Neck pain in Overland Park is a common, but not normal condition that affects around 10% of the population at any given time.  Symptoms can range from an annoyance to painful, all the way to a life altering condition.  Knowing what is causing this is crucial for anyone with neck pain that wants to eliminate the source of pain naturally and not continue to suffer or rely on medications with side effects and risks of their own.

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Neck anatomy

If you’re suffering from chronic pain, True Health explains how it’s very beneficial to understand more about your body and how it is supposed to work so you can make an informed decision on how to fix it.  To start, in the neck you have 7 cervical vertebra, or neck bones.  These bones should be in a nice curve of approximately 40 degrees.  This curve allows for the smooth transition of forces through the spine.  This curve also allows your spinal cord to sit slack in the neck, without tension.  The head should be positioned over the shoulders and all the discs between your neck bones should be nice and fat.    When all of this is in place, the muscles will have an appropriate amount of tension on them, the discs will be taking equal weight, the spinal cord and nerves of the neck will be slack and not under tension.  When this occurs neck pain is very rare unless it’s coming from some disease process.  This normal anatomy is crucial for overall health.  We know the brain runs the body and nearly all signals to and from the brain must pass through the spinal cord in the neck.  We want this part of the body to be functioning optimally, not only so that we don’t have pain, but so that our nervous system, thus our body works optimally.

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Overland Park Chiropractor Explains Causes of Neck Pain

If you are suffering chronic neck pain in Overland Park something has gone wrong with the above description of what is normal and the nerves of your neck aren’t happy.  The most common contributor to neck pain is trauma.  Trauma can be both big and small.  Big trauma are things such as car accidents, falls and sporting accidents.  All of these apply large forces to the body and can disrupt the normal alignment of the bones, muscles, discs and nerves of the neck.   Sometimes patients can pinpoint a specific event such as a car accident that was the beginning of their chronic pain.  Now, a very important point here is that sometimes we suffer these injuries and don’t have ongoing pain after an injury but our normal anatomy and function has been disrupted.  For example after a fall we may disrupt the normal motion of some of the joints of the neck or after a car accident we have pain for a few weeks, then it resolves.  However, despite the pain resolving, there is a residual decreased motion and increased inflammation that we might not even perceive.  Our necks are now subluxated (loss of normal position or motion of our vertebrae) and we don’t even know it.  In addition to this, everyone experiences micro trauma.  This is small, daily, repetitive trauma the builds up over time.  Things like, texting, sitting at a computer with your head too far forward, etc that puts abnormal stress on your muscles, joints and discs of your neck.  This too contributes to subluxation of the neck.  Over time, these large and small traumas stack up, proper motion is impacted, muscles begin to tighten and nerves become irritated.  This can be a gradual process that leads to ongoing, chronic neck pain.  Typically is process begins in childhood with all the falls we take and accumulates over a life time.  This is why we are passionate about getting the spines of children checked to ensure proper spinal health.

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What you can do

Here are a few simple things you can do to prevent and reduce neck pain.  First, check your workspace.  Is your monitor set up at eye level?  Make sure the top of your monitor is level with your eyes.  If it’s not and you are constantly gazing down, this can contribute to neck pain and tension.  Second, take posture breaks.  Stand up every 15-30 minutes, reach up in the air, look up, pinch your shoulder blades together, open your hands and squeeze your upper back and butt muscles.  This activates your extensors muscles or the muscles that hold you upright.  Third, when you’re driving in your car and you come to a red light or a stop sign gently press the back of your head into your car seat.  Count to to five and do it three times.  This is working your muscles in an isometric contraction, the same way in which these muscles work to hold  your head upright.   These three tips can go a long way in preventing abnormal alignment of the neck and will work against the chronic stress of tech neck and sitting.

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What we do

When we are treating patients with neck pain at True Health, one of the things we want to evaluate is the alignment of the neck vertebrae.  We do that through a series of tests, one of which is an x ray.  When you look at the neck from the side you should see a nice curve to the neck.  If that curve is diminish, absent or even reversed, you must work to undo as much of that damage as possible in order to reduce the patients pain, improve their spinal health going forward and for the health of their nervous system.   Remember, nearly all the signals to and from the brain must pass through the spinal cord in the neck.   You don’t want tension, stress or inflammation in this area.  A good cervical curve is essential for optimal spinal health and nervous system health.

One way we improve the alignment and curve of the neck is with chiropractic adjustments.  At True Health most of our adjustments are done with hand held instruments called activators or arthro-stims.  These are very gentle, yet incredibly effective tools we use to guide the bones back toward optimal positioning as well as to stimulate the nerves of the neck that are not working properly.  Some patients can be apprehensive about having their neck adjusted, but when using these instruments, it is surprisingly gentle and effective.   It is amazing to our patients, how a small force applied to the correct area of the body in the correct direction can be so healing.  You must be well trained and experienced to use these instruments effectively.   Just as a specific force in the right area can be beneficial, so too can a force in the wrong direction be problematic.  Please don’t rely on “popping your own neck” as a alternative to these specific adjustments.  We’ve never seen this to be a good solution to long term neck pain.

Adjustments help realign the bones of the neck and remove interference to the delicate spinal nerves but if there is loss of the entire curve of the neck, often more is needed than adjustments for the best outcomes.  At True Health we practice a form of chiropractic care known as Pettibon spinal care.  One aspect of this care is using weights applied to the body in specific areas to retrain postural muscles.   If a patient has a tilted head, rounded shoulders or other postural issues, these weights are applied to the body, in the office, after an adjustment to retrain postural muscles.  This is very different from the type of weight training done at a gym, as the weighting system is a  form of rehab to retrain the postural muscles, which are involuntarily controlled.    This is a vital part of correcting the spine and a crucialpart of why we get such good results with neck pain at our office.

Another popular treatment we do at True Health in Overland Park is dry needling/acupuncture.  This technique involves using acupuncture needles around tight muscles and inflamed joints and acupuncture points.  This treatment helps tight muscles and overactive nerves relax as well as stimulate blood flow to injured areas.  Again, patients can be a bit apprehensive when you start talking about needles but these treatments are generally very well tolerated and usually do not hurt.  Occasionally patients say this therapy stings a bit, but it’s over quickly and the pain relief that can result is more than worth it.

By properly diagnosing the cause of neck pain and then applying common sense therapies to help the body return to its natural state, much neck pain can be greatly reduced or eliminated.  At True Health we are passionate about helping the members of our community live healthier, happier lives.  We are passionate about teaching our patients and members of our community the role the spine and nervous system plays in optimal health.  We feel spinal health is a vastly overlooked portion of health care.  The spine is the suit of armor that protects the delicate, all important nerves that run our entire body.  While the whole spine is important and it is one functional unit, the neck is the most crucial parts of the spine.  If you are suffering from neck pain and or other neurologic issues you feel could be connected to problems in your neck, I hope you found this article helpful.  Please reach out to our team at True Health in Overland Park if you need further guidance or help.