From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
Chiropractic and that Pain in the Neck
By Brian Blower, DC
May 12, 2011 - 10:48:41 AM
Your neck pain may be of many
types and varieties. Many causes of neck pain are generally overlooked
and when untreated then inevitably lead to degeneration of the discs,
bones and joints. Early arthritis and pain often ensues.
Knowing this and practicing
as a chiropractor for many years I was more that just interested the
other day by an article in a prestigious Medical Journal which revealed
that the degeneration of the spine, particularly of the neck, is strongly
associated with osteoporosis at that site as well.
Osteoporosis, the loss or lack
of calcium and bone density is a common finding especially among the
north American populations. There is a direct relationship between
osteoporosis and vitamin D3 production which is greatly enhanced through
metabolic generators prompted by the skin being irradiated by sunlight.
Vitamin D also promotes healthy arteries, supports blood pressure as
well as the immune functions and glucose metabolism.
All that is of interest but
if you have neck pain it is unlikely that just getting more sunlight,
supplementation of vitamin D3 or any of the other “plethora’ of
treatments out there will slow down or reverse degenerative disc disease
of the neck even if you can reverse some of the osteoporosis present.
The article I mentioned caught
my interest because it dealt with something that chiropractors have
been saying publicly for over 100 years. Chiropractors have been
extolling the virtues of spinal manipulation particularly exact vertebral
adjustments of high velocity but low impact on the “subluxated”
or misaligned bones of our human body. Chiropractic adjustments
are done by hand.
Apparently the article said
the degeneration of the bone and disc along with the local osteopenia
or reduced calcium at the level of degeneration of the neck is due to
the loss or lack of mobility of the pieces making up the human spine.
For years and years chiropractors
have been extolling the necessity to mobilize the subluxations of the
human frame. We as a profession are not alone in our desire to
reproduce a healthy and mobile segmented body frame and structure.
Other professions such as medicine and physiotherapists along with the
practices of yoga, massage and exercise especially with a trainer, which
includes weight lifting, have a desire to improve the range of motion
(ROM) of the joints of the body. If you are stiff you are old.
However, and I would like this
to be perfectly clear to all of you interested in restoring your health,
historically it is only the chiropractor that is trained and duty bound
to find and then adjust to mobilize and restore the maximum ROM of the
bodies joints throughout the human frame especially those of the vertebrae
that make up our spine.
It is now evident that the
nervous systems depend upon low resistance to their “flow” in order
to inform the brain about what is necessary to nourish its body parts
in an ongoing manner. Furthermore resistance to the flow of the
vital signals of nerves throughout our bodies compromises our functions
electrochemically as well. And we are an electrochemical manufacturing
plant. First we breathe then we eat, from the womb to the tomb.
We eat to turn the vitality within our food first into sugar and then
into energy and current for the nerves.
So how does this affect your
neck pain? Well, loss of mobility of the neck bones is both frequent
and common. That jerk to the neck in the car or that strain from
painting the living room or that long shopping trip with those heavy
bags can all cause a loss of mobility to the boney segments of the neck
and upper back with its ribs. Frequently tossing a set of dumbbells
even if they are light in weight may cause a subluxation of the bony
joints at many and various joint levels.
Once present the loss of ROM
at that level resists the flow of the nerve signals and the body loses
information about how to take care of itself. Then the loss turns
to compromise and the uninformed brain cannot take care of its body
parts. Degeneration ensues and of course the pain from loss of
function is what we inevitably feel.
Drugs will never return the
loss of motion to the body parts. Often neither will the yoga
or physiotherapist traction or massage or any other attempt will get
deep enough to rout out the loss of segmental movement.
Thus the chiropractor still
stands alone in his vigil of helping mankind by willing his ability
to go deep into your body to the bony tissues and with his powerful
hands adjust those segments to get them to wake up and become part of
the whole again.
Apparently this also restores
the go and flow of the nerves which then nourish the tissues both hard
and soft and returns to normal the functions of the human frame.
So if your neck is sore and
you haven’t attempted to reduce the pain and dysfunction with chiropractic
care then I would advise you to quickly get on with it before the degeneration
and the subluxations allow you to wither and age prematurely.
About the author:
Dr. Brian Blower has been a licensed chiropractor for 35 years
practicing Applied Kinesiology and has been in private practice on
Grand Bahama Island for the past
10 years. He is a founding member of Applied Kinesiology Canada and was
educated at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. He has treated
many celebrities and also specializes in sports medicine. Dr Blower is
currently in practice at the Family Wellness
Center across from the Rand Hospitcal, Freeport. He can be reached at 242-351-5424 or 242-727-2454. You
can also find Dr. Blower on Facebook HERE
Feel free to contact Dr. Blower with any of your questions or comments at BodyByBlower@yahoo.com
© Copyright 2011 by thebahamasweekly.com -