SOLVING CHRONIC NECK PAIN
PHASE I
Phase I of dealing with Chronic Neck Pain is geared towards restoring the neck’s normal Range of Motion. Although I OCCASIONALLY SEE THE OPPOSITE, the average person suffering with long-term neck pain has poor movement in their neck. While most of these people have an overall poor range of motion in the cervical spine (neck), some only have a specific area or areas that have restriction (HERE). The problem is that even if your restriction is confined to a relatively small area, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Left untreated, the problem will spread as the body starts compensating for the abnormal motion. The end result is always the same — SPINAL DEGENERATION. Bottom line; there are two things that must happen in Phase I if one hopes to find a long-term solution to their Chronic Neck Pain.
- GET RID OF FASCIAL ADHESIONS
- CORRECT THE SUBLUXATION(S)
FASCIAL ADHESIONS: I am not going to spend inordinate amounts of time talking about Fascia. If you want more information, you can go to one of the most COMPREHENSIVE POSTS on the internet. In a nutshell, Fascia is the tough, cellophane-like membrane that covers all of your muscles and permeates your body. Normal Fascia should be flexible. Flexibility is due to the fact that the individual cells / fibers line up in a parallel fashion —- sort of like well-combed hair.
Due to traumatic injury, WHIPLASH, SPORTS INJURIES, Work Injuries, or Repetitive Injuries (OR OTHERS), these Fascial Membranes can become adhesed and even THICKENED (when adhesions are present, they act much more like UNCOMBED OR TANGLED HAIR). The restriction caused by these Fascial Adhesions pulls on your neck relentlessly —- 24 / 7 / 365. And here is the final boot in the rear end. Not only is this tissue too thin to image well on MRI (HERE), it is arguably the single most pain-sensitive tissue in the body. As you might imagine, this sets up the proper conditions for the PERFECT STORM OF PAIN AND FRUSTRATION.
If a person is dealing with CHRONIC HEADACHES, CHRONIC NECK PAIN, or CERVICAL RADICULOPATHY, one of the first things I do is to check for FASCIAL ADHESIONS. If present, I break them using TISSUE REMODELING PROTOCOLS. Once the Scar Tissue has been dealt with properly, I can move on to the next step of Phase I.
CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTMENTS: One of the reasons that my profession gets a bum rap has to do with the number of visits it often takes Chiropractors to help people. Having been in the profession for over a quarter century, I completely understand people’s frustration with being told that solving their problem will require being adjusted multiple times a week —- for months on end (HERE). This is because for far too many problems, the vast majority of Chiropractors are going directly to Phase II (I’ll show you in a moment) without first addressing any FASCIAL ADHESIONS that may be present. Don’t get me wrong, CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTMENTS are of vital importance against the war on Chronic Neck Pain —- but only if there are no Fascial Adhesions present. Read this last sentence until it sinks in.
While this two-pronged approach to the first phase of solving Chronic Neck Pain is certainly not a fool-proof panacea, it frequently gets results that are both amazing and rapid. HERE and HERE are Video Testimonials of a few of the patients I have seen for Chronic Neck Pain. Like I always say, talk is cheap —– “THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING“. Come back tomorrow as I bring you PHASE II of solving Chronic Neck Pain.
