Neck

Does Your Kid Have a Smartphone or Tablet?

Chances are they do. And while technology in an of itself is not bad, the way we adapt to technology CAN be bad.

Chiropractor in Frederick treats neck pain from phone use
Staring at that phone will cause problems

Let’s talk about physics very briefly. If your head weighs about 10 pounds, and it is sitting right on top of your shoulders, then your head is supported and your muscles don’t need to work hard to hold it in place. If your head is hanging forward then your neck and shoulder muscles have to work hard to hold it up, and your neck’s normal healthy curve is being reduced or reversed. That normal curve is designed to hold the head over the shoulders. If your kid has bad posture then that curve will suffer and neck pain and headaches will result.

I’m in my 30’s. I didn’t grow up with a phone. I used a computer a little bit, but not all day like today’s kids. This generation is going to be the first generation that has a degenerative spinal repetitive stress injury – a major postural nightmare – from technology. While all this tech is great and fun and we can all Twitter and Instagram and all that stuff, our physical reality is suffering. Sure, the virtual reality our kids live in may be tons of fun, but the real reality with physical consequences is still here and the phone/computer posture will need to be reckoned with at some point. The earlier the better! Not to sound apocalyptic or sensational, but there is no doubt that the long-term consequences of prolonged forward head posture will cause havoc in the head and neck, with headaches and shoulder pain becoming chronic and intractable.

Don't let your kid's head turn into Bieber posture
Justin Bieber’s head posture – don’t let this happen to your kid!

Educate your kid about proper posture, about not being on the phone or computer too much, and about corrective exercises and about the signs of a developing problem. Some signs include:

  • headaches
  • pain at the base of the skull
  • shoulder pain
  • pain around and behind the eyes
  • pain, numbness or tingling in the arms or hands
  • forward head posture

To check your kids posture, try one of two things:

  1. Have then stand with their back to the wall. Is the head against the wall? If it’s more than an inch off the wall, then it’s too far forward. Don’t explain what you are doing, just ask them to stand against the wall.
  2. Just observe them while on the phone or computer – if the hole in the ear is more than an inch or so forward of the bump at the tip of the shoulder, then it’s too far forward.

Questions or comments, just call the office!

Frederick Pain Management or a Chiropractor

If you’re thinking of going to a pain management clinic, then think about this:

First Visit

You will probably get a painkiller. Probably as in 90% positive.

You will probably get a muscle relaxer. Probably as in like 75%.

You will then feel better, but not actually be any better.

Following Visits

You will probably get epidural injections.

You will probably get your prescriptions for painkillers and muscle relaxers managed.

You may get referred to physical therapy.

Yo probably won’t get referred to a chiropractor, because the chiropractor would get the patient better and then the pain management clinic would lose business.

…

That being said, all pain management clinics aren’t the same. Some are great and aren’t just drug dispensaries. If you aren’t going to try chiropractic, then go to a physical therapist. And then if that doesn’t work try pain management.

The Dreaded High Shoulder

Have you ever woken up in the morning with one of your shoulders sort of sticking up, unable to relax, and painful to move?

I haven’t, but plenty of my patients have.

I’ll be honest: I’m not sure why on Earth this happens to people most of the time. Even the person with the high shoulder usually doesn’t have any idea why they can’t relax their shoulder, and why it hurts so much. Most people shrug the good shoulder and say something like “Well, I guess I slept wrong”.

Which brings up a great question: How is sleeping so complicated that adults are still doing it wrong? Beats me!

Still, this dreaded high shoulder exists and it inflicts millions of Americans every year (that is a crude estimation based on nothing more than guesswork, by the way).

What I do know is that your nervous system controls and coordinates all the activity in your body, including your neck and shoulder muscles. And I also know that an adjustment to the area in question usually gets that shoulder to settle down and relax and become much more comfortable. So, if you are dealing with this problem, give us a call and maybe we can make that shoulder go back where it belongs.

So… my back hurts. Now what?

Pretty much all of us will experience back pain now and again. As a matter of fact, many of us will endure crippling, stabbing back pain, even pain or numbness into the butt or legs.

Another fact is that most people pay very little attention to the physical health of their backs or necks until things are really starting to hurt. That’s why so many people have their first visit to a “back doctor” be a visit to the orthopedic surgeon or neurosurgeon. Of all the “back doctors” to see first, those should not be on your list.

pain descriptive words

I’ll be honest, chiropractic is GREAT for treating simple low back pain. Good ol’ regular biomechanical low back pain responds GREAT to chiropractic adjustments. Countless research studies in proper, well-respected medical journals have confirmed this. Some of that research is here, but that’s not the point of this article.

You have a few things you can try first. Like everyone else in the world, your first attempt at fixing something should probably be a relatively inexpensive option that has the smallest likelihood possible for something bad to happen.

You can try any one of these things:

Chiropractor Visits
Course of Physical Therapy Sessions
Acupuncture
Massage Therapy
Ice or Heat 		Stretching or Exercise
Painkillers
NSAID’s
Steroid Injections
Nerve Block
Spinal Surgery

Looking at this list, we can tell right off the bat that some of these are easier, safer and less expensive than others.

Stretching or exercising is free. It’s not necessarily easy, especially if you are in pain, but it’s one way to go. Massage and acupuncture are both safe and natural, so they are good places to start if you want to avoid drugs. Physical Therapy, depending on your therapist, is probably going to be mostly or somewhat natural, and besides needing to have you come in three times a week so they can watch you exercise, it’s a great way to recondition your out-of-shape back.

Painkillers and NSAID’s are, well, drugs. So if you are trying to get the back pain monkey off your back without drugs, they aren’t going to be on the list. For what it’s worth, painkillers will probably do something to get rid of the pain. Of course, when they wear off, you will be back in pain. NSAID’s may be able to deal with the injury in your back by reducing the inflammation, and this may get the pain to disappear for a while even after the medicine has left your system. The problem here is that NSAID’s aren’t safe for everyone, and even if they work for you and are safe for you, whatever caused the inflammation (and therefore the pain) in the first place is still probably causing inflammation just like before, and it’s only time before the pain returns (probably worse).

Nerve blocks and surgery are very poor first-lines-of-defense if your back pain is non-emergency and non-traumatic. In other words, if your back hurts because your posture sucks and you never exercise, then a nerve block isn’t the right way to go unless you are into injuring yourself on purpose. And surgery obviously shouldn’t be on your Christmas list, either.

Since a chiropractor is the author of this article, you can bet I saved chiropractic for last because I was saving the best for last. And it is. Chiropractic is great for so much more than back and neck pain, but our bread and butter is helping people get rid of back or neck pain. People (who have never been adjusted before) are almost always surprised at how effective chiropractic is. The reason chiropractic is so effective is because you and me have bodies that are designed to function normally, and a chiropractic adjustment takes a screwy spine and, for lack of a better description, straightens that spine out. Then the spine works better…and then it doesn’t hurt any more. Rather than cover the pain with medicine we adjust the body so that it will work normally, and since normal function is supposed to be pain-free, the client typically feels better. It’s not magic, it’s actually basic physics, a touch of the basics of mechanics, and some rudimentary biology. The body is supposed to work normally, and without pain, so sometimes it just needs to be pushed back in the right direction.

So, if you want to be pushed in that direction, give us a call. Thanks for reading. -Rob

Headaches and Migraines

Many people suffer from headaches and migraines on a regular basis. Depending on the type of headache you have, your pain may be relieved with chiropractic adjustments. It would be great to go to a wellness center like QC Kinetix (Kansas City) clinic to have medical specialties to people who are in need of pain relief and treatment. You can also check over here for some pain relief options.

There is a term, “cervicogenic headache”. This term describes a headache that is caused by a problem in the neck (also called the cervical spine). Hypertonic muscles (overly right muscles) in the back of the neck, where the neck meets the skull, can send pain all around the eyes. The pain may even feel like it is behind the eyeball. Other muscles, such as the muscles that go from behind your ear and around the side of your neck to your sternum, can also refer pain into and around the head causing headache as well as neck pain.

Many headaches are caused by stress, quite often from the stress that accumulates in the shoulder muscles and back of the neck. After prolonged tension in those areas a headache can develop. An adjustment to the bones of the upper back and neck often causes immediate relaxation of the involved muscles and the headache will begin to dissipate shortly after.

You can find some great details on research regarding headache and chiropractic by heading over to this link here.

Migraines are a different breed. They often come on with specific “triggers” such as red wine, chocolate, certain smells or foods, bright light or loud noises. Treating chronic migraines involves discovering the triggers and working to avoid this things as well as making sure the spine is clear of imbalances that may be an underlying exacerbating factor, or even may be the trigger. Research into the relationship between migraines and spinal disorder is in an early stage and no firm conclusions can yet be drawn, but as more information comes out we will update our research page to reflect this new information and incorporate the new research findings into our treatment protocols.