I feel its import to preface the following with general rules of inflammation.

Number 1. Almost every adverse health condition that can happen to the human body involves inflammation, we try to control it, reduce it and eliminate it.  As your physician my goal is to understand it, diagnosis it, and treat it with good results.  My prospective has a Science, Art and Philosophy from both western and eastern influences.  This means that the following information comes from my twenty five years of experience and are founded on a lifetime of devotion and study to helping people get well, be well and improve the quality to their life.

With neck pain and car accidents please look to the last button on the vertical panel. “Auto Injuries”

Lets look at basic anatomy of the neck from the inside out.  You have seven vertebrae and eight nerves exiting the spinal cord. The nervous system controls and coordinates everything in your body.  Between each vertebra is a disc that is a fibrous doughnut with a jelly center, the perfect shock absorber if it’s aligned correctly with the vertebrae above and below. “Ligaments” go from bone to bone while muscles attached by “Tendons” to bones.

In an injury you can “strain” a muscle, “sprain” a ligament, have micro tears in general tissue like Fascia and also pinch nerves .

Speaking to musculoskeletal condition only; neck pain can have several symptoms and a variety of causes.

Every great doctor takes a good case history followed by a thorough exam and creates a differential diagnosis.

X-rays might be necessary to establish major vertebrae miss-alignment or degree of degeneration.

You could be at an; acute stage, sub acute stage, chronic or degenerative stage. There could even be a mix of injuries at different locations in different stages. We ask for subjective pain indicators from you expressed from 1-10 with 10 being excruciating pain and 0 being no pain.

Usually sharp pin point pain that radiates is nerve impingement and is always the first thing to treat.

Dull pain in general is usually muscle and tendon inflammation.

The most common neck condition besides degeneration is Torticolis which is usually obvious on initial presentation of the patient. The neck is severely limited in one or more motions. Usually two things have happened and both fire lots of pain-receptors and create lots of inflammation. First there is a severe spasm followed by moderate to severe nerve pinching. After an examination treatment involves several steps and home therapy.

With nerve impingement; always apply ice (see ice form) to the most painful area.  An adjustment to the fixated vertebrae is next followed by ice and takes home therapy with restricted movement for the first 48 hours with intermittent ice therapy.

The use of heat is to be avoided until the last phase of Torticolis has begun which is expressed by a general dull ache in the muscles with absolutely no pinch present.

Your neck should have a curve in it between 35 and 45 degrees. This is important for the dynamics of the neck; all motion and lack of degeneration are determined by it.

Do you have a neck with 35 to 45 degrees of curve? If you do all the disc compress equally and its perfection in engineering.

Motion palpation establishes which vertebrae are not moving correctly and to the degree of fixation present. With Torticolis specific vertebral adjustments are usually done everyday for at least three days to establish relief to nerve impingement. Again ice is used at home until the sharpness is gone for at least several days.

Acupuncture can be used for inflammation and other physiotherapy devices can be used for rehabilitation

(See physiotherapy page)

Ergonomics is not an uncommon cause with neck pain.  Computer set-up, driving conditions, sleep environment, repetitive motion or work related hazards. All of these are unique to you and should be talked about, after all “Doctor” really means teacher.

Keeping your human dynamics in order and reducing inflammation and future degeneration is my goal as your doctor.

Please feel free to make an appointment for a Free fifteen minute consultation.

More to come soon on neck pain.