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Stuart “Skip” Pardee, DC – ICA Member since 1983.

A few months ago, The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece titled, “Bruce Willis and the Cruelty of Aphasia,” written by Bob Greene. ICA Member and Doctor of Chiropractic, Stuart Pardee was compelled to respond for his own personal reasons. Dr. Pardee wrote the following letter:

I read with great interest you article “Bruce Willis and the Cruelty of Aphasia” (Opinion, April 1). I graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1968, and spent the next eight years as an Air Force pilot, flying 370 combat missions in Vietnam.

One of the reasons I resigned from the Air Force in 1976 was due to my suffering from the symptoms of Aphasia, a death penalty for a pilot. The next three years I quit seven jobs. I eventually enrolled in chiropractic college. I was worried about making it through school, and practicing chiropractic with my poor memory and clouded thinking. Someone in those first few months of school adjusted my atlas, the top vertebra in the spine where the skull and spine join. My memory and thinking cleared up. I have not had problems since.

I am now 75, and recently retired after practicing chiropractic for 38 years. For almost all of those 38 years, I specialized in adjusting the atlas. You would never believe the number of people whose thinking cleared up after adjusting the atlas, including a very sharp attorney who came to me shortly after a minor auto accident. His speech was garbled and words were coming out backwards. Immediately after I adjusted his atlas he sat up and said, “Thanks for clearing my brain.”

I eventually traced my own clouded thinking back to a neck injury I suffered when I returned from Vietnam the first time.

My advice to anyone who is experiencing the symptoms of aphasia, or even minor clouded thinking, is seek medical attention, but also seek treatment from a chiropractor specializing in “upper cervical” care. They are few and far between. Cervical means neck. The treatment involves no twisting and popping of the neck. At worst, you won’t get any help. But there is a good chance you might just experience a miracle like I did, and saw in other for 38 years.”

Dr. Stuart Pardee

The International Chiropractors Association thanks Dr. Pardee for sharing his story and the value of Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care. The ICA Council on Upper Cervical Care is dedicated to advancing this understanding through education, research, and publicity. From training chiropractors to be experts in the craniocervical junction (CCJ) with enhanced skills, knowledge, and clinical excellence to facilitating growth within the field of upper cervical care and deepening the understanding of this mission to the chiropractic profession. The Council offers a diplomate in chiropractic craniocervical junction procedures. (DCCJP). A new class will be forming in 2023.

The Diplomate In Chiropractic Craniocervical Junction Procedures (DCCJP) is designed for upper cervical Doctors of Chiropractic who may already be proficient in a specific upper cervical procedure but wish to advance their diagnostic, analytical, and clinical skills. The DCCJP also provides significant opportunities to learn about other upper cervical procedures to help improve patient outcomes. Those who participate in this program will enhance their skills and techniques and expand their knowledge as an individual chiropractor in the field of upper cervical care through the International Chiropractors Association Upper Cervical Council. https://www.icauppercervical.com/