Please read FAQ - Back pain, before start reading this section. You will need to understand your back pain first to understand your neck pain. A painful condition affecting the mid to upper portion of the spine and causing dysfunction of the neck and upper back. It often causes radiating pain to the top of the shoulder, shoulder blade, arm, wrist, and hand with numbness, tingling, and burning discomfort. Occasionally (common in chronic cases), it will cause referring pain on the chest, collar bone, eye, ear(earache or plugged ear feeling), and jaw with or without neck pain. Frequently neck problems will cause headaches, migraines, and dizziness.

Misalignment, Abnormal pressure, and Inflammation 1. Abnormal alignment of spine or loss of lordosis causing abnormal disk pressure. - Aching discomfort and tight, stiff feeling. 2. Excessive abnormal pressure causing damage or tear on the inner disk. - Localized neck or shoulder, shoulder blade pain. 3. Continuous abnormal pressure causing bulging and herniated disk generates inflammation on a dorsal nerve root ganglion. - Neck pain with radiating pain (pinched nerve) and frequent numbness, tingling and burning to shoulders, arms, and hands. The neck and lower back are like a brother. These are the only two structures with C-curve or Lordosis on your spine. The neck and lower back need to maintain the C-curve to protect the disk from abnormal pressure. As soon as your neck curve goes flat, your head weight will start to compress the disk, and it will begin to cause tears and pain. Unusual and severe cases will be examined and ruled out on your visit.

No, It's not a muscle problem. Your muscle is so stiff, and you can't move around well because it is inflamed inside, and this inflammation is coming from disk tear or damage. Your neck needs to be stiff and immobilized, so it can protect your neck from getting further damage. It's like you don't want to move your ankle when you have sprained ankle. You will need to take the abnormal pressure off first to feel better.

Abnormal pressure means "Looking down pressure or motion." As soon as your head goes forward and down to do computer work, use a phone, drive for long hours, and read books. It will start to create excessive pressure. "As the head tilts forward, the forces seen by the neck surges to 27 pounds at 15 degrees, 40 pounds at 30 degrees, 49 pounds at 45 degrees and 60 pounds at 60 degrees," One of the postures that will cause more pressure and pain will be "sleeping on a side" or "sleeping on a belly" with inappropriate pillows. Whiplash and direct trauma can also cause disk damage with severe pain.

The first step is to recognize this problem as a disk problem caused by abnormal pressure. The pain will come back again and again because muscle tightness is just one of the signs of disk damage. You can either manage this problem and get rid of it, or develop ongoing pain from chronic problems like a bulging or herniated disk and stenosis. To give you a firm understanding of the problem we will provide explanations with actual models and imaging on your first visit.

You will need to implement proper spinal hygiene to fix this problem. Good Posture — Maintaining a proper sitting, sleeping, and resting posture. Good Stretching — Learn to execute Mckenzie extension stretching — NOT flexion stretching Good Exercise — Learn the correct way to perform walking, jogging, and running. Limit or refrain from strengthening exercise. We will undergo a thorough exam to rule out severe problems. In most instances, you can enable yourself to fix your pain through daily spinal hygiene and routine chiropractic care.

We will instruct you on the following protocols for spinal hygiene. Good Posture — We help you understand what good posture looks like and how to maintain it. We cover how to sit, sleep and rest, along with what to do or not do. Good Stretching — We explain the harmful forms of stretching that will exacerbate disk damage, and we instruct you on proper stretching techniques. Good Exercise — We explain the harmful exercises that are causing more damage to your disk and instruct you on proper beneficial exercises. We will also deliver a specific adjustment to take off the abnormal pressure on your disk and spine.