Causes and Symptoms of Neck Pain

Our modern world poses many threats to the health of your cervical spine. For one thing, most of us spend a lot of time hunched over a digital device or slouching in a seated position. This kind of poor posture can misalign joints, weaken your core, and lead to a lot of cumulative stress in your cervical tissues.

Other causes of neck pain include acute trauma (like a fall or auto accident), repetitive movement, stress, and heavy lifting. Women tend to have neck pain more frequently than men, but people of all ages can experience it.

Depending on the structures involved in your neck pain condition, common signs and symptoms include dull, throbbing, and sore neck pain; neck stiffness; arm stiffness, pain, and/or numbness; psychological stress; headaches; and jaw pain.

Diagnosing Neck Pain with a Lancaster Chiropractor

Call our clinic to schedule an appointment with a Lancaster chiropractor if you have neck pain. You'll be taken through a thorough initial examination where we can use tests, diagnostic imaging, and history taking to determine the underlying diagnosis of your condition (knowing this helps guide treatment). Common conditions we diagnose at our chiropractic clinic include:

• Radiculopathy: compression of a nerve in the neck (this is often associated with arm symptoms)
• Degenerative disc disease: progressive degeneration of a cervical spinal disc; other disc conditions include herniation (when the disc tears and inner fluid leaks out) and bulge (when the disc protrudes out of place)
• Whiplash: a syndrome caused by forceful whip-like movement of the neck, typically due to a fall or an auto accident
• Cervical stenosis: progressive spinal narrowing of joints and bony canals in the neck
• Muscle strains: tears in the fibers of the neck, shoulder, and upper back area, generally due to overloading or overuse

Why Working With a Chiropractor in Lancaster CA Can Relieve Your Neck Pain

A chiropractor in Lancaster can help you improve posture and ergonomics, strengthen your core, regain pain-free range of motion, and maximize the rate of tissue healing and neck pain relief using several of our drug-free techniques. Such techniques and services include joint adjustments, spinal decompression, cold laser therapy, and corrective exercises. Treatment is always individualized for your needs!

Chiropractic care at Team Wellness uses a whole-person approach to bring migraine relief. Unlike other care methods that cover up symptoms with medications, chiropractic care aims to give you the necessary tools to avoid triggers. Dr. Shaver also examines your nerve signal flow to eliminate any blockages and reduce pain triggers. After a complete evaluation with Dr. Shaver, you are given a chiropractic care plan to bring migraine relief. Some of the holistic services Team Wellness provides include:

• Spinal adjustments - Dr. Shaver examines your neck and back to determine if any vertebrae are out of line and potentially pressing on nerves. Using a gentle touch, Dr. Shaver positions your spine into a healthier alignment. This allows for proper nerve signal flow and also improves the flow of oxygen and nutrients to your brain, which can reduce migraine frequency.
• Spinal decompression - if any discs, which are located between the vertebrae, are damaged and interfering with the nerves, Team Wellness uses spinal decompression. This technique lengthens your spine to increase the disc space and help the discs recover naturally.
• Lifestyle changes - Dr. Shaver evaluates your daily activities to determine which a migraine triggers you can avoid such as exposure to bright lights, stress or loud sounds.
• Nutritional guidance - certain foods may trigger your migraines and we teach you which foods to avoid. This simple change goes a long way toward eliminating your episodes and keeping you headache-free.
• Stress reduction - stress is another migraine trigger and Dr. Shaver speaks with you about ways to eliminate stress from your day.

A sports related injury may occur as the result of a single traumatic event, such as a collision or a fall, or from overusing one part of the body for a long time. “Tennis elbow” is an example of a sports injury resulting from overuse. Common sports injuries include:

• Bruises
• Fractures
• Sprain – a stretch or tear of the ligaments, which attach bones to create joints
• Strain – a twist, pull or tear of a muscle or tendon, which attaches muscles to bones
• Dislocations – separation of two bones, as the result of extreme force on a ligament

Chiropractic Care is a Safe, Effective, Non-surgical Treatment Approach for Sports Injuries

Sports injuries often affect the joints, causing inflammation and swelling, pain, and reduced function. Chiropractic care is a safe and effective approach to treating sports injuries, in that the goals of chiropractic treatments are to enhance or restore joint function, reduce joint inflammation and ease the pain.

Chiropractic care for sports injuries starts with a comprehensive evaluation, including an examination of the affected area, a gathering of medical history, discussion of the symptoms, and a review of the patient’s activities when the injury occurred.

Chiropractic treatment for sports injury may include spinal manipulation to restore the bones of the spinal column to their optimal positions, decompression and cold laser therapy for bulging discs, and other forms of chiropractic care.

Chiropractic care is an effective treatment approach for sports injuries, in that it addresses pain and dysfunction at their cores – by targeting injured tissue and supporting the healing process. It is also a non-surgical approach and does not require the use of risky painkillers.

Without treatment, sports injuries can cause long-term pain and dysfunction. A chiropractor provides effective treatment that stops pain and improves movement. Chiropractors providing care for sports injuries can also suggest exercises to reduce the risk for worsening a sports injury or developing a new one.

Effective Chiropractic Treatment, Right Away

We can see you after your car accident and begin working on your course of treatment right away. Whether you require manipulations to achieve proper spinal alignment, spinal decompression, or cold laser therapy, we provide comprehensive care. Many patients come to us following an accident because they are reluctant to turn to medical practices that rely on drugs and potentially harmful medications. We believe in finding the cause of your pain and discomfort and treating the core injury rather than working to simply mask symptoms. We want you to lead a pain-free life especially following any injuries sustained in a car accident.

Our team can also work with you to create an entire wellness program including stretches and exercises to strengthen the muscles supporting the spine. These programs are an effective way to continue your treatment at home and to help you to avoid re-injury and help to prevent acute and lingering pain. Our treatments are natural and drug-free and there is no worry of developing reliance upon potentially harmful pain medications.

Whiplash Treatment at Allied Chiropractic in Lancaster, CA

Are you dealing with the pain and limited mobility of whiplash following a car accident? Our Staff in Lancaster, CA invites you to holistic treatment. Our specialists evaluate your auto accident injuries, even if you are not experiencing pain, to determine which of our services best fit your needs. Our Lancaster chiropractors encourage you to schedule a visit if you have been involved in a car accident.

Symptoms of Whiplash

Whiplash symptoms, including headaches, neck pain, dizziness, difficulty focusing your eyes, limited neck mobility and upper back pain, may not appear immediately following an automobile accident. Instead, whiplash symptoms can appear days after an accident, so it is important that our chiropractors evaluate your spine to determine if any injuries have occurred. Whiplash happens when your head snaps quickly forward and backward from rear-end or front-end collision. This motion can move vertebrae out of alignment irritate nerve endings and stretch muscle tissues.

Chiropractic Care for Whiplash in Lancaster

After a consultation and examination with our doctors, your care plan is determined. Our goal with chiropractic care is to reduce pain and inflammation and also to restore your neck's range of motion. To improve the damage to vertebrae, nerves, and muscles in your neck, our chiropractors may use the following non-invasive services:

• Chiropractic adjustments to reposition the vertebrae in your neck. This allows for proper healing and helps to restore your head-turning ability. Gentle adjustments also reduce pressure on the nerves and discs between the vertebrae to help you recover faster and naturally.
• Cold laser therapy to boost muscle injury repair. If you are experiencing pain in the muscles of your neck, shoulders or upper back, the cold laser therapy reaches deep into the muscle tissues to stimulate cellular repair and reduce muscle scar tissue that can cause lasting neck pain.
• Decompression services if you have injured a disc during your car accident. Decompression improves the amount of space between the bones to allow a herniated or bulging disc to recover.
• Corrective exercises to stretch and strengthen your neck. This improves your ability to move your head and also reduces your risk of future injuries.

Certain conditions cause a majority of the cases of knee pain. The first condition is a dislocated need, which occurs when one of the two bones that come together at the joint comes out of place. A dislocated knee is very painful but correctable.

Another common reason for knee pain is bursitis, which describes inflammation in the fluid-filled sac located near your knee joint. The condition causes pain because the sac, more formally known as the bursae, reduces friction and also provides cushioning between the bones, muscles, skin, and tendons around the joint.

Tendinitis is a condition that causes inflammation in the tendons -- the thick fibrous cords that connect the bone and muscle. You'll have pain and tenderness outside of the affected joint. When tendinitis occurs in your knee, it's known as jumper's knee because, in most cases, it arises from jumping.

It's also possible to suffer from sprains and strains. A sprain is an injury caused by stretching or tearing of the ligaments in the knee. A strain, on the other hand, is an injury from the muscles or tendons stretching or tearing.

You could also suffer from a frozen knee, arthritis, or damaged to the cartilage under the knee.

How a Chiropractor Can Help With Knee Pain

Our Allied Chiropractic chiropractors can help relieve your knee pain. One way a chiropractor can help you heal and reduce your pain is through exercise therapy. This particular treatment consists of a professional guiding you through exercises that stretch the knee. The exercises strengthen the muscles and also increase your range of motion. All exercises that a chiropractor guides you through go at a pace that's comfortable for you. In other words, when you first begin the program, the exercises go slowly and increase in difficulty as your condition improves.

Another treatment our chiropractors may use to help with your knee pain is a brace, which supports your knee in order to reduce pain and prevent it from moving in the wrong direction. Our chiropractor may use hot and cold therapy or might place your knee back in its proper position.

We also supply you with lifestyle advice to reduce your discomfort and prevent a knee injury in the future.

Sciatica pain is usually located in the lower back and lower extremities. Sciatic nerve pain generally depends on where the nerve is pinched. There is always an underlying condition. Oddly enough the pain generally is not felt in both legs and feet at once. It is generally only experienced in one or the other. The same general rule applies to the feet as well. Pain is typically worse when the Sciatica sufferer is sitting rather than standing. The pain typically feels as if it is moving through the leg and into the foot and toes. Sufferers describe the pain as "tingling, searing" or "burning". Sciatica sufferers also complain that the pain may come on as a sharp pain that makes it unbearable to stand or walk.

How Can Our Chiropractors Treat Sciatica

There are many courses of treatment that a sufferer may utilize to help alleviate the pain of Sciatica. As part of the treatment team, it is important to understand that much depends on what the underlying causes may be and what you may want to do about those conditions. Chiropractors can help with many non-surgical treatment options that include guided manual manipulations, spinal adjustments, and spinal alignment treatment as well as massage and physical therapy sessions.

Fibromyalgia is not an easy condition to diagnose. Often, you are diagnosed with fibromyalgia through the process of eliminating other conditions. Another way to test for this chronic pain condition is to see if you react when a series of trigger points are pressed. Our doctors provide this evaluation and if you are sensitive to the touch in certain areas, and have other symptoms such as unidentified chronic pain, you may be dealing with fibromyalgia. Once we have a diagnosis, your care plan begins. Our chiropractic care services for fibromyalgia relief include:

• Chiropractic adjustments to position your spine and your joints. Since your nerves are overreacting and sending enhanced pain signals, our chiropractors align your spine to eliminate any pressure on the nerves. This also allows for greater pain-free movements. When Dr. Shaver aligns joints such as your shoulders, knees, and wrists, you often feel an immediate decrease in pain and improved mobility. Adjustments are key to reducing fibromyalgia symptoms as a properly functioning spine improves the way your overall nervous system operates and communicates with the rest of the body. This alone can help to decrease your pain.
• Nutritional support to teach you which foods may be increasing inflammation and pain. For example, our Lancaster chiropractor may suggest an avoidance of gluten and dairy if these food sources lead to inflammation for you.
• Gentle exercises to improve your strength and flexibility. You do not want to overdo exercise when you have fibromyalgia, but the movement is key to reducing pain and maintaining your functional health.
• Stress reducing techniques as stress can cause a fibromyalgia flare. Our Team Wellness staff may teach you how to do yoga, meditate or settle your breathing to reduce stress and pain.

Contact Us Today for Natural Fibromyalgia Care in Lancaster, CA

Team Wellness provides a variety of natural services to reduce your fibromyalgia symptoms. While this is a chronic condition, you do not have to tolerate the daily pain and frustration that accompany fibromyalgia. We want to show you another way by aligning your body for a pain-free living and by showing you daily changes you can make to reduce pain and flare-ups. Do not want to tackle fibromyalgia head on.

• Back or joint pain from a slip and fall which can happen at home on wet floors, outside on icy or cracked pavement or at work.
• Overuse joint pain from repetitive movements such as using a hammer, raking a yard or throwing a baseball.
• Muscle strains from overwork or lifting something heavy.
• Headaches from years of poor posture, poor workstation arrangement, or following a concussion.
• Limited walking, bending or lifting mobility due to degenerating or herniating discs, which can happen from overuse or the aging process.

If you are experiencing any of the above or are dealing with other personal injuries, our Lancaster team can provide holistic integrated treatments.

Chiropractic Care for Personal Injury Treatment in Lancaster, CA

Our chiropractic team uses techniques that enhance your body's natural healing abilities. Our chiropractors gently adjust your spine and joints into a healthy and pain-free alignment which allows for greater healing and restores your mobility. We may also use spinal decompression to increase the amount of space between the vertebrae which allow discs and pinched nerves to recover. Our chiropractors use cold laser therapy when providing personal injury treatment for muscle concerns.

Cold laser therapy reaches the deep muscle cells to stimulate healing and repair. As your body begins to recover, our team of chiropractors suggests exercises that restore muscle balance and also improve your flexibility. We may also show you lifestyle changes such as proper heavy lifting techniques, sleeping positions and ways to arrange your computer to avoid strain on your neck and upper back. If you notice, all of our services are non-invasive and designed to enhance your body's natural healing efforts. Working with our chiropractors, your body is positioned for faster healing and healing that takes place without lasting concerns such as scar tissue and decreased mobility.