Chiropractic and Neck Pain: Plymouth MA

Chiropractic and Neck Pain: Conservative Care of Cervical Pain & Injury
by: Doctor Josh Koenig

The cervical spine, also known as your neck, supports your head, which on average weighs about 12 pounds. The neck starts at the base of your skull and consists of seven small vertebrae. It can move your head in almost any direction; however this flexibility makes your neck very sensitive to injury and pain.

The neck is widely exposed to various types of pain, caused by poor posture, extended sitting, falls, accidents, blows to your head and body, aging and everyday activity. And neck pain can often be quite annoying.

There three main causes of neck pain:

1. Injury and Accidents
2. Age
3. Daily activities

1. You can injure your neck quite easily: a sudden movement or a careless stretch in the wrong direction—and you end up with whiplash. Whiplash causes your neck muscles to tighten and contract, that leads to muscle fatigue and, consequently, results in severe pain and stiffness. Severe whiplash can cause injuries to the ligaments, muscles, intervertebral joints, nerve roots and discs. Among the most widespread whiplash causes are, undoubtedly, car accidents.

2. As your body ages, it undergoes certain degenerative changes, such as spinal stenosis, osteoarthritis, and disc disease that affect your spine.

• Spinal stenosis narrows the small nerve passageways that are located in the vertebrae. This leads to the compression and trapping of nerve roots. Spinal stenosis can cause pain and numbness not only in neck, but also in shoulders and arms.
• Osteoarthritis is a common degenerative disorder of progressive cartilage deterioration with older people. As cartilage wears thin, your body naturally produces bone spurs that prevent your joints from full range movements.
• Degenerative disc disease may cause inflexibility and limitations in the height and elasticity of intervertebral discs. If nothing is donein the long-term, a disc can herniate or bulge resulting in numbness, tingling and pain that radiates into the arm.

3. Your daily lifestyle and routine can greatly contribute to neck pain as well. Poor posture, abdominal muscle weakness, and obesity often leads to spinal imbalance. To compensate, your neck leans forward in an unnatural posture. Any stress or emotional shake-up causes your neck muscles to tighten and contract. All these result in frequent neck pain and stiffness.

Chiropractic Care of Neck Pain

If you have neck pain and/or stiffness, a chiropractor can be the best solution for you. You will be asked questions about your current condition, common symptoms and medication you might have tried already.

The most frequently asked questions can be the following:

• When and how did the pain start?
• Where is the pain centered and if it travels to other parts of the body?
• What have you done to overcome the pain?
• Is there anything that helps you to reduce the pain or is there anything that worsens it?

Your first visit to the chiropractor may start with physical and neurological exams that may include, but not limited to the observation of your posture, movements that cause pain, range of motion and physical condition. During the neurological exam your reflexes, nerve changes and muscle strength may be tested.

Sometimes, you may undergo several tests to help determine your current condition. The possible tests are X-ray, a computerized axial tomography scan (CT/CAT Scan), a magnetic resonance imaging test (an MRI) or electromyography (an EMG).

Chiropractors belong to conservative care doctors who don’t use drugs or invasive procedures, like surgery. If your condition exceeds the conservative approach limits, you will be referred to the appropriate specialist or physician. Often chiropractors contact your family doctor to ensure that the chiropractic care you are getting is properly coordinated.

Neck Adjustments

A cervical manipulation, or simply speaking, a neck adjustment, is a special chiropractic procedure applied to the neck joints, usually made by hand. This procedure improves the mobility of your spine and restores its range of motion. Additionally, it can increase the flexibility and movement of the adjoining muscles. You may notice an improvement in the ability to tilt and turn your head, and reduction in neck stiffness, soreness and pain.

Your chiropractic doctor will likely to develop a special program that will include other types of treatment depending on your current physical condition and personal needs.

Research Supporting Chiropractic Care

Recent research reports significant improvement in patients with chronic neck pain who were enrolled in chiropractic spinal manipulation. The article published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics found “high-quality evidence” that patients with chronic neck pain showed significant pain-level reduction after a course of spinal manipulation. Even after 12 weeks of post-treatment all groups enrolled into the experiment showed positive changes.