By the time most patients find Dr. Jonathan Chung, they arrive with a folder. Imaging that came back clean. A specialist who said the scans looked normal. Someone who suggested the dizziness might be stress, or that the headaches were something to manage rather than something to look into further. They have been handed a diagnosis of exclusion and sent home with it.
Those are the patients who fill his schedule in Royal Palm Beach, people whose symptoms are real, measurable, and repeatedly missed. And this month, the profession recognized the work he has built around them.
Dr. Jonathan Chung, DC, DACNB, who leads Atlinea Wellington, has been named the 2026 Upper Cervical Chiropractor of the Year by the ICA Council on Upper Cervical Care.
What This Award Recognizes
The Council on Upper Cervical Care is one of the International Chiropractors Association’s post-graduate councils, a professional forum built to advance expertise in the analysis and care of the upper cervical spine. That is the occiput, C1, and C2: the few centimeters where the skull meets the neck, where the brainstem transitions into the spinal cord, and where the vertebral arteries pass on their way to the base of the brain.
The award itself is straightforward about what it is for. The plaque reads: “Given in recognition of services and contributions which have made a significant impact in upper cervical chiropractic.”
It is an honor conferred by the specialty’s own council, the clinicians and researchers who work in this narrow field and who are positioned to judge whether someone’s contributions to it were substantive.
A Clinician Working Between Two Specialties
Most doctors who treat the upper neck take a structural approach. Most doctors who treat the brain approach it functionally. Dr. Chung was trained to do both, and that overlap is where many of his patients’ answers come from.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and molecular biology from the University of Central Florida and earned his Doctor of Chiropractic at Life University. He is a board-certified chiropractic neurologist, a Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Neurology Board, which describes itself as the sole specialty board in neurology recognized by the American Chiropractic Association. He is also a Fellow in the American Board of Brain Injury and Rehabilitation, and serves as an Assistant Professor of Functional Neurology at the Carrick Institute, teaching the same neurological assessment methods he uses in the treatment room.
That combination shapes what he is able to find. A patient with lingering symptoms two years after a car accident. A patient whose heart rate spikes every time she stands up. A patient with vertigo that has outlasted three rounds of vestibular therapy. These presentations sit in the gap between structural care and neurology, which is part of why they get missed and part of why he built a practice positioned to address both.
His clinical focus includes:
- Post-concussion syndrome and traumatic brain injury
- Vestibular disorders, vertigo, and persistent dizziness
- Dysautonomia, including POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome)
- Migraine and chronic headache disorders
Clinical Work That Gets Written Down
One reason Dr. Chung’s name carries weight among his peers is his publishing record. He is the sole author of a case series in the Journal of Upper Cervical Chiropractic Research documenting improvement in post-concussion syndrome in two patients following low-force upper cervical care, paired with a review of the existing literature. He is also a co-author of a 2024 integrative review in Cureus examining how chiropractic care may influence the neuroendocrine-immune system.
He also teaches and speaks in the specialty, appearing on the program for the ICA’s 2024 Upper Cervical Forum. And he writes constantly for patients, more than 140 articles covering concussion recovery, POTS, Meniere’s disease, and why an MRI that reads “normal” does not always mean nothing is wrong.
Case reports and reviews are not clinical trials, and Dr. Chung is careful about that distinction himself. But documenting findings, submitting them for review, and teaching them to the next group of doctors is what separates a clinician who gets results from one who advances the field.
What This Means If You Are the Patient
Recognition is only useful to you if it changes the care you receive. Here is where it does.
Dr. Chung practices within the Atlinea network, which is built on a collaborative physician model, with no single-doctor locations, and patients served by a team of clinicians working the case together rather than one provider working alone. Care begins with a structural picture of your own anatomy: proprietary 3D spinal modeling software developed by Dr. Justin Brown, cone beam CT imaging, and functional neurological assessment. Not a flat X-ray and a general impression, but a detailed map of what is actually happening in your neck before anyone recommends a correction.
If you have been told your imaging looks fine while your symptoms continue, that does not mean you are out of options. It may mean the evaluation has not yet been precise enough to explain what you are experiencing.
Book a Consultation With Atlinea Wellington
If persistent dizziness, headaches, concussion symptoms, or other neurological concerns have continued despite normal imaging or previous treatment, a more detailed upper cervical and neurological evaluation may help clarify what is happening.
Book Your New Patient Consultation | Call (561) 366-2748
Atlinea Wellington
420 FL-7, Suite #170
Royal Palm Beach, FL 33414
Sources
Jon Chung Awarded Upper Cervical Chiropractor of the Year— industry write-up confirming the award- Dr. Justin Brown’s post about the award— Dr. Brown’s own post on the recognition
- ICA Council on Upper Cervical Care— background on the ICA Council and Upper Cervical Forum
