NUCCA CONCEPTS ARE INDICATED BY THE LETTER "N" IN PARENTHESES

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T U V W

Abnormal Vertebral Motion:
Eccentric motion of a vertebra(e) in which the disc center of motion is no longer aligned to the vertical axis of the body. Off-center.

Acceleration:
The rate of change of velocity in respect to time.

Adjustment (N):
Restoration of the misalignments of C1, the skull, spine, and pelvis to the vertical axis of the body (normal) and the establishment of equilibrium.

Anatomder (N):
An instrument for monitoring the human body for the measurement of C1 related spinal and bodily distortions prior to and after adjustment.

Angular Rotation (N):
The abnormal excursion of the cervical spine and skull as a unit about the vertical axis of the body and into either the right or left frontal plane of the body, thereby producing gravitational stresses resulting in rotations of the vertebrae and traction alization of the contents of the spinal canal and nerve roots.

Atlas Subluxation Complex (ASC) (N):
An atlas that has lost its alignment with the vertical axis in one or more planes, resulting in neuromuscular stresses which in turn produce malalignments of the spine and pelvis and contiguous structures.

Atlas Subluxation Syndrome (N):
Measurable distortions of the spinal column and subluxated body associated with a C1 subluxation. The physical signs of the C1 subluxation.

Axis Base of Support (N):
The superior articulating surfaces of C2 on which the head turns and which provide support for C1 and the skull. The articulating surfaces of C2 are the fulcra of the mechanical levers in the adjustment. The reduction of C1 laterality is consistent with the movement of the atlas-lever around the superior articulating surfaces of C2, restoring the vertebrae of the subjacent cervical spine to the vertical axis or normal position.

Axis of Motion:
A straight line about which a body or geometrical object rotates or may be conceived to rotate.

Base of Support:
The length and width of a surface on which an object is supported. The area of support is determined by drawing lines along the outermost edges of the supporting structure(s).

Basic C1 Subluxation Types (N):
All C1 subluxations share characteristics of one of the three basic types. Type 1, which occurs most frequently, is called the opposite-the-kink type, because the atlas has abnormally moved opposite the side of the lower cervical angle, or kink. Type 2, which occurs second in frequency, is called the into-the-kink type, because the atlas has abnormally moved to the same side as the lower cervical angle, or kink. Type 3, seen less frequently than types 1 and 2, is called the no-kink type, because the cervical spine angle is zero; that is, the cervical spine has not deviated abnormally from the vertical axis into either frontal plan. In Type 3, vertebral rotations of cervical segments below C2 will not be present as a result of angular rotation of the cervical spine and skull as a unit into either frontal plane. Rotation of cervical vertebrae in a Type 3 case, occurring subjacent to C2, results from severe rotation of C2. Angular rotation of the cervical spine into one of the frontal planes and severe rotation of C2 on the transverse plane are the two causes of cervical vertebral rotation.

Biomechanics:
The application of mechanical laws and principles to the interpretation and analysis of the subluxation and its correction.

Center of Gravity:
An imaginary point representing the weight center of an object; the point about which the object balances in every direction. The center of gravity is that point at which the gravitational potential energy of the body is equal to that of a single particl e of the same mass located at that point and through which the resultant of the gravitational forces on the component particles of the body act.

Center of Mass:
The point about which the sum of all the linear moments of mass of the particles in a body is zero.

Concentric Motion:
Motion arising from the same center; having a common center. Vertebrae execute concentric motion when their disc centers of motion are aligned to the vertical axis of the body.

Contractured Leg (N):
An apparent difference in the leg length of a C1 subluxated individual when measured in the supine position, and resulting from spastic contracture of the extensor musculature of the spinal column. Frequently called the "short leg".

Curvilinear Motion:
The motion of an object along a curved path.

Depth:
A dimension downward, backward, or inward. Depth in the atlas subluxation complex adjustment tends to defeat subluxation reduction. It is usually the result of body-drop which shortens the final optimum resultant of the force vectors.

Direction:
The line or course along which an object moves.

Disequilibrium:
Loss or lack of stability. See equilibrium.

Dynamics:
The study of the relationship between motion and the forces affecting motion. Dynamics is that part of the field of mechanics that studies objects in motion, as opposed to statics. It is the combined study of kinetics and kinematics.

Eccentric Motion:
Irregular or abnormal motion; off center motion. Eccentric vertebral motion takes place when the vertebral disc center of motion is not aligned to the vertical axis. Eccentric motion "fixes" vertebral segments from the normal position.

Effort:
The use of mental or physical effort to do something. The application of force to a mechanical lever. Force applied against inertia.

Energy:
Anything that is capable of producing a change in matter; the capacity for doing work.

Equilibrant:
A force that is capable of balancing a system of forces to produce equilibrium or stability. The adjustment is an equilibrant when it balances the forces in the subluxation.

First Class Lever:
In a first class lever, the fulcrum (axis of motion) lies between the effort and the resistance. The three basic types of C1 subluxations are first or second class levers. Example: seesaw.

Fixed Point:
A point in the upper dorsal spine which is considered as aligned to the vertical axis and about which longitudinal rotation of the cervical spine and the head take place as a unit when abnormally moving into either the right or left frontal plane.

Force:
A vector quantity tending to produce an acceleration of an object in the direction of its application. Capacity to do work or cause physical change. A push or pull. A vector quantity possessing size and direction.

Frontal Plane:
A vertical plane which passes through the body from side to side, dividing the body. Also called the lateral plane.

Fulcrum:
The point or support on which a lever turns. In the adjustment, the fulcra for the atlas-lever are the superior articulating surfaces of C2. A C1 adjustment activates the atlas (lever) and moves it about the superior articulating surfaces (fulcra) of C2 . C1 subluxations are of either the first or second class lever types.

Gravity:
The natural force that causes objects to move or tend to move toward the center of the earth. The cause of weight. A constant force that pulls vertical down on all objects at all times.

Gravital Line:
An imaginary vertical line which passes through the center of gravity. The weight center line. Line of gravity.

Horizontal Plane:
A plane that is parallel to the horizon; flat. A transverse plane.

Horizontal Resultant (N):
the hypotenuse side of a right-angle triangle, the two opposite side of which incorporate the height vector and the rotation vector of a subluxation as computed from the nasium and vertex x-rays and depicted on the horizontal plane.

Inertia:
Tendency of a body to resist acceleration. The tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in motion to remain in motion in a straight line unless disturbed by an external force. Inertia is resistance to motion, action, or change. Inertia is measured by mass.

Kinematics:
The study of motion exclusive of the influences of mass and force. It includes displacement, velocity, and acceleration without regard for the forces acting on a body. It is a mechanical concept, a subdivision of dynamics.

Kinetics:
The study of the relationship between motion and the forces affecting motion; bodies changing motion as unbalanced forces act on them. The concepts of mass, force, and energy as they affect motion.

Kinetic Energy (KE):
The energy possessed by a moving body. The ability of a body to do work by virtue of its motion. Energy associated with motion.

Laterality (N):
A rotational abnormal movement of C1 about the condyles of occiput and about the sagittal axis of motion. Rotation is angular motion about an axis of motion.

Lever:
Any rigid bar that turns about a fulcrum or point when effort is applied. In the process of turning, resistance is overcome. An adjustment may be defined as a force or effort applied to a lever to activate it.

Line of Gravity:
An imaginary vertical line which passes through the center of gravity.

Linear Motion:
Translatory motion or that motion in which all parts of an object move in the same direction and each part moves an equal distance.

Longitudinal Plane:
A plane running lengthwise.

Mass:
The measure of how much matter an object possesses.

Mechanics:
That branch of physics dealing with the action of forces on bodies which includes kinetics and statics.

Mechanical Advantage:
The ratio of the output force of a machine to the input force.

Mechanical Energy:
The measured amount of work a body can do. In any system, the total mechanical energy equals potential energy (PE) plus kinetic energy (KE).

Misalignment Factors (N):
The measurable malalignments of the vertebrae, skull, and pelvis. They are vertebrae and contiguous structures that have lost their alignment to the vertical axis, but are not necessarily subluxated. They are, however, malfunctioning structures.

Motion:
The ability or power of an object to move. Change of position. The forces that act on bodies determine their direction of movement.

Moment:
The tendency of force to affect motion. Tendency, or measure of tendency, to produce motion, especially about a point or axis. The product of a quantity and its perpendicular distance from a reference point.

Momentum:
Mass of body multiplied by its velocity. (M=mv)

Neurological Component (N):
Nerve structure that is tractionized, enfolded, or compressed by the misalignment factors of the atlas subluxation complex.

Normal (N):
That positional relationship of a vertebral segment, the skull, or pelvis in which these structures are aligned to the vertical axis, and in which the resultant of all acting forces is zero and the sum of all torques about their axes of motion is zero.

Notch Transverse Resultant (N):
The final and optimum line of drive which includes the horizontal resultant. The distance from the adjuster's episternal notch to the atlas transverse contact point when the adjuster is "rolled in" sum of all torques about their axes of motion is zero.

Orientation Planes of Bodily Motion:
The three planes of the body corresponding to the three dimensions of space. Each plane is perpendicular to each of the other planes.

Orthogonal Axis:
If two symmetrical planes intersect at right angles, the line in which they cut is called an axis of orthogonal symmetry. The central axis or origin of the coordinate system.

Optimum Line of Drive (N):
The measured and predetermined direction of an adjustic force applied to a given atlas subluxation complex as computed from x-rays and coplanar with the notch-transverse resultant, and consistent with the subluxation's reduction pathway.

Perpendicular:
Intersecting at or forming a right angle; a 90¼ angle.

Phases of the ASC Adjustment (N):
The setting up of the potential energy of the adjustment. The last phase of the adjustment (triceps pull) is the conversion of the potential energy of the adjustment to kinetic energy, overcoming the inertia of the adjuster's body.

Pivot:
The specific point on a shaft or rod about which angular rotation takes place.

Plane:
A surface containing all the straight lines connecting any two points on it. A flat or level surface. A flat surface determined by any two points in space.

Potential Energy (PE):
The energy of a body that is derived from its position, rather than motion, with respect to a specified datum in a field of force. The ability of a body to do work by virtue of its position.

Predominant Factor (N):
The single misalignment factor of the atlas subluxation complex that can be singled out to be responsible for the ipsilaterality or contralaterality of spastic contracture.

Pythagorean Theorem:
The theorem that the sum of the squares of the lengths of the sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the length of the hypotenuse.

Rate of Motion:
Speed. (V=distance divided by time)

Rectilinear Motion:
Motion occurring in a straight line; bounded or characterized by straight lines.

Reduction Pathway (N):
The single pathway through which a subluxated vertebra(e) must move as a result of the pre-calculated resultant of the force vectors determined from the x-ray films in restoring it to the vertical axis, or normal position.

Resistance:
Any force that tends to oppose motion.

Resultant:
A single force that produces the same result that all forces would if acting together.

Rotation:
Motion in which the path of every point in a moving object is a circle, or circular arc, centered on a specified axis.

Sagittal Plane:
An anteroposterior vertical plane passing through the body from front to back, dividing it in half.

Second Class Lever:
A lever in which the resistance point lies between the fulcrum and effort point. Example: wheelbarrow.

Skull Center of Gravity:
The weight center of the skull.

Spastic Contracture:
The cessation of the function of inhibitions which normally regulate muscle tone (Steindler, A.). Loss of inhibitory control over the extensor muscles, resulting in impairment of the antigravity function.

Subluxation (N):
A vertebra(e) that has lost its normal position, normal function, and its equilibrium sufficiently to modify nerve conduction.

Subluxation Patterns (N):
Configurations of the atlas subluxation complex, resulting from gravitational stress forces and severe rotations of C2.

Third Class Lever:
A lever in which the effort point lies between the fulcrum and the resistance point. Example: screen door (forced applied to door by spring)

Triceps Pull (N):
The conversion of the potential energy of the adjustment into kinetic energy by pulling the triceps muscles and activating the shoulder lever.

Vector:
Measurable quantities possessing magnitude and direction; force, weight, and velocity.

Verifiable Element (N):
A physical distortion of the spinal column or body that can be measured and correlated to the atlas subluxation complex.

Vertical Axis of the Body:
A vertical line formed by the intersection of the frontal and sagittal planes of the body, perpendicular to the ground. The pelvic girdle, head, and spine are normally positioned when they are aligned to the vertical axis.

Vertical:
At right angles to the horizon or to a base of support. Upright.

Vertical Plane:
A plane perpendicular to the horizon.

Weight:
The attraction between the earth's gravity and a mass.

Work:
Work is done only when a force succeeds in moving the body it is acting upon. The quantity of work done is the amount of force multiplied by the distance moved in the direction in which the force acts. (W=Fd)

REFERENCES

American Heritage Dictionary 1969. Physics Made Simple, Freeman, Ira M., Ph.D., Cadillac Publishing Co., New York, 1954.

Kinesiology of the Human Body, Steindler, Arthur, M.D. Chas. C. Thomas, 1977.

Kinesiology, Wells, A.F., Ph.D., 2nd Edition, W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1955.