Jim McMahon: Football & Chiropractic

Unfortunately, we hear quite often of former professional football players who are suffering memory loss and other health issues related to concussions they suffered during their playing days. Just one of the players we’ve heard about is former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon.McMahon said he was resigned to lifetime of pain and memory loss before he started to receive chiropractic treatments. The former quarterback has said he would stay in his bedroom for weeks at a time to deal with the pain, and when he would leave his house to run an errand, he would often forget where he was going before he even got there. After two New Jersey brothers read about McMahon’s debilitation in Sports Illustrated they reached out to him to talk to him about a new type of MRI they’d created. Instead of lying down to have the MRI, patients are allowed to sit up.The MRI found that McMahon’s top two vertebrae were misaligned, which caused a blockage of his cerebral spinal fluid. When cerebral spinal fluid gets backed up, people can get symptoms of pressure, numbness and loss of vision. One of the brothers, a physician, told McMahon that this type of thing can happen from his head hitting the playing field. McMahon said that had happened quite a bit in his playing career, but he was always given pain killers by team doctors and couldn’t tell that something was wrong.An adjustment to his upper cervical spine cleared the blockage, and McMahon has said he felt instant relief. McMahon has said he receives regular chiropractic adjustments to help him avoid the headaches caused by the injuries he suffered during his time with the Bears.Unfortunately, mainstream physicians tend to overlook the fact that neck issues can be the cause of headaches and can also help chronic headaches that may be caused by other issues. Jim McMahon is now a walking example of how an adjustment of his cervical spine helped him kick the painkillers he had come to rely on.