He notes that the adjustments are adverse-event free, with no side effects of problems arising during the study, and that NUCCA seems to have a profound effect on high blood pressure. 
 
Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can't feel the technique, they were unable to tell which group they were in.
 
X-rays showed that the procedure realigned the atlas vertebra with the spine in the treated patients, but not in the sham-treated patients.
 
Compared to the sham-treated patients, those who got the real procedure saw an average 14 mmHg greater drop in systolic blood pressure and an average 8 mmHg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure.
 
None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study.
 
Bakris and colleagues report their findings in the Journal of Human Hypertension.
 
Marshall Dickholtz Sr., DC, of the Chiropractic Health Center, in Chicago, is the 84-year-old chiropractor who performed all the procedures in the study. He calls the atlas vertebra "the fuse box to the body."
 
What does this have to do with high blood pressure?
 
Bakris notes that some researchers have suggested that injury to the atlas vertebra can affect blood flow in the arteries at the base of the skull. Dickholtz thinks the misaligned atlas triggers release of signals that make the arteries contract. Whether the procedure actually fixes such injuries is unknown, Bakris says.
 
While still at Rush University, Dr. Bakris designed the pilot study with 50 patients. Following the success of this pilot study, he is now organizing a much bigger clinical trial.
 
"Is it going to be for everybody with high blood pressure? No," Bakris says. "We clearly need to identify those who can benefit. It is pretty clear that some kind of head or neck trauma early in life is related to this. This is really a work in progress. It is certainly in the early stages of research."
 

News of this study has MDs on the lookout for further studies.  Good morning America medical editor, Dr. Tim Johnson, notes: “While the study presents some interesting ideas, it has its limitations. There are a lot of unanswered questions. But I'm telling you, this catches our attention because of a significant drop in blood pressure. It absolutely deserves more study."