Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast
Welcome to the Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast with your host, Dr. Matt Green! Join us as we explore health, wellness, and the power of chiropractic care to help you live your best life
Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast
EP #4: Pain-Free Living: Mastering Neck Health with Dr. Matt Green
Dr. Matt sheds light on the neck's unique vulnerabilities, particularly following auto accidents, and emphasizes early intervention and regular maintenance. Through a balanced approach combining chiropractic adjustments with targeted exercises, Dr. Matt takes on on the prevalent issue of forward head posture to equip you with effective treatment and prevention strategies.
Join Dr. Matt Green of Village Chiropractic & Wellness Center for practical advice designed to keep your neck in top form and your life pain-free.
Visit villagechiropracticoakland.com to learn more.
if we think about it, what's ideal is for your ear to be directly on top of your shoulder, and if your ear, you're checking it out for yourself, right? So if your ear is directly above your shoulder, it's likely and it's likely that your neck is going to be in what's called neutral position, right when it's where the joints and the muscles are sitting exactly on top of your torso, and that's the position where there's the least amount of stress.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Village Chiropractic and Wellness Podcast with your host, dr Matt Green. Join us as we explore health, wellness and the power of chiropractic care to help you live your best life. Let's dive into today's episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome back listeners and viewers, charlie McDermott, producer and co-host here with Dr Matt. Dr Matt, how are you doing today?
Speaker 1:I'm doing great, as usual. Thanks, Charlie.
Speaker 2:How are you? I'm doing great and you know. A big reason is I don't have any neck pain.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:It's so distracting.
Speaker 1:I know that that's what we're going to dive into.
Speaker 2:That is our topic for the day and you know it brought back memories when I was just looking through our topics of boy I years ago. That was talk about it was a nuisance, it was just always there. Sleeping was ridiculous. I felt like I was walking around like a zombie because I just couldn't get comfortable. So I'm really excited about this topic and so for our viewers and listeners, I guess I'd let the cat out of the bag. Do you think they can figure out what we're going to talk about today?
Speaker 1:I think so. I think we just made it blatantly clear.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, let's get into it. I know this is going to be really helpful for folks. So primary cause of neck pain. Let's start there. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:It's pretty common, right? I'm sure you've heard it too. People point to their neck and their shoulders and they say, well, this is where I hold my stress. Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's really common around. So what's the? The main cause of that is that, you know, our neck is the place that is the most mobile, it's the place that has the least support in our entire spine, and so it's more vulnerable. Obviously, the first thing to think about is an auto accident. You know, we have a seatbelt, everything's locked down. We get hit, it's the neck that moves, and so it's the most vulnerable place for it to become misaligned. Um, and that's that's what. I'm sure that that's what that's where we're going to dive into here you today. Get a little deeper on that subject so at what point do you?
Speaker 2:you know where is that line, dr matt, where this, this neck pain goes from? Hey, it'll, it'll go away, whatever in a few days or two.
Speaker 1:Wow, I need help, oh it's a good question, Because I want to go all the way back to say that when is it? I just want to replace the word neck pain with teeth pain.
Speaker 2:With what pain.
Speaker 1:With teeth pain like your teeth. Okay, yeah, If you were to ask that same question hey, when is it a good time to take care of that teeth pain?
Speaker 2:That's a really good point yeah.
Speaker 1:The best time is to, when you're as early as you can, to start brushing and flossing to take care of that tissue around that area, right? So of course, that's the yes, of course. And you know, when people find themselves starting to have neck pain, it's as soon as possible. And the teeth analogy will just be our continuum through all these podcasts. And the way that you take care of your teeth is you brush and floss and see a dentist on a regular basis, and the way that you take care of your spine is that you stretch and you exercise and you see a chiropractor regularly.
Speaker 1:So I think that the neck needs two things. I think it needs flexibility and it needs stability. And so when that pain starts to come, we want to start to give it some level of flexibility and give it some level of stability, and sometimes that can do the trick, uh, and sometimes not. Then we need to go and get more passive care, meaning just like lay on the table and let somebody else do it for you, right, that's that's that that'll be. Another continuous theme through these podcasts is that a good, healthy spine comes with a nice balance of passive care, where you just let somebody else do the work and active care where you're doing the exercises, and I'd love to. I think I want to wait a little bit, but I certainly like at the end here I definitely want to go over some real specific things people can do.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, love it. Yeah, I know that'll be real helpful. Yeah, diving into the treatments a little deeper, you know, from from a treatments adjustment standpoint, what do you recommend for neck pain relief? Well, what do?
Speaker 1:I recommend for neck pain relief. I think that, um, what do I recommend for neck pain relief? I think that, before I go into that, I think I want to jump all the way back and talk about the reason why it's happening, because I think if we can get a sense of why it's happening, then what we need to do to fix it becomes much more obvious. Right, that makes sense. So there's lots of different reasons for neck pain. The one that I want to go into is the one that is most prevalent and the one that I'm sure everyone can relate to, and the official medical term for it is forward head posture, forward head posture. And, if we think about it, what's ideal is for your ear to be directly on top of your shoulder, and if your ear, you're checking it out for yourself. So, if your ear is directly above your shoulder, it's likely, and it's likely that your neck is going to be in what's called neutral position, is going to be in what's called neutral position, right, where it's where the joints and the muscles are sitting exactly on top of your torso, and that's the position where there's the least amount of stress. Okay, right, so one of the things that we're going to recommend here during this podcast is for people to be aware of when their ears are in front of their shoulder. Now check this out for every inch that your ear is in front of your shoulder, that adds about 10 pounds of pressure to the back of the neck and the shoulders right, so you can imagine. You know, one inch, that's 10. Two inches, that's 20. Three inches, 30 pounds of pressure on the back of the right where that neck meets the torso.
Speaker 1:Now, doing that for a very short period of time, body can respond. But having that position, even if it's just one inch, for an hour, two hours, three hours, eight hours, it becomes a habit every day, week, month, for years Now. We have a situation where the brain is getting signals that something is not right. And when the brain gets those signals that something's not right, then it needs to protect and it needs to hold, it's trying to work that neck back to that neutral position and so those muscles are going to become become contracted because they're overworking. But we have postural muscles that are meant to be on all the time. Right, we're standing right, those muscles are always on. And we have other muscles that are meant to be on all the time right.
Speaker 1:We're standing right, those muscles are always on and we have other muscles that are designed to be on when they're working and then off when they're not. So if those postural muscles are working hard, working hard over time, then those other muscles have to take over and then work all the time too, and they get fatigued. And when they get fatigued they send a little SOS to the brain, say hey, you know what? You better let the conscious mind know that there's a problem here, and that alarm system is called pain. You know what pain stands for, Charlie.
Speaker 2:What's that?
Speaker 1:Pain stands for. Pay attention inside now. Isn't that good. I mean, I don't know if that really is where the word came from, but it certainly works, doesn't it? Yeah, it really is. It's the body's natural alarm to let us know hey, there's something wrong and you better start doing something about it.
Speaker 2:And it starts as a whisper, and then it starts talking, and then it starts yelling, and then it starts screaming and then it starts yelling and then it starts screaming Right, and sometimes people come into me when it's at the screaming stage.
Speaker 1:A lot of people know that they're coming in when it's at the screaming stage, but sometimes people don't, and after the first treatment they come in and later they're like well, it's not quite better yet, Right?
Speaker 1:So, again, always emphasizing that, wouldn't it be amazing if let's take this off the individual right? Let's put this onto how we operate as society? Wouldn't it be amazing if we put the emphasis on taking care of the spine the way that it needs to be taken care of, from as soon as we're born, yeah, and all the way through our lives, so that our body can naturally adapt to the stresses of life successfully? But that's ideal and it's a juicy subject and I love talking about it and you know a lot of people come in and you know when it's either yelling or screaming and we got to figure out OK, what do we need to do?
Speaker 1:So part of it is education, right, Part of it is education is for me to take a picture of them and have them look to see how far forward their head is there and start to talk to them about.
Speaker 1:Here's what's happening those muscles are overworked, just like we were just saying. Also, there becomes a real imbalance of that muscle structure if that head's always forward, and can you imagine what happens to our breath on a regular basis? If that head is forward and those muscles are contracted, we're not able to take full, deep breaths Now not even let's just say, just like normal breath or just normal breath, without ever thinking about it. That being constricted and that happening day after day, week after week, month after month, we have just less oxygen, and the brain doesn't like less oxygen. It's not a state that, it's an emergency state, and so that's something that this can bring on as well.
Speaker 1:Jaw pain.
Speaker 1:Jaw pain and TMJ can be directly correlative to that head being forward and if muscles are just grabbing and tight in the back of our head all the time, headaches.
Speaker 1:Headaches can certainly be a direct result of this head being rocked forward here and then the last one here, which is the worst possible case scenario, is that the head becomes forward. This becomes part of the way that the nervous system is wired and then the brain is having trouble balancing, having a sense of where the whole body is in space, and having trouble with balancing and falling. And falling is a real issue for folks that are older, because there's a you know, there's a direct mortality rate connected to people falling and breaking their hip. So for the older generation, it's really important that we help them balance and this forward head posturing is something to start as early as we possibly can, to manage and fix and really take that, take it seriously wow, wow, good stuff, yeah, so I would imagine, let's, let's talk, uh, ergonomics, and I would imagine you know the offices, uh, that that's constant sitting, sitting, sitting all day long.
Speaker 2:Is that, um, is that a problem?
Speaker 1:of course, of course. I mean, we're like again, if, if, um, you know, if we were together here in the same room, I would stand just with my arms by my side, with my palms facing you, and I would say say this is neutral position, this is the position where there's the least amount of stress, and so when we're sitting, we're away from that position and again, if we do it for small periods of time, we don't allow the body to mold into that stressful position. That's it.
Speaker 3:That's it.
Speaker 1:It's not necessarily the forward head position, it's not necessarily sitting in a way that rocks our head forward. It's doing it on a regular basis, so it becomes a habit for the brain to be protective. When that brain gets into a habit of being protective, that's when problems ensue. That's it. So I'm going to say the obvious. Here's the obvious. Well, I mean, here's the buzz in the ergonomic world these days, which is a break for 10 to 15 seconds every 15 minutes. That's ideal. If you want to be ideal and really be on it, you set a timer for 15 minutes and you just need to break the pattern right. Just break the pattern. That's all you need to do.
Speaker 2:So that's one. So what in that case? What do you do? You just kind of stand up and doesn't matter, just break it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, stand up four knees, sit back down, boom. The thing is, sometimes we think that breaks need to be in a way that we need to push away from our work and change our headspace. And it doesn't necessarily have to be like that. Right, we can still stay involved in the work we're doing. But just do something to break that pattern of what, so that we don't mold into that position there okay, all right, I like it yeah yeah, yeah, okay, so three more things right so I have a little flyer in my office that I send people with these three products and here's what we need which is funny in order to manage this ear above the shoulder.
Speaker 1:Everything we need to do is from like the waist down. So if you can imagine that, if I'm sitting here right, my ears above my shoulder, right For those of you just listening I'm just sitting up straight, my ears above my shoulder If I let, if I slouch and let my my the arch of my low back fall and I push my arch into my of my low back back into the chair, my ears go forward. If I push my belly button forward and out, my ear goes back on the top of my shoulder. So a good lumbar support that goes behind your back and we have ones that inflate like a, like a blood pressure cuff.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, so you can fill it up, so that it can, you can get it right to your own personal comfort level. That way when I sit in the chair I mean I don't sit in the chair a lot, but when I do then I can sit and that low back knee is pushing my low back forward right, keep the ears above, yeah. The second thing that I have on my chair is a wedge, and can you imagine like a gym ball, you know, like that kind of material, the gym, those balls they make, these wedges that are like this right, and so the wedge is forward, the forward part, and the the the the higher part, is in the back and sitting on that helps to rock my pelvis forward. So, between rocking my pelvis forward and that lumbar support pushing my low back forward, now I'm locked. I'm Now I'm locked in this position where my ears are above my shoulder, and then I can just relax, pay attention, I can just do my typing.
Speaker 1:I don't have to think to allow us to have the expectations that we're just going to sit up and have a good posture while we're working. It's not realistic. We need something to do those two things. Now here's the last thing If you've got that wedge and the low back support and it's pushing you forward and your feet are flat on the ground, you're good. If, for some reason, the desk is high and you have to have the chair high and your feet are dangling, you need a foot rest so that you can place your feet, you have some place to rest your feet and to push so the feet don't have to get thrown underneath the chair. Those three things. There's the magic right there, because then you lock yourself into a good neutral position and everything is in neutral. Still need you, still can take breaks you still?
Speaker 1:need to take breaks? Uh, obviously, but not as much because your body's not going to mold into an abnormal position.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there, it is Okay, I like it. I like it. How about standing desks? Do you recommend those? Oh sorry, right.
Speaker 1:I didn't even recommend. I'm on one right here. I mean I'm sitting, I have it lifted. But yeah, of course we have standing desks at my house and then all over here and through the office. Great, another way of changing the pattern right. And when we're standing, we're closer to that neutral position. Um, the stress is not on our low back when we're standing. So, yeah, so that's ideal.
Speaker 2:Like to go back and forth okay, all right, love it, love it yeah. How about the prevention side? You know, are there specific exercises or stretches that we can do to prevent neck pain?
Speaker 1:Yes, there are.
Speaker 1:OK, so Flexibility and stability, right. And so I want to start on the stability side. We have exercises that are given by Dr Stuart McGill. On the stability side, we have exercises that are given by Dr Stuart McGill. He's a PhD researcher. He has figured out the exact exercises to do to bring more stability for the neck, and so we send those out over something called web exercises. There's a video and a description. It makes it really easy for people to get those exercises and to be able to do them.
Speaker 1:Uh, but something that I'm going to give right now, which is I have a little frame on my wall in my adjusting room that says yes, no, maybe so. And so here's, here's the uh suggestion that I give every single person, whether it be for the low back or for the neck, because the neck moves in three planes of motion, and I just nicknamed them yes, no, maybe so right. So yes is like it's in the sagittal plane, right, so I'm bringing my chin down to the chest and then I'm looking up to the ceiling, right, so that's one that's yes, no is obviously you're doing. No, so you rotate. So I'm rotating to the right and then I'm rotating to the left. Okay, and maybe so is like I don't know, maybe so right, so my, I'm bringing my right ear to my right shoulder and my left ear to the left shoulder, okay, here's. Here's the assignment. Simon is to hold at the end range for 10 seconds, okay, so, for example so, yes, would be just bringing the chin all the way down to the chest and taking it all the way down until I find that end range and holding that for 10 seconds. Okay, looking all the way up to the ceiling, holding for 10 seconds.
Speaker 1:Because here it is, when we're in pain, the brain has brought in all the parameters and is basically fearful to go towards the end range, and so if it doesn't know where the end ranges is, every movement could be a possible threat. So when we start practicing going to the end ranges yeah, this exercise is not about going to the end and pushing going to the end ranges yeah, this exercise is not about going to the end and pushing. It's about just finding where that end is, and that holding for 10 seconds is allowing the brain to take a picture of where that is Right. So you are going in all six of those directions. Now your brain gets a stronger sense of where the end range is and where the real threat place starts, and then where safe is and so that now can begin.
Speaker 1:It's like when I gotta look for my keys oh, that's safe. Gotta put dishes away yep, safe. Oh I gotta reach behind me in my car to get something oh, but I know exactly where exactly that spot is that I'm going to turn, where it's going to be a threat level and if we don't?
Speaker 1:practice that then we don't know, and it just takes longer for us to get better. So, um, good old, yes, no, maybe so's. I think that that's. Uh, it might be a little trademark, matt green uh there, uh, we're listening to this, I'm sure they're like yeah, we know the yes, no, maybe so's um. So that's something that can definitely get you out of pain. But once you're out of pain, it's just like a dentist telling you to brush and floss. It's actually what you're doing your, your, your, brush, your, your floss and those joints.
Speaker 1:So anyway, yeah, there's, uh, there's some good magic in that. Uh, good old, yes, no, maybe.
Speaker 2:So, yes, so's, yes, no maybe so That'll be in my head now for the next few days. Oh that's good, that's good I think you should make like a little kid song out of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, we'll make different songs, we'll do a little rap too.
Speaker 2:We'll have fun with yes, no, maybe so's.
Speaker 1:What's that Well, we'll have fun with them. That's right. I like making a song.
Speaker 2:That's a good idea. Right up your alley, all right. So how does chiropractic care fit into all this? And keeping us angry, especially our neck?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice and simple. I mean, there's two things that have to happen. Two, there's two. There's two things that have to happen. You know, I've been a practitioner for more years than I've been alive and I'm very familiar with all different types of modalities and I'm a I'm a fan of everything acupuncture, physical therapy, all of them.
Speaker 1:But someone will not have a healthy neck or a healthy spine unless all of those joints are gliding and moving the way that they're originally meant to. So with chiropractic care we're using specific, gentle adjustments. You know, those adjustments have to have enough force to get that joint to move, but not too much, so that the body can integrate that information. But for those joints that are restricted and tight and not gliding the way that they're meant to, they need to be adjusted and the muscles need to have very specific attention to guide them in the direction that they naturally go. When there's pain and there's a problem, those muscles get tight and restricted and so we need to guide them back towards the way that they naturally move, so that soft tissue work and those adjustments are the thing that's going to bring that neck back to a good, healthy state.
Speaker 2:All right, thank you, thank you. So let's look at that. One kind of final thought, that one nugget, dr Matt, that you could isolate and say yeah for neck pain. This is that one piece of advice I give you. What would it be.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's something that I haven't said already, which is, you know, a good thing to be suspicious of in your life is what are you doing that's not symmetrical? What are you doing that's more one side than the other? I don't think people really do it anymore, but it certainly was popular until it wasn't popular anymore, which was to work with two screens, or work with the computer screen off to the side and other things off to the other side, so that people's bodies were turned this way, but then their head was turned this way at the monitor. I don't think people do that anymore, but those are the type of things that you want to look for.
Speaker 1:Where am I doing much more things on the right than the left? Golfing could be even one of those things. You're always swinging with your right hand. You're always swinging on the right. There's going to be some things you're going to be able to correct, and sometimes not, but maybe, if you're wanting to start to get to the what is the source of this neck pain, that's a great place to start, like hey, I'm going to take a look at my life.
Speaker 1:What am I doing? That's a great place to start Like, hey, I'm going to take a look at my life. What am I doing? That's asymmetrical and obviously, where am I? Where's my ears? Not above my shoulder. A lot of times it's in the car. You can imagine the seat. If the seat is back, the ears go forward. If the seat comes forward, the ears go right above the shoulder. So that's another place Sleeping your pillow Boy. If your pillow is not symmetrical, that's not enough.
Speaker 1:That's too much. They're right in the middle. There's a lot to explore there.
Speaker 3:So that would be a great place.
Speaker 1:How can you correct that? How can you keep yourself in neutral position? And obviously get yourself checked by a chiropractor.
Speaker 2:Speaking of which? Speaking of which For our listeners who are in your neck of the woods there? Fill them in. How can they get a hold of you? Yeah?
Speaker 1:Village Chiropractic and Wellness Center, located in Montclair Village. Website is villagechiropracticoaklandcom and the phone number to call is 510-281-1708. And you can text that number as well.
Speaker 2:Love it. Well, dr Matt. Thank you, I feel better already. And you know what, when I sleep tonight, I'm going to make sure I'm alive. I mean, I hadn't even thought about that. And same with driving. I'm going to check my speed adjustment because I think I'm going to make sure I'm aligned. I mean, I hadn't even thought about that. And same with driving I'm going to check my speed adjustment because I think I'm kind of leaning back a little bit.
Speaker 1:Leaning back a little bit, that's right. These are common places to look, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Well, until next time. Thanks for asking me good questions.
Speaker 2:Trying to keep up with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's great, that's great, all right, all right, we'll see you in the next episode, until next time. Thanks Charlie.
Speaker 3:Thanks for tuning in to the Village Chiropractic and Wellness Podcast with Dr Matt Green. For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit our website wwwfailuregyropracticoklandcom or call us at 510-281-1708. Stay well and we'll see you next time.