Neck Pain
Neck pain including cervical stenosis, cervical disc, whiplash, torticollis (dystonia), muscle spasms, ligament sprain and soft tissue injury
When you have neck pain, it can be the sign of the abnormality of muscles, tendons, ligaments and cervical vertebrae in the neck and/or shoulders.
Neck pain is the condition successfully treated by Acupuncture in our clinic as often as Headache and lower back pain, however finding the root problems is very important to prevent further injuries and worsening.
And also because of today’s lifestyle spent most of time in sitting and working on the computer, neck pain seems to occur frequently and become easily chronic and change the human structure.
If you have the neck pain and couldn’t turn your head (limited range of motion) or having the pain traveling down to the arm and hands with numbing and tingling sensation(nerve compression, pinched nerve, muscle spasm), call us at 310-401-3347, we can help you.
Human neck and its evolution
The neck connects your head and shoulder (the other parts other than head) which gave humans so much freedom of movement that it played a surprising and major role in the evolution of the human brain.
“A neck allowed for improved movement and dexterity in terrestrial and aerial environments, and this innovation in biomechanics evolved hand-in-hand with changes in how the nervous system controls our limbs.“ Andrew Bass, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior
Bass explains that this unexpected level of evolutionary plasticity likely accounts for the incredible range of forelimb abilities — from their use in flight by birds to swimming by whales and dolphins, and playing piano for humans.
Human neck and its anatomy (location and what the neck contains inside)
The position of the neck, and what is contained within it, are very important to our life and every day survival. Our internal carotid arteries and the vertebral arteries are there to supply blood to our brain – although the brain is only about 2% of the total body weight in humans; it receives 15-20% of the body’s blood supply and the spinal cord sends the nerve signals from the other parts of body to the brain through the neck.
The human brain is much heavier than the other primates like chimpanzees compared to the size of our bodies.
As Homo erectus, walking up right, allows continuous gravity pressure to the neck and in turn, over the day, the tension can build up with varying degree based on our activities. For instance, there are people paralyzed below the neck due to a neck injury by a car accident, skiing or horse-riding and so on. Anatomically, the neck has many important organs such as arteries and many important lymph nodes, thyroid (parathyroid), pharynx, larynx. Therefore If you have the problems in the neck that can also affect these organs and cause headache, eye, TMJ and shoulder, arm pain sometimes with fingers numbing and tingling.
Our lifestyles and office work cause many problems.
The human neck in action: how is your lifestyle? Eating, walking, working at the office, driving…
Research published in the Journal SPINE, highlighted that “the sitting position has been identified as a risk factor for the development and increased frequency and severity of neck pain” (Horton et al, 2010) An article in the Journal MANUAL THERAPY goes on to say that the “prevalence of neck and shoulder girdle pain in office workers using computers may be as high as 31%”.
The common characteristics that can be found in office workers include a combination of:
- Flexion or forward bending of the lower part of the neck;
- Tilting of the head upwards and forward;
- Rounding of the shoulders, with the shoulder blades moving outwards towards the sides
And Can you imagine a human without a neck, if so, what would happen?
Neck conditions can affect your head and the other parts of your body greatly.
When you have neck pain, it can be the sign of the abnormality of muscles, tendons, ligaments(soft tissue damage) and cervical vertebrae(cervical stenosis, disc etc) in the neck and/or shoulders. Neck pain is the condition successfully treated by Acupuncture in our clinic as often as Headache and lower back pain, however finding the root problems is very important to prevent further injuries and worsening so we find out the root problems and address the real problems. Also because of today’s lifestyle spent most of the time in driving, sitting and working on the computer, neck pain seems to occur more frequently than ever and become easily chronic and change the human structure.
If you have the neck pain and couldn’t turn your head (limited range of motion) or having the pain traveling down to the arm and hands with numbing and tingling sensation(nerve compression, pinched nerve, muscle spasm), call us at 310-401-3347, we can help you.
References
New York University and Cornell University neuroscientists in the online journal Nature Communications (July 27, 2010.) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100727112833.htm
https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/vessel.html
Szeto, G.P.Y., Strakerb, L., & Raine, S. A field comparison of neck and shoulder postures in symptomatic and asymptomatic office workers. Applied Ergonomics. 33 (2002) 75–84.