Causes, Symptoms, and Chiropractic Treatment of Neck Pain

Your cervical spine, commonly referred to as your neck, is made up of seven vertebrae. Your "neck" begins at the base of your skull. The cervical spine is responsible for holding your head, which is no small feat considering your head weighs several pounds. But while your cervical spine possesses a great deal of flexibility, allowing movement in many directions, this very same flexibility renders it prone to injury and pain.

The reason for this vulnerability is attributed to the biomechanics of the cervical spine. Repetitive movements, injury, sitting for prolonged periods, or merely the natural process of aging and its attendant side-effects can affect your neck's health. Regardless of the reasons, cervical pain can present considerable discomfort.

Contributing Factors to Neck Pain
Accidents and Injury: Whiplash results from a sudden, abrupt movement of the neck or head that causes a rebound effect that may damage the tissues supporting the neck and head. The so-called "rebound" is a result of muscles reacting to strain by contracting themselves. This contraction results in muscle fatigue, stiffness, and pain. More severe cases of whiplash may be linked to intervertebral joint injury, or to damage to the discs, nerve roots, muscles, or ligaments. Whiplash is commonly associated with car accidents.

Aging: Disorders of a degenerative nature can take the form of spinal stenosis, osteoarthritis, and age-related disc ailments. They all have a direct influence on the spine.

Spinal stenosis narrows the nerve passageways in the vertebrae, making it contract and block nerve roots and thus, impair the nerves. In addition to neck pain, spinal stenosis can also affect the shoulder and arm, bringing numbness and pain to these areas.

Degenerative disc disease affects the height and elasticity of invertebral discs. Ultimately, a hernia or bulge may develop in a disc. This can cause numbness, tingling, and pain along the arm.

Osteoarthritis results in progressive degeneration of cartilage. The body's response is to create bone spurs, which in turn, affects the motion of the joints. Osteoarthritis is a common occurrence.

There are also daily habits that can aggravate the cervical spine. Obesity and poor posture, for example, alters spinal balance and forces the neck to compensate by leaning forward. Emotional strain and stress prompts muscle tightness and compression, causing stiffness and pain. The stress on the spine can result in permanent neck pain, which may also end up affecting the arms and upper back.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help
In order to determine the source of your pain, you must first locate its source. A chiropractic doctor performs exams and investigates your reported symptoms in an effort to locate the exact source of the pain. The chiropractor may ask questions regarding the amount of time you've had the discomfort, what remedies/tactics you've tried, whether other parts of your body are affected, and what, if anything, helps to alleviate the pain. Physical and neurological exams will also be conducted. The physical exam will disclose your range of motion, posture, and general physical shape while noting the kind of movements that bring pain. Your spine will be manually examined to determine its alignment and curvature, as well as establish whether there are muscle spasms. Your shoulder will also be looked at.

In the neurological exam, the emphasis will be on checking your muscle strength, reflexes, extent of pain and how far it has spread. There are cases where other tests might be needed in order to properly diagnose your condition. An X-ray, for example, helps reveal fractures, bone spurs, and a contracted disc space. An axial tomography scan, in the form of CAT or CT scan, or a magnetic resonance imaging test, known as a MRI, shows where a dilated disc may take place. In cases where nerve damage is likely the source of pain, an electromyography (EMG) might be recommended, as it can measure the responsiveness of your nerves.

Cervical Adjustments
Cervical manipulation entails, for the most part, manual adjustment of the neck joints. This type of neck adjustments effectively improves the mobility of the spine, restoring range of motion. In addition, it may also raise the amount of movement of the adjoining muscles. Patients receiving cervical adjustments report an increase in their ability to move their heads, as well as less soreness, stiffness, and overall pain.

Research findings support the use of chiropractic spinal manipulation for the treatment of patients with chronic neck pain. Comprehensive clinical trials reported significant improvement of chronic neck pain as a result of spinal manipulation. All the trial groups responded to treatment, showing improvement for weeks after treatment.

Your Personalized Chiropractic Care
Each patient receives an individualized program care that may include different types of treatment. Other recommended approaches might be the use of massage and rehabilitative exercises, and mobilization of the affected area. Contact your chiropractic doctor; it's an invaluable first step to figuring out how to care for your cervical spine.By Dr Raymond Hall

The Link Between Fibromyalgia and Celiac Disease

Do you have Fibromyalgia? Are you constantly sick and tired all the time? Have you been told to live with it and that there is no cure? Could you actually have Celiac Disease and it has been undiagnosed? Is there a possibility you could find a solution to all your health problems that is a simple as a change in diet?

Fibromyalgia is a complex pain syndrome, with a multitude of different symptoms and without a single known cause. There are many symptoms. Here are some of them:

• Increased sensitivity
• Stiffness on Awakening.
• Arthritis like pain, with or without joint involvement
• Fatigue
• Un-refreshed sleep (tired on awakening)
• Sleep Disturbances
• Muscular pain
• Tendon pain
• Hormonal effects
• Headaches and Migraines
• Brain Fog
• Depression
• Exercise Intolerance
• Low immunity/ frequent infections
• Stomach/ Bowel disturbances /Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
• TMJ/ jaw pain.

Many people tend to have Fibromyalgia as a co-existing condition along with another disease. The most common of these is Rheumatoid Arthritis, but it can also exist with Lupus, or Psoriasis. However is also possible for it to exist as a stand alone disease. There is however another possibility that has been overlooked and that is the incidence of Celiac Disease that is being misdiagnosed as Fibromyalgia.

Celiac Disease is an auto-immune disease that is, the body mistakenly attacks its own tissues seeing them as a foreign substance. When a person with Celiac Disease eats any food containing gluten (the protein found in Wheat, Rye, Oats and Barley), the body reacts to those proteins found in the gluten and attacks the small finger like projections in the small intestine called villi, thus preventing absorption of food. This leads to major digestive disorders, stomach ailments, fatigue, anemia, headaches, exhaustion, and pain and fatigue.

At least 1 in 100 people have Celiac Disease but it is often missed. It is not commonly something that is checked for when someone has all the fibromyalgia symptoms, but it is worth ruling out and investigating. It is diagnosed by a blood test and by a biopsy of the small intestine during a gastroscopy. The simple treatment of it is a completely Gluten free diet.

Most often people with Fibromyalgia have digestive disorder complaints, most commonly they are told that it is caused by Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The symptoms of this are alternating diarrhea and constipation, nausea, bloating and wind and constant fatigue. Well unsurprisingly this is also the exact symptoms of Celiac Disease! How many doctors have checked their Fibromyalgia patients for Celiac. I know I wasn't.

Since following a Gluten free diet all my symptoms of Fibromyalgia and IBS have disappeared! I am however not advocating that all Fibromyalgia is caused by Celiac Disease, but don't you think it's worth your health to rule it out.

After being sick and misdiagnosed for over 20 years, Yael finally found the cause of her constant pain, anemia, fatigue, fibromyalgia and digestive problems. When she was finally diagnosed with Celiac Disease everything changed. She was able to start her life again. There is not nearly enough awareness about this disease.By Yael Goodman

Chronic Head, Facial, Or Neck Pain That Won't Go Away - Could It Be TMJ?

I stumbled across TMJ when I needed treat a literal pain in the neck that would not go away. It seemed that the pain in my neck came from my jaws. "TMJ" refers to disorders of the jaw muscles and of the temporomandibular joint, the hinge at the side of the head that joins the lower jaw, mandible, to the temporal bone of the skull. TMJ expert John Taddey, D.D.S. states that one the most common symptoms of TMJ is a dull, aching pain around the ears which can radiate to the neck, shoulders, and back of the head. These symptoms may be coupled with tenderness of the jaw muscles and a headache.

While the causes of TMJ are many, the condition is usually the result of a collective malfunctioning of the chewing muscles, the teeth, and the temporomandibular joint. The face and jaw muscles may go into spasm or cramp and lead to tissue damage, pain and tenderness. The level of damage and pain varies.

Diaganosing TMJ can be elusive. Recognizing TMJ requires a thorough understanding of the two-inch area just in front of the ears that houses the temporomandibular joint, sinuses, glands, the middle and inner ears, throat tissues, brain tissue, muscles, ligaments, nerves blood vessels, lymphatic tissues, bones and teeth. TMJ can mask itself with a "referred pain". This occurs when pain felt in one area of the body originated from another source. For example, you may visit your doctor with an earache and find your ear is healthy, while a decayed tooth or TMJ is the root cause of the earache.

TMJ can arise form trauma, whiplash, stress, teeth-grinding and clenching, misaligned teeth, missing or sore teeth, muscle abuse, infection, diseases of the joints such as arthritis, and cancer.

Your family dentist should be able to recognize TMJ. Depending on your condition, she may treat the TMJ herself or refer you to a physician, orthodontist, chiropractor, psychologist or oral surgeon for more specialized treatment.

What Is Whiplash Syndrome?

Whiplash or Whiplash Syndrome is a term used to describe an event in which the cervical spine (your neck) has undergone a rapid acceleration/deceleration which causes damage to the various tissues of the cervical spine. As in a car accident, the forces involved often include an abrupt stop or change in direction. Our head has no support above it and therefore acts as a weighted pendulum, allowing for ranges of motion in our neck to exceed their normal limit.

Unfortunately, the term "whiplash" does not describe the degree or severity of the injuries sustained which may include anything from a minor strain to even death. For this reason, emergency room follow up after involvement in a car accident is the first step to rule out potentially life threatening injuries. Even at low impact speeds, there is a potential for serious injury or death and may even be accompanied by no symptoms at all.

Various structures in our neck (cervical spine) have the potential for injury in this type of accident. Strained muscles and sprained joints and ligaments are very common injuries in motor vehicle accidents. Injury to the spinal cord and/or nerve root(s) are also common features in a whiplash syndrome.

Common symptoms of whiplash may include:

• neck pain,
• neck stiffness,
• neck tightness,
• loss of range of motion,
• neck to upper shoulder soreness.

Common accompanying symptoms of whiplash may include:

• arm pain,
• numbness and/or tingling into the arm/hand/finger(s),
• headache,
• dizziness,
• fatigue.

Common signs of whiplash include:

• tenderness along the muscles of the cervical spine,
• muscle spasm (your body's natural defense response to help "guard" the injury),
• loss of range of motion,
• forward head posture,
• elevated shoulder positioning (of one or both shoulders),
• head tilted or rotated.

Once the risk of life threatening injury is ruled out for whiplash, the next step is to rule out fracture, instability and/or neurologic involvement (injury to nerves, nerve roots, discs, spinal cord). Along with orthopedic and neurologic tests, chiropractors often use x-ray, CT scan or MRI to rule out these possibilities.

By John Herner, D.C