| 17 August 2010
South West Health fights neck pain in Costa Mesa
How many times have you woken up with a stiff neck in the morning and it went away by itself? What about the time you fell asleep on the couch and couldn't move your neck the next morning? Proper support for your neck is the key to avoiding these situations. If this sounds like you, read on. This morning alone we saw three separate cases of that very thing.
One person had slept on a bad pillow while on vacation, another patient had suffered a ribcage and upper back injury last August and the last one fell asleep on the couch three months ago and his neck and upper back have hurt ever since.
The key to solving the problem is to figure out what causing the neck pain. The first test you can do on yourself at home is to bend your neck toward the side that hurts. If that makes it worse, then you most likely have a structural issue. In other words, your neck may be misalignment and pinching a nerve. If your neck hurts worse when you bend away from the side that hurts, then your problem is more muscular. There are exceptions as well. In many cases we see ribcage subluxations (misalignments) that cause reflex contraction of the associated muscles in the area leading to neck pain and spasm.
Your condition is more serious if the neck pain is radiating into either your shoulder blade area or down one of your arms. It is important to get to the root cause of your problem to eliminate the pain and restore function to the area. In some cases a bulging disc may be the cause of the pain.
In our Costa Mesa office we work a patient up very carefully to determine whether they need x-rays, an MRI or other diagnostic testing to determine the cause of the pain. In all cases, we need to control inflammation. One of the ways we do this is have the patient eliminate foods that may be inflammatory in nature from their diet. These would include but are not limited to refined sugar, flour products, refined grains and dairy products. In other words, we go sugar free, gluten free and dairy free to assist in removing inflammation from the body. In addition, we recommend whole foot supplements like enzymes and anti-inflammatory herbs that help manage the inflammation as well.
Treatment can involve manual manipulation of the involved vertebrae, therapeutic massage therapy, acupuncture to name a few. Once you are feeling better, rehabilitative exercises are prescribed using a web based program to help prevent the same situation from coming back. At South West Health, we have a team of wellness providers that can handle just about any situation you have with your neck. In the event, we decide that you need a referral to another specialist, we have you covered. We work with some of the top physical therapists, neurologists and orthopedists in the area.
If your neck is bothering you, get an appointment to see me and I will get to work immediately to uncover the cause of your problem. Call us in Costa Mesa at 949-631-5226 ext 10
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