How a Chiropractor Can Help With Neck Pain in Louisville KY?

The neck is an essential component that joins the head to the rest of the body, supports the head's weight, and maintains flexibility, allowing for the movement of the head. Whenever you move the head forward for an inch, it becomes 10 pounds heavier. This increase in weight can easily cause neck pain, especially in women who tend to be less stable in the shoulders. Generally, women are 1.5 times more susceptible to neck pain than men. Fortunately, neck pain can be treatable through chiropractic care in Louisville KY.

Neck Pain Treatment in Louisville KY

A healthy body is determined by a large percentage (75%) of your lifestyle. This means your lifestyle can greatly contribute to your neck pain. In modern society where most people have a sedentary lifestyle, poor sitting posture, sleeping posture, and excessive use of electronic devices become overwhelmed with an alarming number of causes of neck pain. Posture is a practice; therefore, the way you practice biomechanics will either cause neck pain or help you heal it.

Another cause of neck pain is degeneration or acute injuries. Acute injuries are caused by car accidents or a sudden slip, fall, or motion, while degeneration is caused by the accumulation of several micro-traumas in the spine. It is important to get checked whenever you feel the neck area has problems before the condition worsens.

Failing to maintain your spine's wear and tear can make it very hard to treat injuries and degenerations. Typically, degeneration occurs when some movable parts of the neck are restricted. When you visit a chiropractor at TRICORE Healing Center, we will work to identify the area where motion is restricted and try to restore the circulation while also helping to increase the mobility of the neck, and lower arthritis risk, all with the end goal of healing neck pain altogether.

When dealing with an acute injury, a chiropractor can efficiently resolve the pain but first, identifying the cause of this muscle injury is necessary. Acute injury accumulates as time passes and may be more life-threatening if not treated. At least 30 % of neck pain cases will develop into chronic symptoms; they should be treated urgently. Typically, trying to heal neck pain earlier is easier and more important to prevent issues where the condition might worsen and instead shorten the healing process.

Common Causes of Neck Pain

Here are some of the common causes of neck pain.

Bulged Cervical Disc

One of the major causes of neck pain is a bulged cervical disk. This disk acts as a shock absorber cushion between the vertebrae. It also spaces the spine nerves so they can easily exit from the spine to other body parts. One reason why the spinal disc is prone to injuries is because it is made of water. These discs get damaged through dehydration, wear and tear caused by repetitive bad habits, and stress.

The outer part of the disk is rigid, while the inner part has a gelatinous nucleus. Every time the fibers that hold the disk start to wear and tear, the inner gelatinous nucleus takes a path of low resistance, most likely, back into a nerve. This causes a lot of neck pain that will sometimes move to the arms. Those nerves in the neck send sensory input to the brain from the skin and motor controls from the brain to the muscles. When the nerves get damaged, the body may fail to function effectively.

Degenerative Disc Disease

Degenerative disc disease occurs mainly in aged people when the discs naturally break down. Apart from age, this disk disease is also brought about by smoking, obesity, high demanding physical work, and extensive sitting periods.

When the cervical discs shrink, the opening (foramen) where nerves from the spine travel to the body also shrink, the shrinking of the foramen exerts a lot of pressure on the nerves, thus leading to nerve pain.

Note that degenerative disease cannot be healed completely. A chiropractor will only do some practices on the neck to slow down the pain caused by a degenerative disc disease and allow you to work effectively without the stress of experiencing pain in the neck.

Tech Neck

With the continuous advancements in technology, most people spend their time in offices or homes with their eyes glued to a computer or phone. This leads to a continuous forward head posture that inserts a lot of pressure on the neck region.

Just like it is challenging to hold a ball with your hand up in the air for a long time, it is very strenuous when you bend your neck for a long time. The neck should get an excellent cervical curve that can act as a spring to support the extra head weight whenever it bends while relieving the ligaments, nerves, and muscles around the neck. Tech neck pain is usually localized in the neck areas and feels achy or dull. However, with intense movement and long sitting hours, the pain can exacerbate other nearby body parts like the shoulders.

Osteoarthritis

Also known as bone arthritis, osteoarthritis happens due to poor biomechanics or lack of movement of bone joints and ligaments over a long time. Inadequate motion makes it hard for the body to decrease inflammations, leading to continued bone stress as the body tries to create stability because the body perceives lack of motion as instability. After some time, the processes will form bone spurs that irritate spinal nerves and cause increased neck pain.

Whiplash

Whiplash occurs when the head rapidly moves forward and backward, especially during sports or car accidents. This rapid movement causes tension and traumatic stress on the muscles, ligaments, nerves, and bones. When treating a whiplash, the chiropractor can assess the entire structure of the cervical curve to ascertain whether the whiplash caused the spine to straighten. Otherwise, if the condition is not assessed and treated, it can lead to other severe conditions since the loss of cervical curve leads to loss of spinal cushion and increased stress on the spine. Some of the worst situations that may arise from whiplash include memory problems, blurred vision, repetitive daily headaches, and even poor sleeping patterns.

FAQs