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Neck pain is gaining ground on back pain as one of the most common and debilitating conditions plaguing people worldwide. Out of every 10 people, 1 suffers from neck pain. Out of every 20 people, 1 describes the pain as severe.
Finding out what exactly is causing neck pain can leave both patients and doctors frustrated. This is due to the complexity of this area of the body. The muscles, bones, and skull work in conjunction with one another caring for arteries, veins, and nerves located nearby. The weight of the head comes into play also. The head can weigh up to 12 pounds and is supported entirely by the neck. This takes immense coordination and balance. Therefore, if something – even if it’s very small – happens to throw this process off, neck pain, as well as a number of other health problems, can follow.
The vertebrae are the main support system for the structure of the neck. It is vital that these bones remain in their correct place. If one is coping with severe neck pain, it is important to have this area examined by a professional.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
One such professional is an upper cervical chiropractor. We are specifically trained to detect misalignments in the upper neck bones. A misalignment here could have been caused by a blow to the head or neck or any trauma that affected this area of the body. Car accidents, sporting accidents, and whiplash can be to blame, even if they happened a long time ago.
At Crowder Specific Chiropractic, we use a specialized method to readjust these bones and encourage them to move back into alignment. This does not require popping or force the spine, but rather involves a very gentle technique that helps the bones to move more naturally into place. The body then begins to heal the existing damage. This often leads to a decrease in neck pain or an elimination of it entirely.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
From improper sleep position to fender benders to staring down at your smartphone, there are many ways that neck pain can develop just from day to day living. Having neck pain can leave you scrambling to find relief.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
While the recommendations above are good for the very occasional episode of mild neck pain, if your neck pain doesn't seem to want to go away then there's an underlying reason. Usually, there is some type of spinal misalignment that is preventing normal motion of the neck and impairing your body's ability to heal properly. Of the seven vertebrae in your neck, the uppermost one (C1 or the atlas) is the most freely movable. Because of this, it is also the most likely to shift out of alignment. When this occurs, it can affect all of the cervical vertebrae below it and even cause problems further down the spine.
If you have chronic neck pain and have not been checked by an upper cervical chiropractor for an atlas misalignment, then that could be the missing piece of the puzzle to start feeling better. Our analysis is very thorough, and we will be able to determine if an atlas misalignment is contributing to your neck pain. If so, then we are able to customize gentle, specific adjustments that will realign the atlas and restore normal alignment. When your cervical spine is aligned properly, it will function better and you, in turn, will feel better.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
Neck pain is such a common condition that you'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't experienced it at some point. Neck pain can arise for many reasons, but the one thing they all have in common is an increase in stress and strain on the spine.
Paying attention to these factors might help to prevent an episode of neck pain, but if your neck is already stiff and sore, then there may be other factors at play.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
If adjusting your habits hasn't led to a complete resolution of your neck pain, then the odds are good that it caused a misalignment of the topmost vertebra in your neck. That vertebra, your atlas (C1), is the most freely movable one of the entire spine and is responsible for carrying the weight of your head. In addition, the atlas forms a protective ring around the brainstem, a crucial part of the body's nervous system that is responsible for regulating many of the body's life-sustaining functions.
At Crowder Specific Chiropractic, we don't just look to provide our patients with temporary neck pain relief. Our goal is to find and correct atlas misalignments so that the entire neck can move and function the way it was designed to. Modifying any bad habits along with addressing any spinal issues with upper cervical specific chiropractic care can lead to neck pain relief that is both natural and long lasting.
References:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/neck-pain/basics/definition/con-20028772
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
When a person is suffering from chronic neck pain, choosing the right sleep position is an important part of recovery. Even if one’s neck is properly aligned by an upper cervical chiropractic adjustment, relief from neck pain means holding that adjustment for as long as possible. The wrong sleep position may throw the adjustment off, especially during the first few days after an adjustment when muscles are healing. This article should help our patients to sleep better, and if you are not a patient yet, you’ll get a glimpse into how important neck alignment is.
Awakening to a stiff neck is a sure way to have people wondering if you got up “on the wrong side of the bed” as it were. No one wants to spend the day in pain, but we all need to sleep. Here are a few dos and don’ts.
Don’t Sleep on Your Stomach – Bas news stomach sleepers. This is the worst position for your neck. Think about it this way. How would you feel if you spent 8 hours looking over your shoulder during the day? That would be miserable on your neck. Sleeping on your stomach is like looking over your shoulder all night. You can’t expect to wake up feeling okay.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
Do Sleep on Your Back – This is the best position for your neck. Whether you use a feather pillow, a cervical pillow, or a memory foam pillow, the key is to support your neck without elevating it too much. If you have your head propped too high, that would be the equivalent of looking down for 8 hours. Smartphone addicts can tell that does a number on your neck.
Do Sleep on Your Side – This position is good for your neck too. You just need a little extra neck support so your head isn’t slanted down toward the bed. Remember to keep a pillow between your knees so your lower back doesn’t get twisted.
If you do wake up with a stiff neck, your upper cervical spine may be out of alignment. Be sure to schedule an appointment as soon as possible to get checked so any subluxation can be corrected before it has time to cause further symptoms.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
Whiplash is a very common injury that occurs in car accidents and other types of trauma. How can you know if you have experienced whiplash in an accident? Since the answer is not always neck pain, here are a few things to watch for.
Obviously, neck pain or soreness is the number one warning factor. If you have trouble moving your neck the morning after an accident, or even a few days later, whiplash is likely. Here are a few other symptoms that you may not associate with your neck.
In reality, all of these whiplash symptoms can be caused by the same problem, a misalignment of the upper cervical spine. When such a misalignment occurs, it can put pressure on the brainstem or even restrict the proper flow of blood and cerebrospinal fluid to the brain.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
The fact is that some of the symptoms noted above may not occur immediately following an accident. Years can pass before all of the effects of whiplash make themselves known. For this reason, it is important to seek an upper cervical examination any time the head or neck is injured.
At Crowder Specific Chiropractic, we can provide just such an examination. If a subluxation is revealed, gentle adjustments are used to coax the bones back into position (as opposed to the cracking or popping associated with general chiropractic).
If you have been injured in an accident, you don’t need to wait for days, weeks, or even years to pass before determining the full extent of the damage. Upper cervical chiropractic may help you to get on the road to recovery much sooner.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
We blame cigarettes for just about every other health ailment, so why not neck pain? The fact is that researchers have recently studied this topic and revealed that the spine, especially the upper cervical spine, is adversely affected by a smoking habit. Here are the results of the study.
182 patients were given CT scans to determine the degree of upper cervical degeneration. For the sake of the study, the discs between neck vertebrae were each given a score from 0 to 3 based on the amount of degeneration (0 being none and 3 being severe). That allowed researchers to score a person’s cervical neck on a scale of 0 to 15 in total. Considerations in the study included whether a person presently smoked, the amount smoked per day, and the number of years the smoking habit existed.
Individuals who were currently smokers scored one point higher in degeneration of the cervical spine on average. The length of time smoking didn’t seem to be a factor when age was also considered. This means that presently being a smoker has the most profound effect on the degeneration of a person’s neck. It provides smokers with one more good reason to quit.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
If the cervical spine is allowed to continue degenerating, the result can be spinal arthritis and chronic neck pain. Other potential outcomes from upper cervical problems include headaches, dizziness, and various other symptoms. Two things that you can do to improve upper cervical health are giving up the practice of smoking and seeing a chiropractor who specializes in this part of the neck.
Upper cervical chiropractors use a specific method to diagnose the position of a misalignment and correct it with minimal force. This results in a long-lasting correction that gives the body a chance to heal. You can’t get back the part of a disc that has been lost, but keeping the neck in proper alignment may slow the degeneration process and keep chronic pain at bay.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
Whiplash can occur in any sort of injury or accident that whips the head forward and backward or side to side very quickly. Even a minor car accident can result in long-term pain and other symptoms. In fact, according to one recent study, between 4 and 8 percent of people who experience whiplash have still not returned to work one year after the injury occurred. This type of injury can, therefore, have major effects on a person both physically and emotionally.
The same research noted above was part of the results of a study performed to see if long-term whiplash effects could be predicted at the time of the injury. In order to assign a risk category, the patient needs to be examined within 4 days of sustaining the injury. However, differences between the 7 risk categories only varied slightly. For example, in the lowest risk category, the number of patients yet to return to work after one year was at 4%, but that number only increased to 7.68% for the highest risk category. This shows that even so-called minor whiplash injuries can still have long-term effects.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
You may not immediately think of chiropractic after a neck injury. After all, the last thing you want is to have your neck violently popped or twisted again. However, upper cervical chiropractic is very different. Only very gentle methods are used, making the adjustment safe and effective.
At Crowder Specific Chiropractic, we focus our attention on the C1 and C2 vertebrae. By gently correcting misalignments in this vital area of the body, many ongoing symptoms of injuries can be relieved. This is because the misalignments sustained in this location may affect brainstem and overall central nervous system function resulting in long-term health problems. A consultation can help you to find out if this is the best way to treat your whiplash injury.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
Neck pain is a common problem in the world today, and it may become even more problematic due to the ubiquitous use of tablets, especially for TV binge-watching. Before you spend 4 hours or more slumped over the small screen catching up on your favorite show, consider the following.
When you are standing or sitting straight and looking directly ahead of you, your upper cervical spine is balancing your head—all 10 to 12 pounds of it. But when you change your posture, that amount of weight increases dramatically.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
What does this mean when it comes to tablet and smartphone use? To avoid what has been termed iPad-neck by some and Netflix-neck by others, you need to keep your portable device at eye level. Try getting a stand for your device rather than holding it in your lap and looking down for hours at a time. A few seconds to check a text here and there may not amount to much, but hours of TV watching can do some serious damage. 60 pounds of pressure is more than enough to cause a misalignment.
Whether neck pain is self-inflicted through poor posture or the result of an accident, it is important to correct any underlying misalignments. This is because the C2 vertebra at the top of the cervical spine can place pressure on the brainstem if misaligned. The results can be everything from migraines to vertigo.
At Crowder Specific Chiropractic, we focus on the upper cervical spine to relieve neck strain and help improve posture, thus reducing the amount of pressure being placed on the upper spine.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
Whiplash is the over-extending of muscles of the neck that causes them to become sprained or torn. It is usually due to an accident of some sort. When this over-extension occurs, the bones of the upper neck can become misaligned causing problems throughout the body. This condition affects up to two million people in the United States.
Research done on vehicle collisions that come from behind revealed that injuries to the neck can happen at speeds as low as 5 mph. Most accidents occur at speeds of 6-12 mph. This may not cause the automobile to be damaged, but the body is much more susceptible, especially the neck.
It may be surprising to learn that whiplash can occur with other activities besides a car accident. Some of these include:
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
Injuries while doing any of these activities and more can result in neck damage. This can lead to further damage in the body, even years later. Drs. Kaeser and Ettlin reported in a German medical journal that the following problems can be a result of whiplash injuries:
While this can be disturbing, there is help available. The same two German doctors stated that by adjusting the cervical spine and correcting the injuries caused by whiplash these problems can be avoided.
It is important for a person who has been diagnosed with whiplash to seek out the care of an upper cervical chiropractor as soon as possible. The earlier it is treated, the fewer problems will ensue. We will begin by examining the upper neck for any possible misalignments. We will then develop a relief plan for that individual patient. We do not twist or pop the neck but use a gentle, effective relief care to bring the body back into alignment and allow healing to begin. Many future health problems can be avoided by getting the right kind of help.
Reference:
http://danmurphydc.com/kaeser.whiplash.pdf
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
Relieving Fibromyalgia at Its SourceWhile some might jest that fibromyalgia is all in the head of the sufferer, the truth is more likely that it is in a person’s neck. How can this be the case? When the C1 and C2 vertebrae, the top two in the neck, are misaligned, many chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia can result.
While some may question the idea that a misalignment can cause a full-body condition, the proof is in the fact that upper cervical chiropractors are having success in relieving patients with fibromyalgia. When the C1 and C2 are out of alignment, vital fluids such as blood and cerebrospinal fluid cannot flow freely. This slows communication between the brain and the rest of the body. As a result, chronic conditions that cause pain and other symptoms occur.
To learn more about the connection between head and neck injuries and chronic neck pain, download our complimentary e-book by clicking the image below.
When you hear the word chiropractic, you may immediately imagine the popping and twisting of the body involved in general chiropractic. Upper cervical adjustments are far more gentle and are nothing like the chiropractic you are used to. So there is no need to worry that your pain will be increased by rough relief.
Fibromyalgia is characterized by pain, sleepless nights, mood swings, irritability, and many other symptoms that threaten to wrestle away control of your day-to-day existence. Chronic health conditions can even affect your dearest relationships. At Crowder Specific Chiropractic we strive to give you control back over what you choose to do with each day.
Upper cervical chiropractic is a natural alternative to trying to control your symptoms with medications that have many harmful side effects. If you are ready to experience a natural way to relieve the pain of fibromyalgia, come on in and see us.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-449-5845. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
