By: Dr. Emil Tompkins, A Tucson Chiropractor with a passion for health and wellness.
Where do you turn when your neck hurts?
Neck pain happens for a number of reasons. For me it was an attempt to place a small mattress onto a shelf hanging from a ceiling in our garage. As I was placing the mattress onto the shelf, I was realizing that I didn’t have ehough leverage to raise the mattress so I placed my head underneath the mattress (dumb idea), re-positioned my hands, lifted the mattress and POP!! I heard the most horrific sound coming from my neck and I knew it wasn’t good. I visited my Chiropractor and in a few adjustments, I was back to life as usual. I realized quickly that my neck wasn’t designed for weightlifting.
All of our stories are different, but the things that are the same is that when you have neck pain, it can be debilitating. It can lead to headaches and migraines. It can prevent us from sleeping well and it can really ruin our lives if we don’t prevent it and come up with a solution right away.
If we’re going to get on top of the neck pain, the first thing we want to understand is what is causing our pain. I’ll go over a few reasons we get pain in our neck:
- Whiplash: Whiplash is caused by a sudden distortion of the neck, usualy from a fall or automobile accident. The sudden forces, shift the spine out of position then stretched the ligaments and muscles in the area.
- Strain: when the muscles deform due to increased stress on those muscles. People with jobs that require a forward head position or constant movement or rotation of the neck can see more strains.
- Arthritis: The joints of the spine can, over time wear down and that breaking down of the joint is osteoartiritis. This is a progressive degenerative process that if left uncorrected will cause continued problems throughout life.
- Subluxations: When the spine shifts out of position, it begins to put pressure on the nerves that travel out of the neck. This pressure is something that will affect nerve function. When the nerves aren’t functioning properly, then we will have increased pain, or simply decreased function in that area of the body. Sometimes subluxations don’t cause pain but they will always affect how your body works.
If you’re experiencing neck pain, one of your goals would be to understand the cause of that pain. Your family chiropractor will make sure that he or she is completely understanding the cause of your problem. Then taking the proper steps to correct it will be necessary.
In our office, we work to provide corrective care without drugs or surgery in any way.
- First, if there is any problem with the spine shifting out of postion, we will make gentle adjustments to correct the positioning of the spine. But it can’t stop there. Correcting the spinal position is incredibly valuable, however if we don’t stabilize those structures, your problem will return.
- Along with your adjustments, you would need some very specific exercises to train those muscles to hold the spine more stable.
- Then, specific corrective traction is applied to help mold the ligaments of the spine into a more normal position, allowing the spine to maintain a more normal curvature.
When you put these multiple pieces together, you will notice decreased neck pain and an improved well being. Those adjustments do more than help pain. As you allow your nervous system to function more properly, then you will notice a multitude of health.
As a Chiropractor, I’m thankful to know that we can help others with thier neck pain. As a person who dealt with neck pain, I’m very thankful for my Chiropractor for helping me to be as healthy as I can be. Our weekly visit is one of the highlights of my week.
If you want to be free of your neck pain, make chiropractic care a part of your health care team. We have cared for thousands of paople in southern Arizona. We know neck pain. We can relieve neck pain. Call us at 520-572-2596 for an evaluation. Your body will thank you for it.
Dr. Emil Tompkins.
