Why Start With the Neck First?
A common question I often get asked is, “Why start with the neck first?” The cervical spine or neck as it is often referred to is a common area of misalignment. What most people fail to realize, however, is that you can have a misalignment in your neck that doesn’t result in neck pain. Instead, the misalignment may create a postural distortion that instead results in pain in a different area of your body such as your low back. A recent study by Ibrahim MoIbrahim Moustafa, Aliaa Attiah Mohamed Diab and Deed Eric Harrison (2022) examined eighty patients with low back pain that radiated down their leg. The control group only received treatments to their low back, while the test group received treatments to restore the proper curvature to their neck, in addition to treatments to their low back. At the end of the study, both groups reported improvement, with the group that received treatment to their cervical spine showing slightly more improvement than the control group. The most important finding, however, was seen at the six-month follow-up. The control group revered back to their original pain, while the test group that received treatment to their cervical spine remained pain free. With this in mind, I always start with the neck first in order to provide the best long-lasting results to my patients.
Works Cited:
Moustafa, Ibrahim., Diab, Attiah and Harrison, Deed. (2022) “Does Improvement towards a Normal Cervical Sagittal Configuration Aid in the Management of Lumbosacral Radiculopathy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2022, 11(19), 5768;
https://summitchiropracticnj.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/jcm-11-05768.pdf
