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If you’re experiencing neck pain, it’s very likely you are wondering if it will go away on its own.  The simple answer is – it can.  The responsible answer, however, is it may but, you shouldn’t wait for that to happen. Like many other symptoms in the body, these are red flags telling you that something is most certainly wrong.  You should always listen to your body when pain is involved (especially in the cervical spine). Neck pain can be very serious, but it depends on the onset, pattern and quality of  the pain.

If you have been in car accident or the like, you should see a chiropractor immediately or at least go get an exam & x-rays taken at an ER.  If you are experiencing constant stiffness as well as pain and limited motion, these can be indications of a misaligned vertebra and/or disc degeneration or worse. If you are experiencing pain shooting through your shoulder and/or arm, this is commonly a sign of a disc or spinal nerve lesion.  Regardless, a thorough chiropractic/orthopaedic exam and x-ray series are essential in arriving to an accurate diagnosis.

Almost everyone has muscle spasms in the neck from time to time.  This could be considered “normal” depending on your lifestyle or sleep and work habits, but it must be understood that whether it’s thought as normal or not, it is not considered healthy physiology for you or any person’s neck to be tight all the time.  Persistent muscle spasms are a clear indication of ischemia (lack of blood flow) in the muscles and/or aberrant nerve flow.  A hypertonic muscle can have many causes, however, it is the ischemia and the imbalance of Calcium homeostasis that keeps it tight and, therefore, unhealthy.  

Commonly, medications (prescriptions or otherwise) tend to not perform a lasting or healing effect because they are not removing the cause of the muscle spasm. Muscles respond to nerve conduction on a very basic level.  Muscle spasms are not the result of a lack of medication. Any nerve irritation present in the neck will cause muscle spasms and MUST be treated properly in order to realistically expect a considerable change in the muscle. Chiropractic adjustments can remove nerve pressure in the spine by repositioning any misaligned vertebrae and thus potentiate the healthy physiology of the adjacent musculature.

If you’re experiencing lower back pain, it’s very likely you either spend most of your day sitting at work or home or you have been bending or lifting incorrectly.  Most of the time chronic lower back pain is the result of a weak back.  Sitting is the biggest culprit in developing a weak low back.  The biomechanics of the lumbar spine are such that when you are in the “sitting” position the natural curvature (lordosis) is decreased which places direct pressure on the discs.  

Whenever you sit for a long period of time or bend or shift in your seat improperly, you run the risk of pulling a bone out of place.  This usually occurs in people who have little to no activity in their lifestyle or have spent many years sitting.  There are some people that have congenital (present at birth) defects in their lumbar spine which predispose them to low back dysfunction, however, there are still treatment options for these people as well.  Lower back pain treatment first involves careful examination and x-ray, CT or MR analysis to determine which level is primarily at fault.

Just as with the neck, if you have been in a car accident or the like, you should see a chiropractor immediately or at least go get an exam & x-rays taken at an ER.  If you are experiencing constant stiffness as well as pain and limited motion, these can be indications of a misaligned vertebra and/or disc degeneration or worse. If you are experiencing pain shooting through your buttock and/or leg, this is commonly a sign of a disc or spinal nerve lesion.  Regardless, a thorough chiropractic/orthopaedic exam and x-ray series are essential in arriving to an accurate diagnosis.

Muscle spasms are certainly “normal” in any low back pain situation.  This is an attempt by the body to stabilize the vertebra to avoid any future shifting of the joints or damage to the discs. The problem with the spasms is they obviously hurt and make your life miserable if not impossible.  Pain medications are certainly helpful but they should be used conservatively as they can easily fool you into thinking that you’re “ok” when you’re really not. To put it simply, if your back hurts enough to want to take medication, it is NOT just a muscle spasm. It’s important to know that the reason spasms are present is because a nerve is causing it to remain that way. The purpose of chiropractic is to remove the nerve pressure in order to relieve the joint malposition and to help relieve all of the muscles around the joint.

For women who are expecting, back pain and pregnancy go hand in hand – primarily due to muscle spasms.  During pregnancy women experience hormonal secretions that loosen the ligaments in the low back and pelvis thus putting more work on the muscles to support the spine (therefore the muscles stay tight).  So back pain and pregnancy will always be a reality for expectant women, but it can and should be managed very carefully because any persistent malpositions of the vertebra can affect the mother’s own health and the ease of partuition.

For the rest of us, low back pain should not be ignored either.  Any history of falls or other accidents are stored in the joints of the spine.  Even though the pain may subside on its own, the damage remains and is usually visible upon x-ray analysis.  A stiff or sore back is different from an injured back and the difference is usually the presence of a unique sharp pain or not. Either way, the most effective initial treatment recommended by professionals of spinal treatment is ice.  Ice will help reduce swelling around the discs and spinal nerves and serves somewhat as an anesthetic.  Most people naturally want to use heat, but professionally, heat is a poor initial choice as it can increase swelling and consequently not help heal torn tissue, but instead exacerbating the symptomatic tissue.  Heat is a better choice after pain is gone and only soreness persists, usually at least 72 hrs after an accident, but more likely a good week or two after most accidents.

ow back pain is the number one cause of missed work in the US and costs the country billions in lost productivity.  Keeping your back strong by doing regular bending exercises as in yoga, tai chi or swimming can be a very wise choice.  Lower back pain treatment should be focused on correcting the physical misalignment based on x-ray diagnosis and then addressing any strengthening or conditioning after any acute pain is gone.  In other words, exercising an injured back before spinal correction is usually not recommended.  It is extremely important to pay close attention to your doctor’s instructions as any re-injury greatly reduces your prognosis (outcome) for your case and for the life of your spine in general.  

If you’re experiencing thoracic back pain (mid-back), it’s very likely you have or have had problems with your neck. Thoracic back pain usually occurs as the result of improper posture & it can all start from carrying your head forward or spending most of the day with your arms forward while working, typing, etc. Head forward posture is very common and is usually attributed to faulty work and sleep habits.  

As a student, an avid reader or spending most of the day on the computer, this posture will train the anterior (front) muscles of the neck to stay contracted (shorter). Conversely, carrying your head forward will train the posterior (back) muscles of the neck and mid-back to become lengthened (longer) or eccentric and de-facilitated, which means they can become weaker and weaker each day as they lose proper blood supply and neurological input unless they are properly exercised. Also, sleeping with too many pillows, which raise your neck, will cause the same imbalance in the muscles of your neck and mid-back. Muscle imbalance can eventually lead to joint degeneration (loss of articular cartilage), which is known as osteoarthritis.

When muscles are tight they inevitably will pull too hard on the bone they attach to, which in turn can pull the bones out of position (subluxation) causing spinal nerve pressure.  Posture along with time are the enemies here. Muscles learn through repetition, therefore, they have no choice but to become dysfunctional when they are stretched or strengthened unequally.  In addition, calcium deposits in the muscle and tendons can accumulate without proper exercise or healthy blood flow. Through time, dysfunctional muscles lose their ability to contract and, more importantly, lose their ability to relax properly so muscle spasms can persist because the muscle cannot fully relax (release the calcium bridges in the myofilaments). This scenario builds the framework for osteoarthritis in the thoracic spine due to the lack of proper motion. One other factor is breathing. Shallow breathing can cause your back to feel stiff and “old” whereas full and deep breathing allows the rib joints to expand and naturally counteracts poor posture.

Chiropractic adjustments are extremely effective in releasing tension in the muscles and restoring normal blood flow and nerve flow throughout the spine and the surrounding muscles. These spinal nerves control the major organs through the autonomic nervous system, which are the nerve pathways that manage homeostasis all around the body. The therapeutic repositioning of the thoracic vertebra through chiropractic helps to remove spinal nerve pressure and is the key to achieving overall health in the body.