Find Relief with NUCCA Chiropractic and Take Back Control of Your Health
Common Conditions We Help
Neck and Back Pain
We live in a world where our posture and movement have become dictated by our environment - namely chairs and technology. As you go about your day how often do you catch yourself shifting positions or rubbing your shoulders? These subtle behaviours may be a sign of increased stress on your postural system and overall body alignment. Similar to a car that is out of alignment, your body will be able to adapt to this stress until it reaches a breaking point, often resulting in neck and back pain or injury.
Restoring proper posture and balance to your body helps to reduce the stress on your muscles and joints allowing you to move better and more freely.
We live in a world where our posture and movement have become dictated by our environment - namely chairs and technology. As you go about your day how often do you catch yourself shifting positions or rubbing your shoulders? These subtle behaviours may be a sign of increased stress on your postural system and overall body alignment. Similar to a car that is out of alignment, your body will be able to adapt to this stress until it reaches a breaking point, often resulting in neck and back pain or injury.
Restoring proper posture and balance to your body helps to reduce the stress on your muscles and joints allowing you to move better and more freely.
Dizziness & Balance Problems
The neck is a vital and complex region of your body that supports your head and allows your brain to communicate with the rest of your body. Located in the small sub-occipital muscles between your head and upper neck is a dense concentration of little sensors that tell your brain where your head and body is in space. This spatial information is integrated with the sensory information coming from your eyes and ears and allows you to stand upright on two feet and move around your environment without falling down.
Stress in the neck, whether it be due to injury or poor postural habits, can change the sensory information coming from these little sensors. This may result in feelings of dizziness or light headedness, poor movement and coordination, and a body that is out of balance. Maintaining your sense of balance is essential to healthy ageing and addressing structural misalignments may be at the core of restoring this function!
The neck is a vital and complex region of your body that supports your head and allows your brain to communicate with the rest of your body. Located in the small sub-occipital muscles between your head and upper neck is a dense concentration of little sensors that tell your brain where your head and body is in space. This spatial information is integrated with the sensory information coming from your eyes and ears and allows you to stand upright on two feet and move around your environment without falling down.
Stress in the neck, whether it be due to injury or poor postural habits, can change the sensory information coming from these little sensors. This may result in feelings of dizziness or light headedness, poor movement and coordination, and a body that is out of balance. Maintaining your sense of balance is essential to healthy ageing and addressing structural misalignments may be at the core of restoring this function!
Headaches
Not all headaches are created equal, in fact some can be more of a pain in the neck than others. The average adult head weighs around 10-12 lbs and is balanced on a two-ounce ring of bone called the atlas (C1). While this design may seem flawed, there are approximately 44 muscles and a near equal number of ligaments that support your head and neck and communicate with your brain about where your body is in space.
Neck injuries, such as whiplash injuries, or chronic repetitive stress injuries, such as poor posture, can cause the joints in your neck to lock up in an abnormal position leading to restricted range of motion, increased muscle stiffness, and strain on the nerves and blood vessels between you head and neck. This increased muscle stiffness can trigger referred pain and pressure that may be felt in the forehead, temples, and base of the skull. Treating the underlying neck dysfunction may be as simple as correcting your posture and can dramatically reduce these symptoms.
Not all headaches are created equal, in fact some can be more of a pain in the neck than others. The average adult head weighs around 10-12 lbs and is balanced on a two-ounce ring of bone called the atlas (C1). While this design may seem flawed, there are approximately 44 muscles and a near equal number of ligaments that support your head and neck and communicate with your brain about where your body is in space.
Neck injuries, such as whiplash injuries, or chronic repetitive stress injuries, such as poor posture, can cause the joints in your neck to lock up in an abnormal position leading to restricted range of motion, increased muscle stiffness, and strain on the nerves and blood vessels between you head and neck. This increased muscle stiffness can trigger referred pain and pressure that may be felt in the forehead, temples, and base of the skull. Treating the underlying neck dysfunction may be as simple as correcting your posture and can dramatically reduce these symptoms.
Concussions
In recent years there has been an outpouring of research looking at the mechanisms and treatment options for concussions. While once previously thought to be an isolated mild brain injury, more evidence is demonstrating a dual injury that occurs both in the brain and neck when someone has sustained a concussion. When measured, it has been found that it takes 70 – 120 g-force to cause a concussion, while a neck injury only requires 4 g-force. Without treating this underlying neck injury someone may go on to experience prolonged symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and, yes, neck pain. Properly assessment and treating the underlying neck injury is critical to optimizing your concussion recovery.
In recent years there has been an outpouring of research looking at the mechanisms and treatment options for concussions. While once previously thought to be an isolated mild brain injury, more evidence is demonstrating a dual injury that occurs both in the brain and neck when someone has sustained a concussion. When measured, it has been found that it takes 70 – 120 g-force to cause a concussion, while a neck injury only requires 4 g-force. Without treating this underlying neck injury someone may go on to experience prolonged symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and, yes, neck pain. Properly assessment and treating the underlying neck injury is critical to optimizing your concussion recovery.
