There’s no doubt that technology is a big part of our daily lives. From smartphones to computers to tablets to gaming consoles, we are constantly looking at screens. Although these technological advancements make life easier and increase convenience, they can also have detrimental effects on our health. 

One of the most common issues caused by technology is neck pain, commonly referred to as “tech neck.” In this blog post, we’ll cover the causes of tech neck, its impact on health, chiropractic solutions to reduce pain, and ways to prevent tech neck.

Understanding Tech Neck

The term “tech neck” encompasses the pain, discomfort, and postural issues associated with the prolonged use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. When using these devices, your posture tends to be less-than-optimal, with slouched shoulders, a forward head posture, and a rounded upper back. This position puts strain on the upper spine and neck, which can lead to a range of different musculoskeletal issues.

Why Does Tech Neck Happen?

Prolonged screen time and the poor ergonomic habits that accompany it are the main culprits that cause tech neck. The time we spend hunched over our screens has increased significantly in recent years due to the prevalence of remote work, online learning, and mindless scrolling through social media. 

This excessive screen time, combined with decreased postural awareness, can contribute to spinal misalignments and muscular imbalances, which puts unnecessary strain on the upper back, shoulders, and neck.

Impact on Health

The consequences of tech neck go beyond just neck pain, tension, and discomfort. Poor posture can lead to a number of health issues, including:

• Muscular imbalances: Prolonged strain can cause muscles in the neck and upper back to become weak or tight, which can cause pain and lead to restricted movement.
• Headaches: When you have a forward head posture, the muscles in the neck and shoulders become overworked, leading to tension headaches.
• Reduced lung capacity: Believe it or not, poor posture can compress your chest, which restricts lung expansion and may affect your breathing.
• Spinal misalignments: Over time, poor posture can cause your spine to gradually shift out of alignment, leading to more severe issues over time. 
• Degeneration: Chronic poor posture can lead to degenerative issues in the spine, such as arthritis.

Chiropractic Solutions

If you’re experiencing the effects of tech neck, you may want to consider chiropractic care to help you find some relief. Because they are trained to identify spinal misalignments, muscular imbalances, and postural issues, chiropractors can offer you a holistic, comprehensive approach to treating tech neck and other associated problems.

• Spinal adjustments: In order to reduce tension and improve your overall posture, chiropractors can perform spinal adjustments, restoring proper alignment to the spine.
• Muscle relaxation techniques: To improve flexibility and alleviate muscle tension, chiropractors use various techniques such as massage therapy and targeted stretching.
• Postural education: When it comes to reducing the negative effects of tech neck, knowledge is power. Your chiropractor can provide education regarding proper ergonomics and posture to minimize strain while you use your electronic devices.
• Customized treatment plans: Because each patient’s needs are unique, the key to effective chiropractic care is a customized treatment plan designed to treat their individual symptoms. Your chiropractor will create an individualized plan to address your specific concerns and promote long-term wellness.

Preventing Tech Neck

While chiropractic care can do a lot to alleviate the symptoms of tech neck, prevention also goes a long way. If your job or lifestyle involves a lot of screen time, try these tips to stop tech neck before it can start: 

• Ergonomics: Ergonomics refers to the relationship between physical objects and the comfort and efficiency they provide, especially in the workplace. If you work in an office environment, set up your workspace in a manner that encourages proper posture. Keep screens at eye level and consider investing in ergonomic products like chairs and keyboard stands that are designed to provide comfort and ease of use.
• Take breaks: It’s easy to get sucked into your work and forget to take breaks. However, incorporating regular breaks from screen time into your routine can relieve tension. Make sure you stand up, stretch, and walk around every once in a while.
• Exercise regularly: Regular exercise, including strengthening the neck, back, and core, helps support better posture.
• Mindful device use: When using your devices, be mindful of your posture. Lift your screens to eye level instead of hunching over to look down at them.

Comprehensive Chiropractic Care

At Elevate Wellness Chiropractic, we offer comprehensive chiropractic care for many issues, including tech neck. If you want to achieve relief from the effects of tech neck, schedule an appointment with us today.

In the age of the internet, there’s a lot of readily-accessible information out there about chiropractic care. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation, too, making it easy to get confused about what exactly chiropractic care entails and whether or not it’s right for you. If you want to know the truth about chiropractic care, keep reading to debunk some myths and shed light on the true benefits of chiropractic care.

Myth #1: Chiropractic Care is Painful

With all the videos of chiropractors popping people’s joints and cracking their backs that have been circulating around social media recently, it can be easy to assume that chiropractic care is painful. After all, some of the adjustments can look kind of intense, and the popping noises can be anxiety-inducing.

Despite how it may look, the truth is that chiropractic care actually relieves pain by using gentle, controlled techniques to realign the body’s musculoskeletal system. Any discomfort felt during the process should be minimal and only last for a short time.

Myth #2: Chiropractic Adjustments are Dangerous

One of the most common myths about chiropractic care is that it is dangerous. People love to circulate stories about how chiropractic adjustments can break people’s bones or dislocate their joints. If you’ve never had an adjustment, you might be wary of some of the equipment, tools, and techniques chiropractors use and may have a hard time trusting them to manipulate your body in such a hands-on way.

The truth is that chiropractors undergo rigorous training and education in order to perform safe, effective adjustments for their patients. Because chiropractic treatment is non-invasive and drug-free, it can actually be a safer alternative to other treatment options such as surgery or heavy medication, which can come with complications or negative side effects.

Myth #3: Once You Start, You Can’t Stop

Many people think that once you start receiving chiropractic care, you’ll have to keep going forever in order to achieve long-lasting results. In reality, the frequency and duration of chiropractic treatment depend on many different factors, including the end goals of treatment, the parts of the body affected, the patient’s overall health, and how the body responds to treatment. 

In addition to providing chiropractic adjustments, chiropractors develop an individualized treatment plan that includes nutrition, at-home exercises, stretches, and lifestyle recommendations to empower patients to take control of their health. The ultimate goal of chiropractic care is to improve the patient’s life and provide long-term relief, not create dependency.

Myth #4: Chiropractors Aren’t Real Doctors

You’ve probably heard people talk about how chiropractors are not real doctors. However, just because they don’t practice traditional medicine doesn’t mean that they are not qualified medical professionals with extensive training.

In order to become a chiropractor, one must complete training similar to that of medical doctors, including a four-year doctoral program that covers nutrition, physiology, radiology, anatomy, and more. Like other healthcare providers, chiropractors are licensed and regulated to ensure they provide safe, effective care and meet high standards of quality and professionalism. As long as you choose a chiropractor with the proper training and education, you can be sure that your health is in good, capable hands.

Myth #5: Chiropractic Care is Only for Back Pain

Because chiropractic adjustments often focus on the spine, you may think that chiropractic care is only used to treat back pain. In reality, the scope of this treatment goes far beyond the back and extends to all parts of the body. Chiropractors can address many different musculoskeletal issues, including neck pain, headaches, sciatica, joint pain, sports injuries, and even conditions like fibromyalgia and arthritis. 

Because the spinal cord sends signals to the brain and throughout the body, adjustments in the spine can affect any part of the body. Chiropractors are trained to know exactly how to manipulate the spine to achieve the desired results in other parts of the body, not just the musculoskeletal system. Chiropractic care is known to relieve constipation, improve organ function, aid proper digestion, increase energy, improve quality of sleep, increase flexibility, and regulate heart rate and breathing.

The reality is that chiropractic care affects the whole body, and the ultimate goal of treatment is to improve patients’ lives by improving their overall health and well-being.

Improve Your Health With Care from Elevate Wellness

At Elevate Wellness Chiropractic, all our team members are highly qualified to provide chiropractic care and help improve your quality of life. If you want to discover for yourself the benefits of chiropractic care, schedule an appointment with us today!

Nerve pain, also known as neuropathic pain, happens when your nervous system is malfunctioning, either due to nerve damage or other health conditions. Nerve pain can be difficult to diagnose and treat since there are many possible causes. Luckily, people who suffer from nerve pain can find relief through many different treatment options, including chiropractic care.

What Is Nerve Pain?

The nervous system has two different components: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system includes the brain and the spinal cord, while the peripheral nervous system comprises all the nerves that spread throughout the rest of the body and into the extremities.

The nervous system is responsible for sending signals throughout the body. When it’s not working correctly or has sustained damage, nerves send the wrong signals to the brain, causing nerve pain. 

Symptoms

Nerve pain can be spontaneous, meaning it comes without stimulation. It can feel like a shooting, stabbing, or burning pain; numbness, tingling, or a pins-and-needles feeling may also occur. 

Neuropathic pain can also include evoked pain, which is brought on by normally non-painful stimuli including gentle brushing or pressure against the skin. Evoked pain may also mean normally painful stimuli, such as heat or pinpricks, are even more painful.

People with nerve pain may also have trouble sleeping and emotional problems caused by lack of sleep and pain.

Causes

In order to figure out the cause of nerve pain, your healthcare provider will go over your medical history and perform a physical exam in order to find the underlying issue and trace the symptoms.

About 30 percent of all neuropathic pain is caused by diabetes, but there are many other medical conditions and other factors that can cause nerve pain, including:

• Alcoholism
• HIV infection or AIDS
• Disorders affecting the central nervous system including stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
• Shingles
• Chemotherapy and radiation therapy
• Amputation, which can cause phantom pain
• Spinal nerve inflammation or compression
• Trauma or surgeries with resulting nerve damage
• Nerve compression by tumors

Treatment

When treating nerve pain, the goals are to provide pain relief, maintain functionality, and improve the quality of life for the patient along with treating the underlying disease causing the pain. Usually, multimodal therapy, which includes medications, psychological counseling, physical therapy, and sometimes surgery, is needed to treat nerve pain.

Topical treatments like patches, ointments, or creams that contain capsaicin or lidocaine can relieve nerve pain. Opioid analgesics, however, are less effective in treating neuropathic pain, and their negative effects may prevent long-term use. 

Nerve blocks given by pain specialists can also relieve neuropathic pain. These treatments include the injection of steroids or anesthetics into the affected nerves. 

If nerve pain has not responded to these treatments, spinal cord stimulation, brain stimulation, and peripheral nerve stimulation might help.

Chiropractic Care

Additionally, some causes of nerve pain, including pinched nerves, sciatica, and neuropathy, can be treated with chiropractic care. 

Pinched nerves occur when too much pressure is applied to a nerve by surrounding cartilage, bones, tendons, or muscles. With sciatica, the sciatic nerve in the lower back is compressed by a herniated disk or bone spur on the spine. Chiropractic treatment can ease some of the pressure on the nerve, therefore decreasing neuropathic pain.

Prevention

The best way to prevent neuropathic pain is to manage medical conditions that increase your risk of developing it. The details of prevention depend on the specific condition you have, but in general, the following actions help promote nerve health:

• Eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. Ensure you get enough vitamin B-12 by eating meats, eggs, fish, low-fat dairy products, and fortified cereals. 
• Exercise regularly (with permission from your doctor). At least 30 minutes of exercise three times per week is a good rule of thumb.
• Avoid factors that may cause nerve damage, including smoking, repetitive motions, exposure to toxic chemicals, and excessive alcohol use.

Nerve Pain Treatment at Elevate Wellness

At Elevate Wellness, we provide comprehensive chiropractic care for all kinds of musculoskeletal issues, not just nerve pain. If you have lower back pain, headaches or migraines, neck pain or whiplash, injuries related to an auto accident, or sports injuries, we can help you find relief through a personalized care plan and get you back to normal. 
To schedule an appointment, contact us online or call our office in Bountiful, Utah. We can’t wait to help relieve your pain and improve your quality of life!