Do you have a Military Neck?

I Have a Military Neck, Now What?

My doctor told me that I have a military neck and that it was causing my neck pain…

My last chiropractor said that I have a military neck and I needed a year to fix it

Over the past 10 years, the general public is becoming increasingly aware about certain facets of spinal alignment. For years, parents of small children are showing more concern about their child having scoliosis and other postural problems. Today, more and more patients have voiced their concerns about having a military neck in our office.

While it’s refreshing from a chirorpactor's stand point to see a greater awareness about spinal health, there are still a number of misconceptions that need to be addressed.

What’s a Military Neck?

The images on the below show x-rays for 2 people. The top image is a smooth C-shaped Arc representing a normal curve, while the image on the bottom shows a straightened appearance from a loss of the normal curvature.

When people talk about having a military neck, people are talking about the straightened appearance that the neck takes when it loses it’s normal curvature. Military neck has less to do with being injured in the line of duty, and more to do with the straight and stiff appearance of a soldier’s posture.

Normal Curve

The straightened and weak structure of a military neck

How Bad is it Really?

When patients come to our office for a consultation they will mention if they had x-rays in the past. I’ve had several people who had a previous chiropractor promise the world by putting the curve back in their neck. I’ve also had a few medical doctors tell people that the cause of their pain is from the loss of curvature in their neck as well.

The presence of a curve in your neck allows for smoother motion of each of your neck vertebra. It also plays a key role in distributing force throughout the discs of the cervical spine. In essence, a C-shaped curve in the neck can and will prevent early breakdown and degeneration of your spinal joints. As the discs and joints begin to breakdown, it can create the environment for inflammation to build up around the nerves, or even lead to disc protrusions and disc bulges.

You may not feel the effects of a military neck immediately, but just like you don’t feel plaque building up in your arteries, it is something than can and will eventually become problematic as you go.

Can It Be Fixed?

This part is a bit of a loaded question. The answer really comes down to this fact:

Why is the neck straight to begin with?

Many cases are induced by compromising neck positions from texting/computer/screen time and has lead to weakness of the intrinsic muscles of the head and neck. Some cases involve malformed vertebra that force the neck into a straight or reversed position. Then of course are the neck’s that are a result of traumatic injury like whiplash.

Many of the postural and some of the minor traumatic injuries can see their curves restored nicely under structural chiropractic care. However, the cases of misshaped vertebra and some of the traumatic cases may not see a return back to normal, no matter how skilled or how well the intention of that chiropractor is.

I Tried to Get it Fixed, but my Neck is Still Straight. Now What?

Here’s the good news:

You don’t necessarily need the curve in your neck fixed in order to get great results!

We often see Military Necks as Structural Problem.  Although it’s really fun to see a straight neck get it’s curve back, it’s not a requirement for the patient to get improved biomechanical function of their spine again.

Take Home Message

Military necks are associated with problems in the neck, but it’s not a death sentence. While we all want to be perfect, it’s important to understand that your body will always do what it can to adapt to any situation. Curve or no curve.

Some structural distortions like may not have the popular awareness of military neck, but carry far wider implications for spine problems, and brain problems.

The most important thing to remember is that the care you choose to receive makes an impact on the quality of your life.

Do I Really Need To Get X-rays?

That’s a fair question to ask as a patient. In some branches of health care, such as dentistry or orthopedics, x-rays are routine and are performed without any doubts or questions. Patients understand that without x-rays, the dentist or orthopedic surgeon would be flying blind, and the quality and safety of the procedure would be compromised.

However, in other branches of health care such as chiropractic, the use of x-rays is debatable. In fact, the majority of chiropractors do not take x-rays as a standard practice. So when a patient enters Premier Chiropractic and discovers that x-rays are a standard practice for all cases, naturally they have a few questions.

For most patients, the questions arise from the fear of receiving too much radiation and increasing their risk of cancer. Although that fear is valid – excessive exposure to ionizing radiation (like x-rays) can increase the risk of cancer – once our patients understand the clinical need for x-rays, and the actual dosage they receive, their fears are quickly put to rest.

Let’s quickly address the fear of increased cancer risk first. X-rays are form of radiant energy, like light or radio waves, but x-rays have the ability to penetrate body. X-rays occur in nature (called “background” radiation) and most commonly come from cosmic radiation (space) and radioactive materials (most commonly from radon gas). Therefore we are always exposed to them at some level. The dosage is most commonly measured in millisieverts (mSv).

The damage caused by x-rays is like a wound in the sense that, with time, the body can fully heal and recover. So a large dose of radiation from x-rays can be tolerated as long as it’s not too frequent. And a small dose of x-rays can be tolerated on a more frequent basis. To put things in perspective, one chest x-ray exposes a person to 0.1 mSv, which is equivalent to the amount of radiation exposure they would experience from their natural surroundings in 10 days.

The x-rays we take at Premier Chiropractic amount to roughly 0.5 mSv, which is equivalent to the amount of radiation exposure you would get from your natural surroundings in about 2 months.,

Lastly, let’s address why we need to take take x-rays. The bones in your spine are highly variable from one person to the next. Just like no two people look exactly alike (except maybe identical twins), no two spines look exactly alike. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the individual, how they are shaped, how they move, makes it nearly impossible analyze accurately with palpation (touch) alone.

In summary, just as an orthopedic surgeon or dentist needs x-rays in order to perform his or her job and provide the highest quality of care to the patient, so do structural chiropractors at Premier Chiropractic need to take x-rays.

When your health is on the line, you don’t want us to be guessing do you? 

The Pain is in my Back, Why Are You Looking At My Neck???

“80% of the country will have back pain during their life, why would turn away all of that potential business?”

“If you don’t take care of the back, then what DO you take care of?”

In my practice, I focus on Structural Correction and I deal exclusively with the alignment and mechanics of the spine. I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of patients with low back pain looking for someone to help them. So, how can a gentle approach to the neck help with back problems?

I can probably cite a complicated study, or explain this long and complex pathway like the infographic shown below:

But really, I’m sure you just want me to make sense of it all. So here it goes:

1. No matter where pain may be felt, it is always processed by the brain. That’s why there are many Secondary Conditions occur where there is nothing physically wrong to diagnose, but the pain is very real to that person. A person with Fibromyalgia deeply understands this concept.

Proper structural alignment of the head and neck allow the brain stem to transmit the messages from the spinal cord properly. It ensures that there is no hypersensitivity to pain occurring at the level of the central nervous system.

2. Anterior head syndrome is a condition in which the head and neck has shifted forward in front of the shoulders. While this may not seem like much, but the weight of a 12 lb head reaching beyond the shoulders forces the muscles of the neck and back to pull harder than normal. This is because for every inch forward the head moves, gravity pulls 10 extra lbs onto the neck and back muscles. So a person with a 10 lb head can suddenly have the mechanics of a 30 lb head with just 2 inches of Anterior Head Syndrome.

An interesting thing to note is that people with both neck pain and back pain will see their back pain go away before their neck pain.

3. According to a recent study in the Journal of Neurosurgery, deformities in the neck affect the alignment of the hips and pelvis. The two structures are linked together through a complex muscular sling. In other words, where the head goes, the neck goes and vice versa.

Whether you’ve been told your SI joint or a herniated disc is the problem, Structural Correction may still provide an answer. Though not all cases of back pain are related to a Structural Shift in the spine, it’s an important factor that is not usually looked at by most doctors or Traditional Chiropractors. Rather than getting pigeon-holed into a symptom-treatment model, it may benefit you to have someone take a global look at the body, and how a structural shift can impact the spine and the central nervous system.