"Fourways Chiropractic For the Whole Family"
Your neck supports the weight and movement of your head - quite a job, since an adult's head can weigh between 4.5 - 6.3kgs! It also contains the vast majority of nerves that reach from your brain to the rest of your body, like a pipe full of fibre optic cable. With the amount of driving, computer work and TV watching that most of us do, it's not surprising that we may need a little chiropractic to help keep our necks doing their job properly.
The further away from your body you hold something, the heavier it feels. Neck pain may often be caused by the long-term effect of bad posture, especially when you regularly hold a weight too far from your body. This may be:
Loss of proper joint movement may cause irritation of the nerves that come out of your spine. This, in turn, can lead to pain where the nerves end. This is known as 'referred' pain. You may already know about sciatica, which is leg pain often caused by nerve irritation in the lower spine. Brachialgia means 'pain in the arm', and may be caused by nerve irritation in the neck. This way your neck may be treated when you have only consulted your chiropractor about a shoulder and arm problem, which can include:
Yes, 66-69% of visits to a chiropractor include cervical (neck) adjustments. Recent publications suggest that chiropractic treatment is extremely safe, when carried out by a skilled individual.
No. Many people in the past have been given neck or head rolling exercises to help stretch their necks. As mentioned in the beginning the weight of the head is substantial so rolling the neck forward places more strain on the joints, ligaments and tendons in you neck then contracting muscles to roll the head backwards puts pressure down on these structures which you have just strained. Better and safer movements to do would be single ones like turning or looking up, down, left or right - not all of these movements together.
