The Health of your Neck
Where does neck pain come from?
Neck pain is often symptomatic of a deeper lying cause; you may be experiencing symptoms of pain in the neck, but they are very likely caused by a misalignment elsewhere. Your head could be stuck forward in a position that undermines the stability of your spinal column; your pelvis may be tilted forward causing the neck to over correct in an effort to maintain horizontal balance; this is before even considering more serious conditions such as degenerative disc disease, herniated discs or more intangible factors including viral infection in the throat, creating lymph node swelling that can also cause neck pain. Myriad factors lead to the presence of neck pain butregardless of where it is coming from, it is important not to ignore it or shrug it off.
Chiropractic is about detecting and addressing the underlying causes rather than just the symptoms.
At Holmes Chiropractic, it is our job to determine where exactly the pain is coming from and what to do about it! This often means an evaluation of the body as a whole: neck pain is often the end point for a road map of inadequate posture and weak muscles. We start by helping you learn how to hold your head- not forward with the shoulders rounded but balanced atop the spine- and training the muscles which can hold it tall and proud. Next we focus on load-bearing joints; often we treat people with a set of shoulders and hips that have been trained through repetition to literally destabilize the spine: shortened hip flexors and hamstrings are pulling the lower back out of alignment, while the upper back is in a state of tension caused by dysfunction in the trapezius muscle. All of this is causing the muscles of the upper back and neck to tense up. resulting in the stiffness and pain with which many desk-bound workers are so familiar.
Seeking harmony for the whole body.
It is an inconvenient truth that we have to “relearn” how to use our bodies, but we shouldn’t feel shame about it and we certainly shouldn’t feel alone in our quest to fix it! If you are struggling with where to start, we urge you to let us do the leg work for you: detecting the root of your pain and devising a plan to reverse it. If you are interested in finding out more, give our office in Houston a call to schedule an appointment today.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.