off, then it’s likely that there is a
problem with another area. A lot of the times you have to treat the area and whatever else goes along with it.
Structurally, this area of the spine is the trickiest. There area more asymmetries in this area of the body than any
other part of the body with the exception the sacrum, the tailbone. When you are born the tailbone has basically 5
separate parts but by the time you are through your second year they fuse together into one plate about the size of
your fist. So you can see if they do not fuse exactly side by side that it would be a funny look or asymmetric.
The same thing with the atlas bone up in your neck, structurally the weakest link you have small muscles that hold it in
place as opposed to a big thick disc as a cushion opposed to what the other 23 bones in the spine have. So this area
is in a pretty compromised place already. Let alone that the human head is approximately 13 pounds being held up
with this atlas. And if the head is not sitting properly on the top of the neck and the rest of the spine, that 2 ounce
atlas, has to adapt to that misalignment. The rest of the spine will adapt to the atlas being off center.
We are the exact opposite, structurally, from a skyscraper for example. If you are going to build a skyscraper you have
start at ground zero and put in a good foundation in there then build the first floor, second floor, etc. all the way to the
top.
But with a human body the first thing to develop in the first couple of weeks of conception is what resembles the brain
and spinal cord and from there everything branches out. In terms of you walking around and having to keep your
body in balance, it starts at the top and works it’s way down. We have to have balance in our life. So if you walk at an
angle your structure will all be off. The nerve tissue is very import in the neck not only to sense pain but for you to
function the best you can.
Why are the Nerves so important?
If there is a structural neurological component there and something can be done in addition to surgery or before you
have surgery, NUCCA might be a better first resort.
In James’ opinion is that we should be doing is “the insides out, (rely on that first) out sides in and then the insides
out”. James’ is not saying to “NOT” take your medication or to do surgery since this is not part of his practice but this
is not just a method to help you with your health now but also with your health in the future.
No one is going to question the fact that it is undeniable, invisible, intangible, but that the undeniable truth that our
nerves system are the biological system that controls everything that you do. Your ability to heal, grow up, etc. Say
you cut your finger even if you are not thinking about it and there is proper nerve supply and it will heal on it’s own. It’s
very important to make sure that your nerves are happy. He means that “nerves being happy” that you put them at top
priority.
There are different ways to treat different things. People come into his office since they are in pain and their muscles
are tightened and spammed and they want to get a massage done right away. He asked them what is the purpose of
the muscle, what does it do? They will say that it helps them to throw a baseball, drive car, or something. Basically,
yes, it’s a motor function. You tell the muscle what to do and it does it. What’s the function of the ligament or
connective tissue? The ligaments or connective tissue are what keeps things together, it’s like Elmer’s glue of the
spine.
What’s the function of the nerve? 9% of the nerves transmits pain signals but that 9% plus the other 91% controls the
function. It tells the muscle what to do. It tells the ligament how relaxed or taut it has to be. The upper cervical area it’s
like a puppeteer of the entire spine and it tells the cerebellum how to control your equilibrium. Not only does it control
the motor function going down but also the information coming into our bodies the motor function going up. There are
millions of functions that are traveling through that area.
The upper cervical area, and this is where the Trigeminal nerve comes through that area, the cerebellum, and the
puppeteer you might say, which controls the entire spine. Not only does it control the motor functions going down but
also the information coming into our bodies right now. Millions of functions that you may be doing right now but may
not be aware of are doing and they tell your brain how to respond in an appropriate manner.
When it shows that the upper cervical area is significantly out of balance, the information going to the hypothalamus,
or the higher center of your brain the middle of your brain, that is really in control. It’s the main part of your brain. It
has to figure out what’s important of all the stimuli that’s going to you right now what do deal with and how to deal with
it. When this area is out of balance, there is extra information going to that hypothalamus saying that the body is out
of alignment, it’s out of proper position and can’t correct itself. So that means that your hypothalamus will sort of spin
its wheels and won’t be able to have as have as much energy going to have as much creative thought or remembering
certain things like, “where did I put my keys”, or why you went into the room, etc.
We haven’t discovered what all functions of the brain are yet, but out of 100% of the brain that we do know is that 10%
of it is at a conscience level. Nobel Prize winner in 1981 was Roger Sperry and he discovered that our left side of the
brain controls the right side of the body. He discovered that the other 90% of the brain that we don’t use consciously
is going to maintaining your environment that you living in. The fact that I am standing today is that there is more
traffic on my freeway on my spinal cord in the nerves because it takes more energy to stand up than to sit down.
What does this have to do with trigeminal neuralgia anyway? If the nerves in this area are affected, it can affect your
entire overall health. And I know from my expertise, I’m not a trigeminal neuralgia specialist, but with me upper cervical
specialty and I know when this area is irritated it’s impossible to live up to your fullest health potential. And it can
manifest in different people in different ways.
Some people will develop a scoliosis and you can have a genetic predisposition to that. Some can have a problem
with trigeminal neuralgia where there can be some relations to what is going on in the upper neck. It all has to do with
your own individual health history, genetic makeup, the mental, physical, chemical and emotional stressor we
encounter each day. How well you respond to those, how well you adapt to things in life. If they come to too many or
too extreme, that can cause even more imbalance to that cervical area.
If you are having constant pain, you need to have some sort of peace of mind. You can function and not have these
debilitating stabbings, etc. And that’s where a medication can be a blessing. It can give you that short term function
so that you can do what you need to do at that time.
But at the same time I want you to think about the long term as well because all of us have a lot more years here. So,
what are we going to be doing in 30, 40, 50 years. Some of you are chuckling but did you know that the centurions
they were not expected to live beyond 50 years old. So, if people can take decent care of themselves, before they get
into their 70’s are going to have a lot more time. We are talking about increasing quality of life, years out of life.
So, a little about NUCCA and an interesting thing about this it’s under the alternative therapy on the website and it had
different kinds of approaches it had UCC on there. It doesn’t have chiropractor on there, which I think is kind of neat. I
know that a lot of people have had good results.
What isn’t NUCCA? NUCCA is not alternative medicine or therapy. I can’t stress that enough. It’s not even medicine. I’
m in the health care field; I’m not a doctor. Medicine is the practice of giving medications and surgeries. NUCCA is an
entirely a different thing.
You have a doctor inside of you. So let that be the primary care for you. People know little about how the human body
works. We are learning new things every year. Realizing that the old things that we thought we knew wasn’t really
knowledge at all. We know about 10-20% of how your body works, but your body knows what works. Your body knows
what is normal for you. Different statistics and different ranges can say what is average for the human population but
only your body knows what is normal. And that’s why I believe and we are not alternative medicine not alternative
therapy and we don’t treat various aliments.
Here I am talking about TN but I don’t treat various aliments. Again, I look at one cause of a persons potential health
problem, not the effect but a cause, and I go about correcting that certain cause. When that certain cause gets
corrected profound things can happen for that persons health. In my opinion, is that an Upper Cervical a good cervical
adjustment is the most powerful thing that can be done for somebody’s health. I believe that miracles can happen, that
people can learn and reproduce and I really believe in this work.
What is NUCCA? NUCCA is a complete and distant approach to better health.
James showed us a video of how the NUCCA works and you can see how gentle it is. Most of what we saw on the
video James had already spoken about. The primary part of NUCCA is done on the back in the upper neck area and
helps to keep your head on straight with the adjustments that are done.
When the atlas is off we call this the ASC (Atlas Subluxation Complex) syndrome. Even a slight imbalance to the upper
cervical area can cause stress to the spinal column. By making a slight adjustment at the upper part of the cervical
section you can get the body back into balance.
When you visit a NUCCA doctor an extensive evaluation process begins. The severity of each misalignment is unique
to each person. The process begins by taking a detailed history of the person. This includes the chief complaints, the
location of the systems in the body, how they began and how long have they been present. Also, is there are any
other health problems, injuries, and surgeries, along with any other treatment programs in your past. It includes
diagnostic tests and x-rays are also evaluated and assessed.
After all this has been done then the doctor goes over everything with you and explains what is out of alignment and
what needs to be done in order to correct this misalignment and to put it back into balance.
You will be asked to lay on a table to check for leg length differences, also know as the short leg phenomenon. This is
where the leg is not really short but your hips are out of balance. Precise measurements of your spinal balance are
taken to see where there is an imbalance. This tells the doctor where the adjustment is needed and when more
adjustments may be needed.
The NUCCA x-ray settings are low so as not to be harmful to anyone and to future reduce x-ray exposure to the patient.
The adjustments are done near your ear. This is in line of the first vertebrae and the doctor make some subtle and
slight adjustments. It takes very little adjusting to relieve nerve pressure. The whole procedure takes about an hour
and a half between taking x-rays and adjustments. Then there will be follow up appointments.
Return to Home Page