Do you have pain in your neck or upper back when you move your head?

Millions of people suffer from neck pain. The important thing to know about neck injuries is that they refer pain to other parts of the body. That means that pain coming from the neck may not hurt in the neck at all but in the upper back, the chest, the arm, or even the head. Of course, the pain is also frequently severe in the neck as well.

You know that the pain is coming from your neck if the pain occurs or intensifies when you move your head fully in any of these six directions.

Neck pain can be very serious if a spinal disc is pressing on a nerve. To be safe, I recommend that every client see a physician to rule out serious conditions like a disc injury. Fortunately, most neck injuries don’t involve discs pressing on nerves.

Some people think that the main cause of neck pain is injured or tense muscles. This is a misconception. When most of the neck muscles are injured, they heal quickly, usually in a few days or less, because they have good blood flow.

Unknown to most people is that the cause of most neck pain is injured ligaments. When ligaments are injured, the pain can last for months or years without proper treatment.  Ligaments hold the bones of your spine together and have very limited blood circulation.

One exception is the muscles that are attached to the back of your skull, called the sub-occipital muscles.  If they get injured, they can develop scar tissue that can cause long-term pain as well as headaches.

A series of straightforward, hands-on tests can usually determine what is injured. Once you identify exactly where the injury is, the treatment is fairly straightforward to perform by a skilled therapist.

The treatment breaks up the adhesive scar tissue that causes pain when you move your head in certain directions, stretching the scar tissue.  The treatment is not painful, just mildly uncomfortable.

Included in the treatment is a series of neck stretches that help restore full movement.  As the treatment progresses, you perform a series of simple neck exercises that also help restore full movement and prevent the scar tissue from returning.

In addition, I developed a neck device that helps relieve tension in the muscles at the back of the neck. If you have pain in your neck, or pain coming from your neck that you feel in your upper back or arm, I can likely help you.