What is the Cause of Neck Pain?

The chiropractors here at Root Cause's Chiropractic Department know that neck pain can be caused by many factors. Neck pain can also be causing problems that manifest elsewhere, such as pain in the arms, wrists, hands, upper shoulders, mid-back, and head (think headaches!).

One of the most common complaints I hear involving neck pain goes something like this: “I felt fine, then I woke up in the morning and was unable to turn my head due to neck pain”. In these cases, the pain tends to be severe and the patient is obviously perplexed about what happened.

In some cases, it may be a strong neck muscle cramp that is preventing the neck from moving correctly. When in a deep sleep, some people can assume postures which may be detrimental to the normal functioning of the neck muscles, creating spasms. Such neck “cricks” can typically be easily treated with manual therapy and exercises. But it’s important to get treatment quickly—or the muscular imbalance created can become more difficult to quickly and easily correct.

Other times patients may complain of neck pain after a hard workout which may have involved lifting overhead weights. This can be slightly more serious than the previous example. The patient may have caused a disc between the bones of the neck to become inflamed. (Discs are small circular structures that act as cushions between the spinal bones). A good clinical examination of the neck can direct the physical therapist to the degree of disc involvement.

Once successfully diagnosed, it can be treated for pain management initially, via specific manual therapy techniques, traction, and exercises. Once pain levels diminish, the next phase of treatment will address the stability and strength of the neck to hopefully prevent future recurrences.

Don’t Ignore Neck Pain

Sometimes patients come in with pain in the neck that has been persistent for many months. Often they may not have sought any treatment because they were hoping it would go away on its own. Eventually, they come in for treatment as the pain continues to progress and worsen. In such cases, the neck spinal bones may have subtle arthritic changes causing decreased openings for the nerves, thereby creating pain. In these conditions, a physical therapist can often find the muscles of the neck to be severely weak. The person can start treatment for strengthening the neck muscles to offset the load on the neck spinal bones, while chiropractic care can realign the bones of the neck, taking pressure off the nerves.

Another type of neck pain is postural in origin. A patient often complains that he wakes up feeling fine in the morning but as the day progresses he starts feeling an increase in the neck and upper shoulder tightness, soreness, and pain. Often their job involves long hours of sitting while working on computers. X-rays can reveal a straightening of the normal curvature that should be present in the neck. A normal neck should have a C-shaped curvature in the cervical spine. That curve lessens and straightens when any stress or trauma occurs, thereby creating dysfunction of the spinal muscles and nerves. They have to work harder to hold up the head (which weighs in at 10-12 pounds) resulting in soreness and pain in the surrounding muscles. In such circumstances, patients are put through a comprehensive posture training protocol during their physical therapy treatment program, while concurrently removing the stress from the nerves, rebalancing the muscles, and strengthening the neck as a whole.

Sometimes a True Neck Problem is Felt Elsewhere in the Body – Why?

Let’s discuss pain that originates from the neck but is felt elsewhere by the patient. This is understandably confusing because the area of pain is thought to be the actual cause point of the problem – not always the case in human bodies. Nerves that emerge or originate in the neck travel to many parts of the body, including the head, shoulders, arms, wrists, fingers, and upper back, which is why an irritated nerve in the neck can manifest symptoms in the wrist, as an example. Despite the pain being squarely felt in the wrist, the actual problem is in the neck. To fix the problem terminatedly, treatment must be addressed to the neck itself. Root Cause Medical has done chiropractic adjustments for many years to fix these types of problems.

A little anatomy lesson with the patient usually makes this easily understandable. So too does a treatment program that gets the job done! One of the important complaints to not ignore is the feeling of numbness or tingling that can radiate down the arm or be felt in the elbow, forearms, hands, or fingers. It’s an odd feeling but because it isn’t outright pain, patients often ignore it.

Sometimes, it happens when one is sleeping. This is a condition called radiculitis and it originates from the neck. There are specific clinical tests that can be performed to diagnose the condition. The problem is due to compression of one or more of the nerves exiting from the bones of the neck. The compression can be caused by many reasons but it needs to be treated as soon as possible. The longer the nerve compression is present, the greater the chances of long-lasting nerve damage. Physical therapy, along with chiropractic care, is very effective in treating this condition.

Neck problems can also radiate pain into the upper shoulder region near the shoulder blade. Patients often describe it as “a knife sticking in my upper back”. This sort of pain is commonly associated with cervical disc issues creating inflammation and/or bulges. The patient can point to the pain and is often surprised to learn it is originating from the neck, not their upper back. Unfortunately, less savvy practitioners can go to the site of pain and attempt to treat it there, but they are missing the underlying root cause, and therefore any relief is temporary. When the patient is treated at the true root cause – the neck disc, the shoulder blade pain reduces and typically is resolved completely.

Are Pain Relievers a Good Idea?

Pain relief sounds very good when you’re in pain. There are liabilities to drugs that must be known before you decide to use them:

1. Drugs provide only temporary relief. They are a band-aid. Once the drug wears off the pain returns.
2. Drugs have side effects. Typical pain relievers are of the NSAID variety or non-NSAID such as Tylenol.
3. NSAIDs damage the lining of the gut creating or worsening a leaky gut. Problems with leaky gut are very common in this country and the result is a higher incidence of autoimmune and degenerative diseases as a result of having a leaky gut.
4. Tylenol is known to create liver damage in susceptible individuals. “Susceptible” doesn’t mean you already have liver damage, but according to research, it can mean having an over-taxed detoxification system, or even someone eating a standard American diet. Twenty-five percent of all cases of liver failure have been traced to Tylenol use (taken at a recommended/correct dosage).
5. If you’re taking drugs regularly for pain, you’re suppressing your body’s communication with you. Your body is trying to let you know that it needs help and you are ignoring it. The result is greater damage that could have been prevented if the symptom had been correctly addressed earlier.

In Summary…

Neck pain should not be neglected. A good comprehensive Physical therapy evaluation can easily pinpoint the cause of the neck pain and treat the problem effectively within a short period of time. Since the same nerves traveling to the head, arm, and upper back also travel to the heart and lungs, it is definitely worth the effort to ensure that they are functioning correctly.