Yes, neck adjustments are safe when performed by a trained and licensed professional. Qualified chiropractors should be more focused on neck alignment than “cracking” your neck, which may increase the risk of blood vessel strain.
Benefits of Neck Adjustments
Relieve chronic pain and stiffness at the source. Find relief without taking medication or undergoing surgery. Ease headaches, migraines, circulatory problems, and other issues caused by a misaligned cervical spine.
When you are just starting a new treatment plan, it's common to have adjustments multiple times a week. As your body begins to heal, that number could drop to just once a week. And if you are pain-free and simply want to maintain your lifestyle, you might only need to get an adjustment once or twice a month.
Chiropractic adjustment uses “Crack” or “Pop” (Cavitation) to remove restricted joint movement. This facilitates receptors inside the joint and reduces pain signals from the joint. The brain interprets the release in joint movement and reduces pain.
Depending on the extent of the spinal injury, patients typically feel a reduction in pain of 40-80% following their first visit. However, general improvement occurs within 1 to 4 weeks from the start of chiropractic therapy.
Following your chiropractic adjustment, we will likely gently pull the neck to alleviate pressure and free up any areas of the spine that are still stuck. Manual traction is not a replacement for the chiropractic adjustment, but you may still feel some pops and cracks when it's being performed.
Visiting your chiropractor is the best way to realignment your neck towards perfection. A corrective care chiropractor can not only return your cervical curve to the ideal position, but also help keep it in place with postural exercises and thoughtful lifelong care.
Because the upper cervical spine is in close proximity to the brain stem, a wide range of both minor and serious issues can result from misalignments in the neck. Numbness, tingling, pain, stiffness, and weakness in and around the neck are the most commonly reported symptoms.
Check your Neck – Cervical spine misalignment can inhibit full range of motion in your neck. If you can't seem to twist your neck fully to your left or right, or pain develops when you turn in one direction, odds are you're dealing with an alignment issue.
A typical plan might last three to six weeks, followed by a reevaluation.
It is highly recommended to see a chiropractor when experiencing serious muscle knots. Chiropractic care unravels these knots through focused adjustments. These gentle force adjustments work anywhere in the body.
The short answer is, when you visit a chiropractic clinic, your symptoms may get worse before they get better. While this may sound counterintuitive, this is not a bad thing! In fact, it might mean the treatment is doing its job.
When Not To See A Chiropractor. Patients with herniated or slipped discs and those with arthritis may need advice from specialist physicians before seeing a chiropractor. If there is a physical abnormality or injury in your body, such as a fracture, chiropractic care may not be for you.
Generally, chiropractors recommend a massage before any chiropractic adjustments in order to relieve tight muscles for a more effective joint adjustment. Those who just started chiropractic adjustments may also consider massage first before the therapy to reduce any discomfort while the adjustments are being done.
Chiropractic manipulations can release tension held from trauma and help the spine release tension held in the muscles. Frequent adjustments help open pathways of the nervous system which allows information to flow unobstructed, which is essential for a stronger and healthier mind-body connection.
A Chiropractor Can Help Release Your Pinched Nerve
If this is the case, these issues need to be realigned. That is where a chiropractor can help you. A chiropractor can use manual therapy to adjust the alignment of these body tissues. That way, the trapped nerve can be freed.
Changing your posture, changing your spine's ability to move, changing your muscle health and structure take time. Months in fact. All muscles have memory and your body wants to go back to its old patterns instead of creating new healthy ones. That is why adjustments need to be repeated again and again.
External tests. Sometimes to know how and where to adjust, a chiropractor will want external tests. Chiropractors may order x-rays, CT scans, or an MRI to make certain that your chiropractic neck or back adjustment is safe and likely to help.
Try to avoid prolonged sitting right after an adjustment. Focus on sitting upright with good posture. Pull your shoulders back, sit with your heels on the floor, and keep your elbows tight to your side. Not for nothing, making good posture a habit will actually have benefits all the time.
Persistent Neck Pain
There are common at-home treatments and over-the-counter medications that can help alleviate any neck pain. However, if the pain is persistent then it is time to consult a chiropractor in order to treat the pain.
By far the most common cause of a stiff neck is a muscle strain or soft tissue sprain. In particular, the levator scapulae muscle is susceptible to injury. Located at the back and side of the neck, the levator scapulae muscle connects the neck's cervical spine with the shoulder.
Causes of a stiff neck. Stiffness usually occurs when the neck muscles are overused, stretched too far, or strained. This can cause pain ranging from mild to severe that can make it difficult to move the head or use the neck muscles.