There was a piece of research publicised in Brain Injury in 2010, which proved that some people who had suffered a head neck trauma (whiplash type injury) developed a more obvious ‘Chiari’ (herniated hind-brain) upon upright posture.
For those that don’t know, here’s some terminology:
Cerebellum – is the hindbrain
Cerebellar Tonsils – are the lowest parts of the hindbrain
Foramen Magnum – the hole at the bottom of the skull
Cerebellar Tonsillar Ectopia – herniation of the hindbrain through the hole at the bottom of the skull
Chiari 1 – is where the level of the herniation (below the foramen magnum) is 5mm or more
Chiari 0 – a term sometimes used for where the herniation is less than 5mm below the foramen magnum
Low Lying Cerebellar Tonsils – is another way of saying Chiari 0.
So anyway, about this study, they looked at 1200 MRI’s of people who complained of neckache. Half had suffered whiplash type events, half hadn’t. What they discovered in the research was that, of those that had suffered whiplash, herniation was more commonly found and that the scans taken standing upright were a lot more likely to capture it. See the study below for actual figures:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20545453
Barbara
(UK)