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Category : Neck Pain

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Stomach sleeping causes neck pain and spinal complaints

by on 25 November 2015in About Chiropractic, Lower Back Pain, Neck Pain

Sleeping on your stomach is hard on your spine.  Here’s 3 reasons to avoid stomach sleeping.

Headaches

Sleeping on your stomach forces a person to make a decision.  How am I going to breath with my face in this pillow, the simple answer is to turn your head to one side or the other.  Sleeping with your head turned, however, is going to place a large amount of tension on your upper neck.  70% of the necks turning ability happens at the top two vertebra in the spine called the atlas and axis.  Sleeping for hours with the head rotated to breath will cause irritation in the joints that connect the atlas and the axis together.  This irritation can and frequently does lead to headaches.  Many people that I see in my office for chronic headaches are stomach sleepers.

Neck Pain

Just as described in the above paragraph on headaches, sleeping on the stomach also puts a tremendous burden on the neck.  Sleeping with the head turned for hours to the left or right will cause all the cervical vertebra to rotate and lock out.  Hours of this stress will result in irritation to the joints in the neck.  This chronic stress over time leads to neck pain and headaches.  Simply moving off the stomach to side sleeping can reduce the  amount of headaches and neck pain considerably.

Lower Back Pain

Stomach sleepers frequently put their arms up under their head to elevate it so they can breath.  Worse they put their arms up on their pillow and elevate their head with raises them up even further.  This move will cause the stomach sleeper to have to hyperextend their lower back.  Hours of the lower back being hyper extended will place tremendous loads on the joints in the lumbar spine and pelvis and ultimately result in lower back pain or pain in the sacroiliac joints if they splay out a leg like a frog.  Lower back pain is a common side effect of stomach sleeping.

Side Sleeping is Much Better

Simply flipping off the stomach and laying on your side is a much better way to sleep.  Make sure to have a pillow that will keep your head in alignment with your upper back and it is also recommended to put a pillow between your knees to keep your SI joints from becoming strained.  Learning to not sleep on the stomach and sleeping on the side can help to prevent headaches, neck pain and lower back pain.

In Health,

Dr. Pivonka

Chiropractor

Tips for Good Posture at a Standing Desk

by on 19 October 2015in About Chiropractic, Blog, Lower Back Pain, Neck Pain

Sitting at a desk all day working on a computer has been shown to lead to poor health.  This recent finding has brought about an up tic in standing desks at work.   While standing is far better than sitting for your overall health and posture, if done incorrectly, it can still cause problems.  Here are some tips from Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert AZ on how to have good posture at a standing desk.

1. Sitting or Standing keeping correct head posture is Key.

Studies have shown that for each inch the head moves in front of the shoulder the effective weight of the head and the stress on the neck increases.  Each inch may cause the head to effectively gain 5-8 pounds.  So standing with the head over the shoulder is key.  Try to keep the monitor at eye level at all times.

2.  Keep your key board so that your elbows bend at 90 degrees.

If your key board is to high or low this will force you to raise or sink your shoulders.   Over time this will increase strain on the neck and trapezius muscles resulting in poor posture and pain.  Remember to have relaxed shoulders.

3.  Move around.  Standing sedentary can lead to fluid build up in the feet.

Your calf muscles are the natural pump to keep blood moving out of your lower legs and back to your heart.  Shift your weight from side to side and back and forth to keep these muscles active and keep your blood moving.

4. Stand with knees slightly bent.

This kind of goes back to the recommendation to move around.  Locked knees will prevent blood flow, but it will also cause posture shift.  Locked knees will cause the pelvis to jut forward and the torso to shift back.  Proper posture should keep ear on shoulder, shoulder on hip and hip over knee and ankle.  So try to keep those knees bent a little and posture aligned.

5. Get some cushion.

Hard concrete floors will return the force your body exerts on them back to you.  If standing all day wear some cushy shoes or get a rubberized mat to stand on to lessen the blow from a hard floor.  Also get a foot rest and rest one foot on the rest at a time.

6.  Set a timer.

Try to keep a timer on your phone to go off every 20 minutes.  Then back away from your desk and shake out all the stress.  Skip some imaginary rope, or shake out your arms and shoulders moving the shake down to your legs.  This will prevent the build up of lactic acid in your muscles and keep your muscles relaxed and working well.

Try these 6 simple tips to proper standing posture and you will find yourself having less pain and dysfunction related to any computer based job.  If, however, you do have pain though that persists even if you’re following these 6 simple tips then Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert AZ is more than happy to help figure out what is going on and get you back to feeling great ASAP.  Call our office today at (480) 892-0022.

In Health,

Andy Pivonka,D.C.

 

 

Corrective Chiropractic and Neck pain at Pivonka Chiropractic

by on 7 October 2015in Blog, Migraines, Neck Pain, Resources

At Some Point Everyone Has Neck Pain

It has been estimated that everyone at some point in there life is going to suffer from neck pain.  Reasons for this very from sleeping wrong to having an accident but when the neck pain keeps returning or becomes chronic this indicates that there is something wrong with the neck.

The Neck Has a Normal Structure

The spine has a normal structure, from the front it should be straight and from the side it should have 3 normal curves.  In the neck region or cervical spine the curvature should go to the front.  The purpose of this forward curve or lordotic curvature is to act like a curve in a bridge and carry the weight of the 10-15 pound head.  If this normal curvature is maintained then the neck muscles, ligaments and vertebra will maintain normal integrity and not be exposed to abnormal stress and tension, hence no pain for the most part.  It’s when this normal lordotic curve is lost that problems begin and neck pain comes on.

22 Years of Practice, I’ve Seen 19 Normal Necks

In my 22 years of clinical practice as a Chiropractor I have seen, to date, 19 normal neck curves out of the thousands of neck pain patients that I have seen.  The vast majority of neck pain patients I’ve seen have all had a loss of their cervical (neck) curve.  Research has shown that loss of the cervical curve is highly predictive of pain in the cervical spine and also the largest producer of headaches (see studies below).  The simple reason for the pain is that when the normal neck curve is lost then the muscles, ligaments and bones in the cervical spine begin to erode due to the abnormal stresses over the years.  Once these tissues have eroded enough they begin to produce neck pain and headaches and treatment from a Doctor of Chiropractic is typically sought at that point.

Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert Works to Restore Necks to Normal

At Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert our goal is to rehabilitate and restore the normal curvature to the cervical spine, in our neck pain and headache patients.   By restoring normal structure we restore normal function and this helps our neck pain and headache patient’s return to life without pain.  Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert has been improving cervical curves for 22 years and we see great results in patients with neck pain and headaches using corrective chiropractic care.  If you are having neck pain or headaches and you have tried other treatments, including other chiropractic treatments, with little improvement, give our office a call and see if the type of Chiropractic we practice might be the solution.  Call Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert at (480) 892-0022 today.

In Health,

Dr. Pivonka

 

1. Harrison DD, et al. Spine 2004; 29:2485-2492.

2. McAviney J, Schulz D, Richard Bock R, Harrison DE, Holland B. Determining a clinical normal value for cervical lordosis. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2005;28:187-193.

3. Jochumsen OH. The curve of the cervical spine. The ACA Journal of Chiropractic 1970; August IV:S49-S55.

4. Choudhary Bakhtiar S; Sapur Suneetha; Deb P S. Forward Head Posture is the Cause of ‘Straight Spine Syndrome’ in Many Professionals. Indian J Occupat and Environmental Med 2000 (Jul); 4 (3): 122—124.

5. Nagasawa A, Sakakibara T, Takahashi A. Roentgenographic findings of the cervical spine in tension-type headache. Headache 1993;33:90-95.

6. Braaf MM, Rosner S. Trauma of the cervical spine as a cause of chronic headache. J Trauma 1975;15:441-446.

7. Vernon H, Steiman I, Hagino C. Cervicogenic dysfunction in muscle contraction headache and migraine: A descriptive study. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1992;15:418-29.

Neck Pain is One Thing a Chiropractor in Gilbert Can Help You With (480) 892-0022

Corrective Chiropractic: Arthritis in the neck and neck pain

by on 1 October 2015in Blog, Neck Pain

neck arthritis

20 Years and Thousands of Patients with Cervical Spine arthritis and Neck Pain

Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert AZ will be celebrating 20 years in business in 2016.  In these 20 years in Gilbert we have seen thousands of patients with neck pain and in the vast majority of these cases there is one common link, cervical spine arthritis.  Now in most of these cases the arthritis present in the neck isn’t causing the pain, but what the arthritis represents is a side effect of past trauma or chronic misalignment of the cervical spine or both.  In the X-ray you see here there are large arthritic spurs present at the 4th, 5th and 6th cervical vertebra.  In my 23 years of looking at cervical x-rays the most common levels to develop arthritis at are C4,C5 and C6.  Some doctors would say that developing arthritis in the neck is a normal part of aging, but my question is, if it’s a normal part of aging then how come it only happens at C4,C5 and C6?  Aren’t all the bones in the neck the same age?  If age did this then why aren’t all the bones developing spurs?  The answer is because it’s not due to age, osteoarthritis is due to reaction to abnormal stress as a result of a physiological law called Wolfe’s Law.

Bone is Not Dead Tissue

Bone is not dead tissue, in fact it is very much alive and it changes due to stress.  If a bone is stressed too much it develops more bone to compensate, this is Wolfe’s law.  Past trauma’s can damage the bone and result in arthritic change but the majority of patient’s we see have limited trauma histories with no severe injuries to their neck, so trauma is not the major factor.  The major factor in almost all neck pain patients is a loss of the normal curvature in the neck, as seen above.  If the neck loses it’s normal curvature then the bones in the neck are forced to carry more of the load on the front of the cervical vertebra, most common at and not on the back where the weight is supposed to be.  This shifting of the weight forward, due to the loss of the normal cervical curve, places chronic stress onto the front of the vertebra, most commonly at C4, C5 and C6.  Over time the body will sense that stress and begin to deposit more bone in the front of the vertebra, Wolfe’s law, and cervical spine arthritis is the result.  But what can we do to prevent or even stop this degenerative change?  The simple answer is restore the normal curvature to the cervical spine.  If we relieve the stress on the bone than the wisdom of the body will stop the deposition of new bone and the spurs should cease getting any bigger, reversing Wolfe’s law.  This is how we treat most cases of neck pain at Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert Arizona.

Restoring Normal Curvature Relieves Neck Pain

Restoring the natural normal curvature to the cervical spine is a major goal for care at Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert AZ.  Our office uses a corrective chiropractic method called CBP.  CBP has been shown to be very reliable in restoring normal structure to the neck and relieving neck pain.  To see the studies showing the validity of CBP click here http://www.idealspine.com/cbp-research/.  When looking for a solution to neck pain, don’t just cover up the symptoms with pain meds or sporadic chiropractic care, get to the cause and fix it and hopefully prevent your neck from developing further neck arthritis.  To see if Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert can help you with your neck pain just give us a call at (480) 892-0022.

In Health,

Dr. Pivonka

Chiropractor

Does Back Pain effect my overall health?

by on 26 August 2015in Blog, Lower Back Pain, Neck Pain, Sciatica

Does Back Pain effect overall health?

The over whelming response to this question is YES!! People suffering from chronic back pain in their neck and lower back have been shown to also suffer from other physical, psychological, and emotional conditions. Ranging from migraine headaches, digestive problems, anxiety, depression and compromised immune function.

Abnormal Spinal Alignment leads to Back Pain

Studies of the sagittal alignment of the spine or the side view of the spine show that aberrations of the normal side alignment of the spine are strong predictors of back pain, disability, and decreased health status. Especially if the lower lumbar and pelvic alignment are abnormal. A study in 2002 by Korovesis showed that patients with abnormal lumbar curve and reduced lower lumbar disc height not only suffered from more pain when compared to a normal group but were also shown to have problems with emotional function, social function, physical function and decreased overall perception of health on the SF-36 questionnaire.

Abnormal Spinal Alignment also Effects Nerve Tissue leading to decreased health

More importantly not only are the bones, ligaments and muscles in the spine effected with abnormal alignment but also the delicate nervous tissue that the spine protects. The nervous system is the master system in the body and controls and regulates all body functions, including organ function. So when pressure is placed on this delicate nerve tissue from spinal misalignment it can have far reaching affects in the rest of the body and result in health conditions and back pain.

Correcting Abnormal Spinal Alignment improves health

It is important to find a Chiropractic office that not only is concerned with your back pain but also your overall health. And it is important to find an office that will work to correct the structure of your spine to allow your body to fully heal and not just reduce your pain.

Pivonka Chiropractic in Gilbert Arizona is a corrective chiropractic office. Our treatment goal is to look at each individual patient and assess if abnormal spinal alignment is the cause of their back pain and health issues. And if abnormal spinal alignment is the problem than we will do our best to correct the spine back to as close to normal as possible.

If you are suffering from chronic spinal pain than Pivonka Chiropractic, Chiropractors in Gilbert Arizona, can help you. Just give us a call at (480) 892-0022.

In Health,
Dr. Andy Pivonka, D.C.