Cervical (neck) pain is felt anywhere from the base of the skull to the tops of the shoulders. It also radiates into the upper arms or the shoulder blade area. Localized pain is an early sign of problem starting to form. Where as a more serious injury will present with pain into the shoulders, arms, or upper back.
Cervical Whiplash
These types of injuries greatly affect the neck or cervical spine. The abrupt start and stop of motion involves the cervical musculature being forced beyond what they can handle. This is an effort to control that 8 pound weight, known as your head, from hitting something like the ground or car headrest.
This force causes an abundance of micro-tears in the musculature. These micro-tears need to go through a 14 day healing process first. This is the time frame in which the body heals underlying damage to joints and cartilage from the accident. While this is happening, the muscles in your neck are very tense, resulting in the formation of fibrous adhesion.
This is when you feel very stiff and have a hard time turning or moving your neck in any direction. At a later time, after the healing process has occurred, this adhesion needs to be removed. Leaving the adhesion here will cause the pain to return over and over. This is where professionals like us can help.
Accumulative / Repetitive motion of Neck
This type of injury is from doing the same activity, or holding the same position, for a long time or repetitively on a daily basis. People that work at a desk or computer for majority of their day are usually holding their head in one position with little movement. This causes the same muscles to remain tight and active for extensive hours of each day. To learn more about neck pain from office work, see our “Neck Pain” page.
Electricians are another group of people that often suffer from this type of injury. A greater part of their job requires them to look up towards the ceiling for extended periods of time.
The length of time a muscle is turned on or active determines the amount of adhesion that accumulates. As a muscle contracts, blood is restricted from that structure. This action causes less oxygen to be delivered to the muscles of the neck because blood carries oxygen. When there is a state of hypoxia (less oxygen) the body naturally produces adhesions.
This process is as common as the plaque that develops on your teeth. As a matter of fact, we sometimes call it muscle plaque just to make it easier for patients to understand.
Our treatments are the most effective treatments at removing adhesion in today’s day and age. We take great pride in staying at the forefront of all manual therapy techniques to make sure we offer the best solution to your pain.
To have your cervical (neck) pain treated by Elma chiropractors Dr. Zelasko or Dr. McCrea, please call us at (716) 677-5525.