For many people, neck pain is a regular part of daily life. Often, you might not even know why your head and neck are aching so badly. Your neck contains complex bones, ligaments, and muscles, all supporting the weight of your head. Lots of factors can throw off healthy motion, potentially leaving you in chronic pain.
At Active Health Clinics of Fort Dodge, Iowa, our experienced care team draws on holistic medical techniques to discover the root cause of your head or neck pain. Once we’ve identified the misalignment in your spine or imbalances in your muscles, we can work with you to resolve your neck pain.
A delicate balance
Your spine, running from your neck down the length of your back to your tailbone, houses your spinal cord and large numbers of branching nerves that can be a source of pain when there’s damage or misalignment. Your neck (cervical spine) contains 7 vertebral bones with discs between them, functioning together to support your head and provide movement in a variety of directions.
Because your neck contains so many vital components, it’s easy for something to go awry. Slight deviations from ideal alignment can grow worse over time, increasing your discomfort.
Your neck pain could be the result of a number of problems, including injury, muscle strain, compressed nerves, inflammation, or arthritis. Regular poor posture can lead to neck pain, too, as can traumatic single events like car accidents that involve whiplash injuries.
Identifying the real issue
At Active Health Clinics, we start by getting to the root of the problem and identifying the cause of your persistent neck pain. To begin, we take your complete medical history and perform a physical exam. After we review your symptoms and so some testing, we can recommend the best course of action to correct your underlying issue and relieve your neck pain. We might also need to order X-rays or other types of imaging tests to confirm your diagnosis.
You may need to make changes to your daily life, work, and rest habits to relieve you of chronic neck pain. We can advise you on the right combinations of treatments, interventions, and perform chiropractic adjustments to have you pain free. Depending on your exact diagnosis, we might recommend a variety of other therapies, too, a few of which include:
- Heat or ice
- Corrective exercises
- Stretches
- Massage therapy
- Cold laser therapy
- Electrical stimulation
- Posture awareness
To remain pain free, you might need to adjust your bed and pillows or work station and habits. If you can consistently maintain good posture and effective support, you may find your chronic neck pain improving and even becoming a thing of the past.
To get started on resolving your neck pain, contact Active Health Clinics today. You can schedule your initial consultation with a member of our team by calling our office or using the online tool.
