Forward neck syndrome

[angieliu]

Hi there,

I saw a chiro who said that my neck was too forward and that was one of the reasons why my neck muscles were always tense. In noting his diagnosis he did try to suck as much money out of me and had created a 12 mth plan and had the dollars all worked out right down to the cents.

I have done some reading on something which is called a forward neck syndrome and wanted to know if there are ways to strengthen the muscles to help support my spine and if it is beneficial.

Greatly appreciate your responses.

[Mischap123]

Angieliu,
This forward head carriage that is mentioned is very common. Much of it arises from postural problems often associated with people who work at desks all day. In this condition some muscles become weak and others tight, leading to a change in posture. A Chiro can be very good at treating this. However, it concerns me when you mention the 12 month plan. As a Chiro I find this inappropriate as one can not predict the course of a condition for a whole year. See someone else

[Hipster]

Hi Angieliu

Aren't you seeing Henry W for your shoulder? If so just ask him about postural correction for you neck problem. There is probably some sort of co-relation. He taught me everything there is to know about cervico-thoracic posture and he's on cool dude. You probably need to work on your spinal curve control as well as your deep neck flexor muscles to balance your tight neck extensors and lateral flexors.

Cheers
Hipster

(PS see people I don't just treat hips, I do spines as well) ;)

[angieliu]

Hi Angieliu

Aren't you seeing Henry W for your shoulder? If so just ask him about postural correction for you neck problem. There is probably some sort of co-relation. He taught me everything there is to know about cervico-thoracic posture and he's on cool dude. You probably need to work on your spinal curve control as well as your deep neck flexor muscles to balance your tight neck extensors and lateral flexors.

Cheers
Hipster

(PS see people I don't just treat hips, I do spines as well) ;)


Yes indeed I'm seeing Henry W for my shoulder and he has been really good with working on my posture. You are probably right that there is some co-relation there with shoulder because I have been having tight neck muscles. Will talk to H about it when I next see him and mention about working on spinal curve control.. When I think about it, because I have a weak back my posture is funny so I am not always standing straight, I lean forward and I suspect that would also have to do with inactivated lower ab muscles too..

Thanks for your help

[angieliu]

Angieliu,
This forward head carriage that is mentioned is very common. Much of it arises from postural problems often associated with people who work at desks all day. In this condition some muscles become weak and others tight, leading to a change in posture. A Chiro can be very good at treating this. However, it concerns me when you mention the 12 month plan. As a Chiro I find this inappropriate as one can not predict the course of a condition for a whole year. See someone else

Thanks for your advice on forward head carriage. I think that it is all co-related, bad posture, weak lower back, not great shoulder and tense neck muscles.

As for setting up a 12 month plan with the chiropractor 3 times a week, I don't think that the manipulative therapy and 'readjustments' are very good. To much manipulation in my view is not good for the soft tissue. It seems that it would be more sensible to work on postural strength exercises to try to correct the forward head carriage then readjustments of the spinal cord. I actually decided to discontinue seeking treatment from the chiro mentioned above not only because he had set out the 12 month plan but I had proposed to him to stop treatment for a week or two to assess if there was a difference in between the treatements and he basically passed me off in saying that his work with the readjustments would be useless and he would have to start again. At that point it seemed like he was calculating how many dollars he would be loosing if I stopped for 2 weeks. As so unfortunately my view of chiropractors has been slightly tarnished. This is not to say that I haven't been to good ones before, I have only managed to find good ones in the States and not here just yet.

[droche 2004]

I too have been told the above and have been suggested to go for a period of time with a payment plan.
Free first consultant. X-ray and the like.
Second time was meant to be diagnosis and an OPTIONAL correction on my neck.
(Said to me he cannot give his assessment without giving me a adjustment!!!)
Had the adjustment on the second visit $50 busks later or he wouldn’t let me take my X-rays with me.
Third time visit was meant to discuss payment plan and future visits.
BUT low and behold he again told me that he couldn’t make his final assessment without another adjustment costing $50.

I said see you later never to go back to a chiro, been burnt to many times, (apologies to the good chiros on this forum but have yet to meet one that doesn’t just want to suck your wallet dry) same could be said for bad physiotherapists.
Massage is my therapy now unless I have a sporting injury.

[angieliu]

Droche, srry to hear that you too have had bad experiences wih Chiros. I'm having reminences of what it was like when I went to see this chiro. I hope we are not talking about the same one. I have just found it really hard to find a good one here, I had an amazing in the States but couldn't find the equivalent here.

I guess it's really a matter of finding the right alternative health practitioner to treat your injury. So far I've found an amazing physio, and a good massage person after a number of attempts.

Good luck with it all.

[droche 2004]

Droche, srry to hear that you too have had bad experiences wih Chiros. I'm having reminences of what it was like when I went to see this chiro. I hope we are not talking about the same one. I have just found it really hard to find a good one here, I had an amazing in the States but couldn't find the equivalent here.

I guess it's really a matter of finding the right alternative health practitioner to treat your injury. So far I've found an amazing physio, and a good massage person after a number of attempts.

Good luck with it all.
Thanks for that, just went and saw a Physio that looks after all the Australian swimmers when they are in Melb, great first visit and satisfied so far that I will go back again, it was in relation to a quad injury, why do I bother playing sport, at 33 instead of making a comeback I should be at the pub drinking remembering the glory days not trying to create them!!