Neck adjustment is a rare cause of stroke

Like many of the most dangerous health conditions, stroke has known risk factors. Some of them are things we can control. Those include diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and smoking. But there is a lesser known, although very rare, risk factor that we can also impact. Chiropractic neck adjustments have been linked to stroke, mostly in people under age 45.

Fifteen years ago, Bob Nahm suffered a near-death experience. He was at a SW Florida chiropractor’s office getting treatment.

“Typical, as far as I know, chiropractic manual manipulation, where they take your neck and they twist it with their hands,” Nahm told WINK News health and medical reporter Amy Oshier. “The next thing I remembered was waking up at Lee Memorial in the ICU, which was about 30 some odd hours later.”

Nahm experienced five strokes from a tear in an artery in his neck. Fort Myers neurologist Dr. Nima Mowzoon has a lot of experience with stroke. He founded TeleSpecialists, a national telemedicine company that treats about 24-thousand strokes a month. He’s familiar with the rare risk factor linked to neck adjustments.

“Whenever you’ve had manipulation of the neck, with chiropractic adjustments, there’s always a potential risk of dissecting and damaging the vertebral arteries that run inside the vertebral canal that went inside the spine. If it’s too forceful or too impactful and too quickly,” Dr. Mowzoon explained.

This connection has been mentioned many times by medical institutions, including Mayo Clinic and Harvard. The sudden twisting of the neck causing a tear leading to stroke..has also been documented after car accidents, weight lifting, and other neck injuries.

Nahm is still recovering 15 years after the incident. “Going from barely being able to stand, let alone walk in the beginning. Lost my peripheral vision, Becoming permanently deaf in my right ear. I am thrilled to be above ground.”

I had no idea that a stroke was even a remote possibility from any kind of a neck manipulation.

Bob Nahm

Grateful to be alive, he wished he had a warning before undergoing treatment. “Because I had no idea that a stroke was even a remote possibility from any kind of a neck manipulation.”

“The best thing that I would advise to patients is, if you’re concerned about this, to talk to their chiropractor and express your concern,” said Dr. Mowzoon.

For more information on chiropractic manipulation and strokes, click here.

Always good advice when you’re putting your health in someone else’s hands.

It is important to remember that this is a small risk, especially considering the number of neck adjustments performed each year.

Click here to learn more about chiropractic adjustment, and click here to learn how chiropractic neck adjustments are linked to strokes.