Treating Neck Pain
Most people can expect to experience some neck pain in their lifetimes and most of those with neck pain do not experience a complete resolution of symptoms. In fact, 50% - 85% of initial neck pain sufferers will report it again 1 to 5 years later, which makes neck pain one of the leading economic burdens of our society's health problems!

While there may be countless causes for the pain that we get in and about the neck, there is also an abundance of research and studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of improving mobility and reducing pain through chiropractic care.

Treating neck conditons is a serious matter and we want you to feel confident with our care. We treat many patients with neck pain, or disc injury with symptoms into the arms or hands, and even patients with cervical fusions.

Don't be one of the statistics above - get help now!!

Effective Treatment for Neck Pain

Neck pain is definitely one of the more pervasive physical pain problems in the human race. In fact most people can expect to experience some neck pain in their lifetimes, although for most it won’t be seriously debilitating. Nevertheless, the prevalence of neck pain in our society is serious and affects up to 70% of the population each year and as much as 48% in work related cases. The good news is that chiropractic is determined to be a safe, effective and appropriate treatment approach for most patients, even with disabling neck pain.

This information comes from the most comprehensive study ever done to investigate this common and costly cause of pain and disability. In February of 2008 The Journal Spine published a comprehensive 220 page report; The Bone and Joint Decade 2000 – 2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and its Associated Disorders. For a summary and background of the study itself go [here] to the Research page on Joint & Spine. Very briefly the results of the study are quite remarkable and very positive for the chiropractic profession. It involved seven years work from more than 50 researchers from 9 countries and 19 different clinical and scientific disciplines. Nearly 32,000 research studies were reviewed and several additional studies were preformed in several countries to culminate the extensive findings.

The reason I refer to this study repeatedly is that the findings speak volumes for what I always emphasize to patients whether they have neck pain, back pain or most any joint pain. Also, this is a very current study and again, very comprehensive in the synthesis of a vast body of information on the subject.

As mentioned most everyone can expect to experience neck pain at some point in their lifetime. Furthermore most people with neck pain do not experience a complete resolution of symptoms. Between 50% and 85% of those who experience neck pain at some initial point will report neck pain again 1 to 5 years later.

Among the many different clinical providers or methods of treatment, no one treatment approach was determined to be markedly superior to others or works best for everyone. However of the myriad of different treatment approaches that exist, the final conclusion regarding treatment choices is that the method that provides the most consistent, effective relief with the best long term results is manipulation and mobilization of joints. The reason why thousands of studies, several years of research and 50 researches from around the world have come to this conclusion is not because chiropractic is a fad. It is founded in scientific evidence and validated with clinical results.

When joints become dysfunctional because of injury or other means of stress or tension, the disruption of proper joint movement and alignment that results, sets in motion a number of detrimental changes to the health of the tissues and especially the function of the nerves. All joints in the body must move – it’s imperative, not just convenient. When a person develops a stiff neck, they may assume it’s a temporary thing and a nuisance. But remember, as much as 85% of people with neck symptoms experience them again within a few short years. Changes are taking place in the tissues that make up the joints when they lose their function which, although it may seem like it goes away in some instances, ultimately catches up as degeneration (arthritis) and nervous system problems such as pain, muscle imbalance, loss of strength or coordination and even dizziness.

To be a little more specific, a person may sleep in a poor position like on the couch, or strain their neck in some athletic incident or be involved in a whiplash-type accident. The result may be anything from a tense or locked-up joint with muscle spasms to an injury involving torn ligaments and injured cartilage. The loss of joint function that may ensue, results in abnormal signals to the nervous system. There are an abundance of nerve receptors in the joint tissues whose only job is to constantly inform the brain about the movement and position of the joint. The muscles related to that joint subsequently become tense or even underactive because of the improper nerve signaling. The resulting muscle imbalance places further stress on the joint which aggravates the joint dysfunction that already exists.

A second detrimental effect of decreased joint movement is degeneration. Degenerative joint disease, otherwise known as osteoarthritis, comes about from the lack of circulation of joint fluids and oxygen into the tissues of joints. Ligaments, cartilage and vertebral discs of the spine do not get their own blood supply and therefore depend on the pumping action of joint movement for their circulation. Untreated or inappropriately treated injuries are often the source of the eventual arthritic tendencies that develop as we age.

Understanding the anatomy of the spine and joint tissues, the anatomy of the nervous system and even related brain function as well as means of treatment and rehabilitation is the foundation of chiropractic. When it comes to non-surgical, musculoskeletal conditions there is a great amount of success of treatment outcomes, as discovered from the Task Force Study above, because of the results of restoring the very joint dysfunction that causes much of the pain and associated symptoms. Conventional medical wisdom overlooks the complexity of what is involved in joint dysfunction and how that ultimately affects the symptoms of muscle tension and pain.

Whether you have general neck pain or difficult, painful range of movement or are suffering from symptoms that have come about from old injuries, I have been successfully treating neck conditions for years. Of all aspects of chiropractic treatment, care of one’s neck receives the most concern. Therefore, most importantly, I will carefully discuss any concerns you have and what kind of treatment options we have to provide you the most effective and quickest relief.