. A short lever adjustment was applied to T1 with the patient prone. Standing on the side of spinous laterality (right), the doctor used his right thumb to contact the spinous while holding the right trapezius with his fingers. The patient turned his head to the left, side opposite spinous laterality, and a low force, high amplitude thrust was applied. There was a cavitation and the patient turned his head back to center. ResultsThe patient immediately noted a reduction in his pain intensity. The post-check revealed a restoration of motion at T1 in both extension and rotation. The patient reported the pain had reduced to less than a 1 on the 0-10 scale. The pain previously experienced with flexion/extension was gone. The patient was scheduled for the following day to see if the adjustment was holding. When he returned the next day the T1 segment was still moving within normal limits and the headache was still gone. He was then scheduled for the following week and told to come in earlier if the headache came back before the next appointment.The following week the patient presented with no symptoms of the headache and his pain was reported as a 0 on the 0-10 scale. He reported the headache was gone by the time he left the clinic the previous visit and hadn't returned. Upon chiropractic evaluation the patient had good motion at T1 and throughout the entire spine and musculature was tone where it had previously been spastic. DiscussionThe outcome of this case study suggests the relationship between the upper thoracic spine and this type of tension, suboccipital headache and the low force chiropractic adjustment. This improvement may been due to one or any combination of the following theories:1) Mechanical/Postural: By removing fixation within the motion couples around the first thoracic vertebrae, ROM would be improved in all directions. Forward head posture can be reduced with improved extension in the thoracic spine. Subc...
