It's easy to spot folks with chronic muscle spasm, they are usually rubbing the back of their neck or shoulders. Chronic muscle spasm is usually experienced in the upper back (thoracic area) and neck (cervical spine).
Muscle spasm is common with people who work at a computer or desk work type occupations. Tension headaches are usually experienced with chronic muscle spasm and common with office related work. If you think about it for a minute, the constant looking at a terminal and having your head slightly flexed or down causes the muscle in your upper back and neck to tighten and causes the muscles in the front part of your neck and chest to shorten.
Your muscles tighten to try to protect you from damage, your chest and muscle in the front of your neck shorten to adapt to your work position. The worst part you do not even feel, the damage occurring to your vertebrae (spinal bones) and discs. That' right, spinal decay is not felt until enough damage has accumulated. Similar to a dental cavity, the cavity has been working its way down to the nerve and you know when enough damage has been done when the nerve is exposed.
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We look for Anterior Head Syndrome, which is when your head has moved or translated forward more than one inch when compared to your shoulders. We all know normal is when your ear is aligned directly over your shoulder. Think of your head as a teeter totter you played on as a kid. The heavy side would drop down and the lighter side would rise up. The problem, and it is a problem is that we want the teeter totter to be balanced, even, symmetrical and if it's not then you will have muscle spasms.
What we look for is easy to spot, with regard to muscle spasm:
- Head more than an inch anterior or forward
- Damage to your vertebrae of your neck and mid back (found with our x-ray)
- Damage to your discs in your neck and mid back (we measure the space between the vertebrae)
- Granny hump or hunched back
- Tight muscles (feels like a brick)
If you have any one or more of these indicators, then you have a structural problem we help to correct. The more indicators you have the worse the condition.
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Most people just take over the counter medications to dull the muscle spasm, pain and they work at dulling the pain. Some even try stretching and massage for their muscle spasm, which temporarily helps. If that doesn't work out the way folks want, then there is muscle relaxants which work and sometimes cause "medicine head", that foggy feeling which makes it hard to get any work done. You can use PT or traditional Chiropractic, they both work to increase your motion, decrease spasm, and decrease pain and I have no doubt that they do what they say.
We take a different approach to muscle spasm, we look to structurally correct your spine. We look for AHS, Anterior Head Syndrome and if we detect AHS, then we formulate a plan to correct or enhance your spine back into the normal range. You see when your head is balanced properly over your shoulders this allows the muscles to normalize, not just temporarily like many common solutions offer. Our approach is attempting correct your spine so you have relief on the more permanent side of the health spectrum.
We use our gentle, specific non-invasive SCI, along with our Structural rehab and our complementary recommendations that you do on your own to enhance your spine back to normal range. Now, we don't have you come forever, and we don't claim to cure everything, and we aren't good at massage. We are excellent at correct spinal structure. Again, when your head is balanced over your shoulders, this takes the harsh forces off your muscles, off your discs and evenly distributes the weight over your spinal bones - allowing your spine to function better. Functioning better means less muscle spasms.
Have a GREAT Day !
Dr. Chris
Dr. Chris Chase is the owner of Advanced Chiropractic here in West Hartford. Dr. Chris focuses on Structural Correction, (which is a little bit different than conventional chiropractors) with non-invasive, gentle, and specific procedures using SCI. Instead of doing a little bit of this and that, Dr. Chris only focuses on Structural Correction of the spine.
For additional information please call 860.523.5465 or visit www.advancedwesthartford.com
