A Word About Sudden Infant Death Syndrome...

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – Related To The Spine
In a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders noted that SIDS is the leading cause of mortality in the United States of infants aged one month to one year, with 5000 to 600 deaths being attributed to SIDS. In encouraging parents to have infants sleep on their backs, Elders states that SIDS infants exhibit "...a pattern of delayed development of cardiorespiratory and central nervous system structures." However, Elders also notes that "...no specific diagnostic criteria, either when an infant is alive or after it has died, distinguish a SIDS infant from any other." [12]

Every seasoned chiropractor who has adjusted infants knows the dramatic responses which often follow the correction of a subluxation. Chiropractic care for newborns is immensely rich in clinical promise. Besides the possible link between subluxation and SIDS, the lifelong health benefits which may follow adjustment shortly after birth should be the subject of additional research. As chiropractors, we have a public health responsibility to further explore the relationship between SIDS and subluxation. www.worldchiropracticalliance.org

Peer Reviewed Journals:
Latent spinal cord and brain stem injury in newborn infants. Towbin, A, Dev Med Child Neurol. 1969 (Feb);11 (1): 54-68
• Autopsy of infants who died of SIDS revealed blood in the spinal cord, which the author hypothesized, was due to obstetrical trauma. "Spinal cord and brain stem injuries often occur during the process of birth but frequently escape diagnosis. Respiratory depression in the neonate is a cardinal sign of much injury. In infants, there may be lasting neurological defects reflecting the primary injury." Towbin further states: "mechanical stress imposed by obstetric manipulation-even the application of standard orthodox procedures may prove intolerable to the fetus. Difficult breathing in the newborn is a classic indication of such injury" He goes on to say," Survival of the newborn is governed mainly by the integrity and function of the vital centers in the brain stem. Yet paradoxically, the importance of injury at birth to the brain stem and spinal cord are matters which have generally escaped lasting attention."

Birth injury to the cervical spine and spinal cord. Reid H. Acta Neurochir Suppl (Wien). 1983; 32: 87-90
• Mechanical trauma to the cervical spine still occurs at birth. In 2 of 48 perinatal postmortems traumatic damage to the cervical spinal cord was found. Also in this series at least 12% of cases from one hospital showed some degree of trauma to the cervical spine but this was of a lesser degree in individual cases than 20 years ago.

Infantile atlantooccipital instability. The potential danger of extreme extension. Giles FH, Bina M, Sotrel A. Am J Dis Child. 1979 Jan;133(1):30-37
• During early infancy, adventitious sliding and slipping movements between the vertebral column and skull are possible in the cadaver. In ten of 17 infants, the posterior arch of the atlas inverted through the foramen magnum during extension of the head on the atlas, resulting in the anatomic potential of bilateral vertebral artery compression. These anatomic conditions may be the basis for a chain of events that contributes to death in some neonates and infants with conventioanl diseases and may be one source of unanticipated death.

Have your newborn checked by a Principled Chiropractor today to make sure they are expressing the life that God intended for them!