Everyone has experienced some sort of pain in the back of their neck. Sometimes the pain is brief, but more often than not, neck pain does not heal without intervention.

This pain tends to be a huge inconvenience. You become less like yourself and more like a robot. It’s no coincidence that when something is annoying it’s called a pain in the neck.

Your neck plays an essential role because it supports the central nervous system. If you hurt your neck you are at risk of losing function in your entire body. As said in a prior blog post, the nervous system affects every function of your body.  

In order to live out your daily life, you need your neck to be healed. It’s not only extremely annoying, but it becomes hard to be productive when all you can focus on is how much pain you are in.

With your spinal cord running through your neck, you have to take extreme caution in every movement so that you don’t increase injury.

Pain in the back of your neck quite literally cramps your lifestyle.

Where does back of neck pain come from?

As mentioned earlier, sometimes neck pain can be temporary.

On the other side of that is the extreme: long term neck pain. Symptoms of long term neck pain include stiffness, sharp pain, numbness, soreness, and headaches.

These symptoms and sprains may rack up over time from working long hours, looking down at your phone too much, or a host of other reasons that irritate your neck.

Pain can also occur immediately after a car accident or other injury, resulting in whiplash.

These symptoms of chronic neck pain can also result from repeated motion or poor posture. Mistakes like these often go unnoticed—and uncorrected—because they are integrated into our daily routines. It is terrifying to think that actions that are second nature are working against you on a consistent basis.

The problem is that in order to break out of habits like bad posture you have to be healed first; it’s hard to sit up straight when your neck is so stiff it becomes impossible to move in it in any direction.

The problem is the average person doesn’t know how to naturally heal their neck. And while pain relievers offer immediate relief, this treatment will no longer be effective as the injury worsens where you can’t turn your head in the slightest angle. If the soft tissue is damaged and nerves are being pinched, you will need more help—you will need medical intervention.

If you wait too long to seek medical treatment for neck pain, the soreness can quickly spread to the shoulders, arms, and back.

Once again, as a part of the nervous system it controls the function of your body and it works in the opposite effect as well; if one part cannot function, the rest of your body will follow. The result can be more severe symptoms like trouble with wrist grip, balance, coordination, and even bladder control.

How does chiropractic heal neck pain?

Your neck simply cannot heal on its own. But a chiropractor can get you back to living your normal life through the healing processes of spinal manipulation and other physiotherapy.

Your visit with the chiropractor will begin with a discussion followed by a physical exam. To start, they will most likely ask you about your history of neck pain. As a part of this they may ask which movements make the pain worse or better. For the physical exam, the physician will ask you to walk to identify any severe symptoms as listed above and then examine your neck to locate the problem. If necessary, they may order an MRI or X-ray.

Once the injury is properly identified, the chiropractor develops a strategy for treatment. No one case of neck pain is exactly alike and your doctor, having many years of experience, knows this. Therefore, your treatment with be individualized to meet your specific needs and goals for healing.

There are a variety of techniques the chiropractor may use to treat your neck pain, the most common being manipulation and stretching.  

The main goal of manipulation to realign your vertebrae, which may be pinching nerves if they are out of place as a result of injury. This pinching can cause inflammation and immense pain.

To readjust the vertebrae, the physician will use cervical mobilization. This involves gently moving the vertebrae of the neck in different directions with their hands in order to allow the vertebrae to adjust so it un-pinches the nerves.

Another common treatment that targets soft tissue damaged from sprains is stretching, which can be done manually by the chiropractor. This technique is called cervical manual traction. It involves stretching the spine based on the patient’s needs and, more importantly, their comfort level.

This exercise is used to reduce tension between the ligaments that are located in the seven bones that make up your neck. If injured the soft tissue will harden, but treatment like stretching restores elasticity, increasing your range of motion back to its normal, healthy state.

Other stretches the chiropractor might teach you include neck retraction, head drops, side bends, and more. Read how to do them here.

Why choose chiropractic care?

When you are in immense pain and can’t move your neck, it becomes hard to do even the simplest of daily functions. In many ways, pain in the back of your neck makes your life come to a grinding halt. You are not only in physical pain, but emotionally distressed.

Besides just physically healing you, chiropractors work to prevent future injury by teaching you how to change your lifestyle.

Simple changes in nutrition and exercise can eliminate the threat of further pain (read why chiropractic and exercise combined are better than medications). These small changes with the guidance of your physician ensure you will never have to experience such pain again.

These injuries all sound like a pain in the neck.

With chiropractic care, healing doesn’t just mean reducing and eliminating neck pain, it means getting your life back.

Call 513-247-9045 to schedule a visit with your local Montgomery chiropractor, Dr. Scanlon.