Numerous neurological symptoms; more than 1 cause?

by Marie
(Lake Wales, Florida)

I have been diagnosed with Chiari 1 malformation. I have numerous symptoms which seem to have begun after a car accident in 2012. June 2014 my symptoms exacerbated. May 16th I was in another car accident and my symptoms exacerbated even more. My question is, is it possible that my numerous symptoms that I am experiencing may not solely be from the Chiari but in fact be from a whiplash injury, nerve compression in my spinal cord, subluxations, or something else and could pulled muscles in my atlas axis area herniate my cerebellum?


The neurosurgeon wants to do a chiari decompression this month but I'm hesitant because I feel like my symptoms may actually be coming from something else. My symptoms are: Headaches, pain in head usually occipital, pain in neck, pain in shoulders, visual disturbances, numbness left tongue, pain left jaw, pain between shoulder blades, numbness back of legs, feet and toes, sleep apnea, bradycardia, tachycardia, ringing/buzzing in ears just to name s few....the list of symptoms I have is 4 pages long. I have been diagnosed with chiari malformation 1 with tonsillar herniations of 7.5mm, DJD, herniations thoracic spine abutting spinal cord, spondylolisthesis 15 mm lumbar spine. Marie

Hello Marie,
Yes, certainly some of these symptoms are probably coming from spinal subluxations and the spondy. The difficulty is that upper cervical manipulation, in fact anywhere in the neck probably, is decidedly risky if you have chiari malformations. So called "activator" treatment would be safer as there is no actual manipulation.

Your midback and lower back could be treated with chiropractic, and you might consider doing that for say two months before the surgery.

Chiari malformations affect different parts of the spinal cord and brainstem, hence the bizarre and complex array of symptoms.

It's pretty complex surgery, not without its dangers. Have you discussed these with the surgeon? It's always a tough call whether to live with symptoms rather than risk major surgery.

Perhaps before going for surgery, ask for an examination from a very experienced chiropractor, with no treatment, so that you can weigh these things.

Be strong and God bless, and much wisdom. These are not easy decisions and your loved ones perhaps should be party to them.

Dr B

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