Question
QUESTION: I'm in my mid fifties in good health but have had a sleeping disorder for about six years. I've done a sleep study for sleep apnea and was ok. The problem is, besides taking about an hour to get to sleep, once I get to sleep I may sleep for 7 to 8 hours but I do not wake up refreshed. It is as if I'm not getting into the deep Rem sleep. I went to a Chrio and he wanted to sign me up for a year of vists even though my spine x-ray was good but he said my neck was 17 degrees instead of 31 and that was my problem. He said that he could make me like new and also take care of my GERD. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

ANSWER: First, I cannot tell if 17 degrees is proper for you as opposed to 31.  31 degrees is the established normal, but every person being different will have different measurements.  17 may or may not be correct.  As far as GERD, it is possible to help if there is a misalignment at that level that may be causing the problem.  I am not a big fan of "I can sign you up for X number of visit for a year".  I judge how a person responds; if they respond quickly, they will have few visits, slowly, then, it extends into a greater number of visits.  The problem with the signing up deal, as many in our profession have found, is it is a marketing ploy.  In some states, these tactic are under question, and the chiropractors that do it are sometimes just pawns of the coaches that teach it.  Try to find a chiropractor that treats, not on a schedule that is set, but on your body's response.

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QUESTION: Thanks for the reply. In my back he said the misalignment was at the L3 and in the neck at the S5. Would the L3 affect the Gerd and would the S5 affect my sleeping disorder? Also, How would you go about to tell if the 17 degrees in the neck is normal?

Answer
C5 area can affect the GERD:  C4 feeds the diaphragm, and may be partly involved with the C5.  After I would analyze the xray for misalignments, and after starting correction, I would take a post-xray to see if there were changes in the curvature.  Our job as chiropractor is not to force curve in, but allow the body to correct itself.