In the ideal world, one?s child would listen with respect and love to their parent?s advice. They would rush to follow their every recommendation and heap mounds of praise upon them for their great love and concern for the child?s well being.
In this world, let us understand what he has going on and see how you can relax your personal stress levels. Knowledge is a great reliever of tension and often brings an ability to access the true wisdom of God. I agree with sports doctor, your son very likely has occlusions of the vertebral arteries that run through the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae. Look at a good anatomy book to see them. The ideal is for his muscles to become stronger in flexion and extension and minimize lateral flexion and rotation. Of course these are the very motions he is undoubtedly doing to adjust his own neck. Adjustments (whether done by yourself or a DC) increase vata and contribute to chronic instability. Definitely do not do neck rolls, they are rarely beneficial and in his case could lead to fainting. Unless chiropractor is a teacher of others I would not recommend use of this method for your son. Much better would be a highly skilled cranial sacral practitioner or polarity therapist.
There are many other reasons to justify nasal breathing, such as back pain and actually most pain (including neck) is often accompanied by mouth breathing. By correcting breathing one major portion of the pain cycle is broken. Pain is a vata imbalance and nostril breathing in descending vertical wave on inhale and reverse on exhale (described in more detail in my book) is a simple solution if done consistently. For more details on nostril breathing and its benefits to top athlete’s performances see Body Mind and Sport by John Douillard, DC. I don’t know what your son will need to convince him but perhaps this book and its evidence may help.
