Is Chiropractic Care Effective for Neck and Back Pain?
Injuries, bad posture, chiropractic subluxations, stress, and, in certain cases, disc issues are the most common causes of neck and upper back discomfort.
Most individuals are unaware of how frequently they move their neck daily until they are not able to do so. The high degree of flexibility of the neck, along with the fact that it has the least amount of muscle stabilization and must support and move a 12 to 16-pound head, makes the neck extremely prone to injury. Your neck and head can be compared to a bowling ball held on top of a stick by little, thin elastic bands. It does not require much force to upset that delicate equilibrium.
The spinal cord travels through a hole in the vertebrae to transmit nerve impulses to all body parts. Between every pair of cervical vertebrae, the spinal cord distributes vast nerve bundles down the arms and, to a lesser extent, the upper back. This means that if have pain in your arm, the problem may actually be in your neck! Arm symptoms include numbness, tingling, coldness, pain, and pins and needles sensation."
Problems in the neck may also lead to headaches, muscle spasms in the upper back and shoulders, ringing in the ears, otitis media (middle ear inflammation, commonly misdiagnosed as an ear infection in children), temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), restricted range of motion, and chronic tightness in the neck and upper back.
We link the neck and upper back because most muscles associated with the neck attach to or are positioned in the upper back.
Common Causes of Neck and Back Pain
Injuries, chiropractic subluxations, stress, bad posture, and, in certain cases, disc issues are the most common causes of neck and upper back discomfort.
Injuries
The most frequent neck injury is a whiplash injury. Whiplash is produced by an abrupt backward, forward, or sideways movement of the head, which damages the muscles, ligaments, and other connective tissues of the neck and upper back. Whether they result from a car accident, a sports injury, or a workplace accident, whiplash injuries must be addressed very carefully. Since symptoms of a whiplash injury might take weeks or months to appear, it is tempting to believe that you are not as injured as you actually are. Too frequently, individuals do not seek treatment after a vehicle accident or sports injury because they do not feel injured. Unfortunately, by the time more significant difficulties arise, some of the injury's effects may have become irreversible. Numerous studies have demonstrated that years after whiplash patients pay their insurance claims, nearly half of them still experience symptoms of their injury. If you have been in a car accident or any other type of accident, do not assume that you are not injured simply because you are not experiencing pain. Consult with a competent chiropractor.
