Neck Pain
There’s no need to suffer with “a pain in the neck”. Neck pain can make even the simplest of movements involving the neck, head, arms, shoulders and back excruciatingly difficult. Neck pain can often lead to radicular symptoms involving the arms and hands, or headaches and shoulder discomfort. Decreased range of motion in the neck joints or immobility caused by neck pain can cause your muscles to weaken and over time, lead to degenerative joint disease or arthritis.
Causes of Neck Pain
The joints, muscles and ligaments that comprise your neck or cervical region have the important job of holding your head up. The small size of the vertebrae of the neck allows for a lot of mobility, but can also make the neck more vulnerable to injury and pain. Some of the causes of neck pain include:
- Trauma
- Sleeping positions
- Poor Posture
- Repetitive stresses or activities
- Abnormalities in the bone structure
- Muscle or Joint strains
- Pregnancy
- Scoliosis
All of these causes impact the alignment of the spine. When muscles in the neck go into spasm, the spine gets pulled out of alignment. When the spine is misaligned, the nerves become irritated causing inflammation to occur and eventually leads to a symptom. The nerve roots the exit between the cervical bones can impact a variety of systems in our body and lead to poor health.
If a patient waits long enough, sometimes the pain will simply go away. But in many cases the misalignment that caused the problem is usually still there and eventually will cause stress and pain to occur again at some point. If the source of the problem is not corrected it can become much more serious. Some patients let things go to the point where surgery may be the only option.
Understanding the source of your neck pain is a necessary step towards the diagnosis and treatment that will offer you relief both short and long term recovery.
Subluxations
Chiropractors are trained to detect and diagnose Subluxation. When there is a disruption in the normal movement or position of the vertebrae, the result is diminished nerve flow and inflammation. This inflammation leads to pain or a decrease in optimal function. Subluxations can lead to debilitating neck pain or radicular type symptoms. Fortunately, subluxations are easily treatable and often times a significant reduction in pain is experienced almost immediately after treatment.
Conventional vs. Holistic Treatments
People often try to deal with their neck pain using over the counter or prescription medication. Other times people seek out other options such as injections to give them pain relief. This may or may not help to relieve the symptoms in the short term, but not only do medications cause side effects, but using cortisone or pain medication only masks the underlying cause of the pain and inflammation. Some people choose physical therapy for pain relief. If there are structural misalignments, strengthening muscles and ligaments without the spinal joints being in proper alignment could lead to long term effects. Other patients choose massage therapy for relief and although this can help to relieve some muscle tightness, it doesn’t address the underlying cause of the issue is in the bones or joints.
Chiropractic treatment is a holistic practice that addresses the structural causes that lead to the majority of neck pain. Following a thorough chiropractic assessment to find the exact source of the problem, a personalized corrective plan is developed. Gentle adjustments to the spine can bring instant relief and restore long term health to the neck and the entire body. Call our team at Freshour Chiropractic to set up your initial consultation appointment today.