Neck pain is becoming increasingly more common and has an estimated lifetime prevalence of approximately 70%. Probably the most common culprit is work related physical and psychological demands. What this means is that poor postures due to hovering behind computers as well as stress can be big contributors to neck pain. Neck pain complaints are associated with substantial health care costs and work absenteeism. Unfortunately many people do not know what to do for their neck pain. Some turn to the medical community, only to be told to take some pain medications or muscle relaxers. This approach sometimes gives temporary relief, but it absolutely will not address the underlying issue.
Chiropractic treatment is becoming increasingly popular as a treatment choice for neck pain. Until recently we didn’t know exactly how a chiropractic manipulation worked, we just knew that patients got better. It had always just been explained that the spine needed to be realigned, and to an extent this is true. However, we now know that there is much more to this. As more research is done we are finding that there are precise nervous system reflexes taking place as well.
Spinal pain specialist Stuart McGill has said that spinal manipulations may act as a restart for the central nervous system. This manipulation will reset the correct muscle function for the muscles that cross those joints being adjusted. This happens because the intricate muscles along the spine have nervous system receptors that act as position sensors. These receptors, or position sensors are what allow our brains to know when and how body parts are moving. Any type of trauma, stress, or incorrect postures will cause joints to become restricted, and essentially they will no longer function the way there were designed to function. In theory Stuart McGill felt that correcting the alignment of the joint would also cause those receptors to be activated and allow for more coordinated muscle activity along the spine.
In a new article written in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics they have found very similar findings. This research was dedicated to the cervical spine, which is what is considered the neck. Measurements of neck muscle activation were recorded using ultrasonographic imaging. It has already been known that many who suffer from neck pain have areas of tight muscles and other muscles that are not working properly to stabilize the spine. The tight muscle is the sternocleidomastoid and the commonly weak muscles include the deep cervical neck flexors. The result of the research said that “Cervical mobilization appeared to modulate neck muscles function by increasing deep muscles and reducing superficial muscles recruitment”. (J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2011;34: 514-524)
