Neck Pain
Do You Have Symptoms of a Neck Condition?
Pain
Stiffness
Headache
Burning
Loss of Range of Motion
Neck Pain Causes and Treatment for Lasting Neck Pain Relief
Your neck, also called the cervical spine, begins at the base of the skull and contains seven small vertebrae. Incredibly, the cervical spine supports the full weight of your head, which is on average about 12 pounds. While the cervical spine can move your head in nearly every direction, this flexibility makes the neck very susceptible to pain and injury.
The neck’s susceptibility to injury is due in part to biomechanics. Activities and events that affect cervical biomechanics include extended sitting, repetitive movement, accidents, falls and blows to the body or head, normal aging, and everyday wear and tear.
Causes of Neck Pain
Muscle Stiffness and Stress
A stiff and achy neck results from poor posture, static posture, muscle tightness and stress. This is what typically occurs when working at a computer for long periods of time, Vertebrae in your neck get pulled out of place by tightened muscles and create misalignments, or what is often called subluxations. These subluxations of the neck left untreated develop into tension headaches and possibly degeneration of the joints.
Accidents and Injuries
Sports injuries and whiplash from even a minor car accident are common causes of neck pain we see in our office. Often left untreated for many years, scar tissue and disc disorders are very common in patients with neck pain. The ligaments that hold your head up can be stretched or torn causing your head to feel “loose” and generate pain. If not treated quickly, considerable problems will occur in the way your neck works and feels, including the formation of scar tissue and disc problems.
Degenerative Disc Disease
Degenerative disc disease occurs in response to long-term joint problems. Over time, the compression of the disc causes them to lose their elasticity and risk developing bone spurs, herniated disk or ruptured disk. Degenerative disc disease can cause significant irritation to tender nerves causing neck, arm, and head pain. Left untreated, this condition gradually causes more stress to the nerves with increasing dysfunction. If left too long, it may become irreversible.
Neck Pain Relief with Non-Drug, Non-Surgical Therapy
The goal of chiropractic treatment is to correct the source of your problem so you get both pain relief AND lasting elimination of the problem. Injections and painkillers are designed to hide your pain, not fix your problem. The majority of surgical procedures are similar. They target the point of pain, and not the cause of the problem. Surgeons attempt to take pressure off a particular nerve by cutting away sections of bone, bracing, or using spacers, but fail to address the origin of the problem. In doing so, the problem remains, and new problems are created in the surrounding vertebrae and nerves. This is why most people who undergo spinal surgery end up with multiple on-going surgeries.
Dr. Winchell is specifically trained in finding and correcting the cause of neck and back pain. His treatment method is the natural, safe, gentle approach to healing the cause of neck pain and neck disorders like disc degeneration.
There are many chiropractic techniques, but Dr. Winchell only uses the treatments proven most effective by research to safely and quickly restore your health.
