Neck Pain: Causes, Symptoms, and Chiropractic Treatment

At one point or another, most people experience neck pain. Neck pain has many causes, a variety of symptoms, and is one of the most common reasons people will seek out chiropractic treatment. For some, neck pain may be a weekly source of irritation. For others, it can become constant, severe, and debilitating.

When neck pain starts to intrude into everyday activities, putting limitations on the things you enjoy doing, something has to change. Neck pain and chiropractic treatment go hand-in-hand. Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractors help by determining the root cause of the pain and work with you to reduce and eliminate it. The causes of neck pain can be numerous.

Pain is an indication that your body is struggling to meet the demands that are placed on it. Today, we are surrounded by constant stressors: tight work deadlines, busy kid schedules, financial speedbumps, and never-ending family drama. In times of stress, our bodies undergo physiological changes.

Muscles become tense, stress hormones are released, and we slip into unhealthy posture habits (next time you’re frustrated in traffic, notice what happens to your neck and shoulders). When we’re stressed, we compromise our posture. When we’re stressed often enough, or long enough, our bodies “forget” how to hold themselves in normal posture. Eventually, our body can’t take it anymore and sends out warning signals: pain.

The same thing happens when our body undergoes physical trauma (a car accident or a fall while skiing…). Our joints can become subtly misaligned. Suddenly, muscles, ligament, and connective structures are pushed out of whack. You might not notice pain immediately as your body processes what has happened to it.

Eventually, when your body registers that it is not able to move normally, or is stuck in certain positions, it will start to flare up with pain. Your brain interprets pain like an alarm. It means that there’s something going on that needs to be stopped or changed. You may experience neck or back pain that prevents you from turning side to side, or maybe you’ve had forearm pain that limits how much you can extend your elbow.

Pain impacts the body in many profound ways to try to limit actions/movements that might aggravate it. The symptoms of neck pain include:

• Stiffness
• Sharpness
• Tight muscles
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Radiating tingling
• Numbness or weakness of the arms

Blair upper cervical chiropractic takes a holistic approach to treating and reducing neck pain. The chiropractic treatment for neck pain includes an in-depth analysis of your spine, looking for misalignments or locked-up joints. A Blair chiropractor evaluates your posture and uses objective measures to determine how best to treat and manage these dysfunctional parts of the spine.

Neck pain after chiropractic treatment can decrease rapidly. Once your chiropractor has determined how your spine has become misaligned and adjusts accordingly, the pain is reduced. This means you walk away with fewer headaches and less stress and can spend more time doing the things your love. So what does an appointment with your chiropractor look like? Your chiropractor will take a specific series of x-rays and precisely measure joints of the spine to determine where individual vertebra have become misaligned.

The chiropractic treatment of neck pain includes gentle, non-invasive adjustments made by hand. Following the adjustment, you rest for a few minutes to allow your body to setting and relax in proper alignment. Alignment is key. When your spine is aligned, your body responds positively. Neck pain is not something anybody should have to live with. By seeking chiropractic care, you empower yourself and can live pain-free!