Innovated Non-Surgical Treatment For Cervical Spinal Pain

How does innovated non-surgical treatment help assist individuals with cervical spinal pain to reduce headaches?

Introduction

Do you or your loved ones often experience headaches that don’t disappear? Do you often feel your shoulder and neck muscles ache after looking down at your cell phone? Or do you feel aches after being slouched for an extended period? Many of these scenarios correlate with referred pain in the cervical spinal region, which can develop into neck pain. The neck region is located in the upper body portion and provides mobility for the head without pain and discomfort. The neck region also has surrounding muscles and ligaments that support the spine and protects the thyroid and spinal cord. However, just like the back region, it is susceptible to pain as many individuals can overstretch the neck muscles, and it can cause referred pain to the shoulders and head, leading to pain-like symptoms that can lead to a life of disability. However, non-surgical treatments can minimize the pain and help strengthen the surrounding muscles in the neck region. Today’s article focuses on how cervical spinal pain connects with headaches and how decompression can reduce headaches while relieving neck pain. Additionally, we communicate with certified medical providers who incorporate our patients’ information to reduce cervical spinal pain associated with headaches, causing many musculoskeletal issues in the upper body portion. We also inform them that non-surgical treatments can help relieve headaches and provide relief to the neck region. We encourage our patients to ask amazing educational questions for our associated medical providers about their symptoms correlating with cervical spinal pain. Dr. Jimenez, D.C., incorporates this information as an academic service. Disclaimer

Cervical Spinal Pain & Headache Connection

Throughout the world, neck pain (cervical spinal pain) is the second most common problem that can affect many individuals throughout their lives. It can lead to a life of disability and pain if not treated immediately. Many individuals often experience non-specific neck pain, as it can be through a postural or mechanical basis that can cause muscle strain in the surrounding muscles or compress the spinal canal to cause headaches that can last throughout the entire day. (Binder, 2008) Additionally, neck pain, like back pain, is a multifactorial disease with common risk factors like lack of physical activity, duration of computer usage, and perceived stress. (Kazeminasab et al., 2022) Many of these risk factors are normal as they can also affect the surrounding muscles in the lower back region and shoulder region, as many people often do repetitive motions that can naturally be overstretched and cause pain-like issues to the neck region. With neck pain connected with headaches, it can cause overlapping risk profiles and be costly. Neck pain associated with headaches can be a frequent and expensive occupational health problem as symptoms of pain, disability, reduced life quality, and, for adults, time lost for work. (Ben Ayed et al., 2019)

The correlation between headaches and neck pain is that the spinal canal is compressed from traumatic forces that can lead to cervicogenic headaches. Cervicogenic headaches usually aggravate neck mobility, thus reducing the ROM of the neck. (Verma, Tripathi, & Chandra, 2021) This can lead to many individuals suffering from migraine-like headaches and muscle stiffness in the upper regions of the body. When many individuals are dealing with headaches associated with cervical spinal pain, many will find treatments to mitigate the pain-like symptoms affecting the upper body region.

The Benefits Of Stretching-Video

When it comes to neck pain, it can be either acute or chronic depending the factors that cause it or the severity of the pain. Many individuals sought treatment that can alleviate the pain in the upper regions that are non-surgical and beneficial to their health and well-being. Non-surgical treatments can help stretch the tight and short muscles in the neck region and can reduce headaches affecting the person. Additionally, having the neck muscles professionally stretched by a massage therapist can relieve the neck and reduce headaches. The video above explains the benefits of stretching and describes how many people don’t stretch their bodies often to prevent pain-like issues from reoccurring in the future.

Spinal Decompression For Cervical Pain

Non-surgical treatments are excellent when it comes to reducing neck pain. When relieving neck pain, healthcare professionals must use the best available evidence to enhance clinical decision-making and improve the quality of care for people with neck pain. (Misailidou et al., 2010) Spinal decompression can help many people with neck pain by reducing the issues through gentle spinal traction. What spinal decompression does for the cervical spine is that it can realign the disc that is aggravating the neck region and causing headaches by stretching the surrounding muscles. This causes muscle improvement for the neck as it can change the patient’s pain outcome. (Youssef et al., 2019) Additionally, spinal decompression is safe, cost-effective, and gentle on the spine as it can be combined with other therapies to mitigate any residual pain that can relieve the neck and back. (Flynn, 2020) Many people who incorporate spinal decompression as part of their routine can benefit from their outcome as they return to their routine.

References

Ben Ayed, H., Yaich, S., Trigui, M., Ben Hmida, M., Ben Jemaa, M., Ammar, A., Jedidi, J., Karray, R., Feki, H., Mejdoub, Y., Kassis, M., & Damak, J. (2019). Prevalence, Risk Factors and Outcomes of Neck, Shoulders and Low-Back Pain in Secondary-School Children. J Res Health Sci, 19(1), e00440. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31133629

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6941626/pdf/jrhs-19-e00440.pdf

Binder, A. I. (2008). Neck pain. BMJ Clin Evid, 2008. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19445809

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2907992/pdf/2008-1103.pdf

Flynn, D. M. (2020). Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: Nonpharmacologic, Noninvasive Treatments. American Family Physician, 102(8), 465-477. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33064421

https://www.aafp.org/dam/brand/aafp/pubs/afp/issues/2020/1015/p465.pdf

Kazeminasab, S., Nejadghaderi, S. A., Amiri, P., Pourfathi, H., Araj-Khodaei, M., Sullman, M. J. M., Kolahi, A. A., & Safiri, S. (2022). Neck pain: global epidemiology, trends and risk factors. BMC Musculoskelet Disord, 23(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-021-04957-4

Misailidou, V., Malliou, P., Beneka, A., Karagiannidis, A., & Godolias, G. (2010). Assessment of patients with neck pain: a review of definitions, selection criteria, and measurement tools. J Chiropr Med, 9(2), 49-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcm.2010.03.002

Verma, S., Tripathi, M., & Chandra, P. S. (2021). Cervicogenic Headache: Current Perspectives. Neurol India, 69(Supplement), S194-S198. https://doi.org/10.4103/0028-3886.315992

Youssef, J. A., Heiner, A. D., Montgomery, J. R., Tender, G. C., Lorio, M. P., Morreale, J. M., & Phillips, F. M. (2019). Outcomes of posterior cervical fusion and decompression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Spine J, 19(10), 1714-1729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spinee.2019.04.019

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