Most people do not realize how much they move their neck during the day until they are unable to do so. The degree of flexibility of the neck coupled with the fact that it has as to support and move your 14 - 16 pound head, means that the neck is very susceptible to injury. You can picture your neck and head much like a bowling ball being held on top of a stick by small, thin, elastic bands. It doesn’t take much force to disrupt that delicate balance.
The spinal cord runs through a space in the vertebrae to send nerve impulses to every part of the body. Between each pair of cervical vertebrae, the spinal cord sends off large bundles of nerves that run down the arms and to the upper back. This means that if your arm is hurting, it may actually be a problem in the neck. Symptoms in the arms can include numbness, tingling, cold, aching, and “pins and needles”. Problems in the neck can also contribute to headaches, muscle spasms in the shoulders and upper back, ringing in the ears, otitis media (inflammation in the middle ear, often mistaken for an ear infection in children), temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), restricted range of motion and chronic tightness in the neck and upper back.
The Causes of Neck and Upper Back Pain
Most neck and upper back pain is caused by a combination of factors, including injury, chiropractic subluxations, stress, and disc herniations.
Injuries
Neck injuries can be caused by a fall, a car accident, sports injuries, an accident at work or at home, carrying a heavy book bag, sleeping on a different pillow or even a hard sneeze. Any sudden movement of the head, either backward, forward, or sideways, that results in the damage to the supporting muscles, ligaments and other connective tissues in the neck and upper back can cause pain,stiffness, numbness or headaches.
Subluxations
Subluxations in the neck and upper back area are extremely common due to the weight of the head and weakness of the muscle in the neck. Most subluxations tend to be centered around four areas: the top of the cervical spine where it meets the skull; in the middle of the cervical spine where the mechanical stress from the head is the greatest; in the transition where the cervical and thoracic areas of the spine meet; and in the middle of the thoracic spine where the mechanical stress from the weight of the upper body is greatest. Signs of subluxation include looking in the mirror and seeing your head tilted or one shoulder higher than the other. Often women will notice that their sleeve length is different or that a necklace is hanging off center. If someone looks at you from the side they may notice that your head sits forward from your shoulders. This is known as forward head posture and is very common for people who are stooped over their computers all day long. Subluxations are a debt to the body. If they are not taken care of soon after they occur, then they can get much worse over time due to the accumulation of compounding interest.
Stress
When most people become stressed, they unconsciously contract their muscles. In particular, the muscles in their back. This ‘muscle guarding’ is a survival response designed to guard against injury. In today’s world where we are not exposed to physical danger most of the time, muscle guarding still occurs whenever we become emotionally stressed. The areas most affected are the muscles of the neck, upper back and low back. For most of us, the particular muscle affected by stress is the trapezius muscle, where daily stress usually leads to chronic tightness and the development of trigger points.When these muscles are tighter then normal it will cause stress in the joints of the neck leading to subluxations and neck pain or discomfort.
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Disc Herniations
The discs in your cervical spine can herniate or bulge and put pressure on the nerves that exit from the spine. The herniated discs can be treated with chiropractic adjustments to reduce the pressure on the spinal nerves and allow the injuried discs to heal