Military neck

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robert0259

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I have just been to my orthopod and he dia. me with a syndrome called miltary neck (straightening of the cervical lordosis). Has any one heard of these or knows of any place that I can go to get more information on this condition. The pain is getting worse. He says that there is no real connection with the pain and the "Military Neck" syndrome any help or guidance on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance Rob P.
 
I read up on what the doc diagnosed you with. Surprisingly most say this is a common condition and doesn't cause pain most of the time. Is the pain you have an ache? Can you squeeze your shoulder blade or put pressure on the sides of your neck and feel a bad ache? If so, it may be your muscles. I have had back and neck problems for years so I have dealt with this alot. If it's a muscle problem, physical therapy is the only thing that helped me. I tried other treatments, but that's the one I recommend if this is the problem.
 
I was diagnosed with it several years back about 20 and now have bad arthritis in my neck from it. Take care of your neck is my suggestion.
 
I was diagnosed with military neck many years ago and now at 50 have a bad case of arthritis in my neck from it. So take care of your neck, mine hurts pretty bad and keeps me up at nights at times. Get to a chiropractor to see if they can help you, I did nothing and now regret it.
 
My rheumatologist told me it's from muscle strain and/or atrophy. My ortho suggested neck traction (the at home over-the-door device) but with my RA traction is too dangerous so I had physical therapy to strengthen my back, torso, biceps and heated massage three times a week. It helped for awhile but got too expensive.

I recently switched to an extra firm "side sleeper" pillow and that's helped at night.



FYI: TMJ and teeth grinding can worsen symptoms
 
The bones in the neck are straight and that is not good it can cause arthritis down the road, I don't know what your age is, but it got worse around when I was in the late 40's and I am now 50. You may want to find a chiropractor, I know sometimes accupuncture helps me, also you may want to purchase a water pillow, it can also affect the muscles in the neck and strain them. I know when I had insurance many years ago they the dr's said I would need surgery, and now with arthritis now involved, I don't think surgery is an option for me now. It has caused me alot of problems with my neck and sleepwise also. I hope you don't suffer too much it can be very painful at times. Try and keep the muscles in your neck as relaxed as possible. I just had another sleepless night cause of my neck, it's no fun! It basically has me a bit frustrated at this point, but someday's are good. Look up military neck on the computer and get as much info as possible. I also have to take pain meRAB cause of my neck right now, not sure if it will get better, I have kaiser insurance and they don't give me much info on it.
 
actually the reversal of lordosis is an extremely common finding in alot of people. i have this too, but my doc feels it was from trauma many years ago when i was a child and fell off a roof? but it can be something one is born with, or a muslce pull issue where the forces just gradually over time will straighten out that normal curve. while this in and of itself is not a huge thing as far as it creating real true pain(except for possible muscle alone), it DOES create a much higher risk of slippage of vertebrae and discs either forwarRAB or backwarRAB. you could end up with some very real pain from a level of slippage if it is actually impacting the nerve roots or even the spinal cord itself. or caused a bulging of a disc. the best thing to do if you have this and also are having pain and any other more radiculopathic types of symptoms(nurabness,tingling sensory jolts) i would recommend obtaining an MRI just to see if this is actually impacting anything other than what is supposed to be there. bone spurring by itself in key areas or upon the lip edges(if there is indeed a level of slippage going on) is also seen alot more often with loss of lordosis too which can very easily impact nerve roots, and with some larger spurs, well they can at times if big enough also impact the actual cord too.

the instability with this is just there since the vertebrae are more 'stacked up' upon one another vs having that nice little curve there that would normally just displace the overall weight a bit more evenly. this is why its easier to end up with that slippage too.

the one HUGE thing here about actually seeing any chiro for this is to please do yourself one thing before even going that route at all? obtain that very crucial MRI FIRST before seeing any chiro, just to really see down to that very important cord level. people have suffered some pretty horrific chiro injuries even with having that MRI done only becasue the chiro should never have touched the persons neck and did adjustments with certain types of real hard findings there. you just really need to know whats going on inside that whole area before any adjuting goes on. while chiros DO have their place with spinal problems, with certain types of findings, your neck should not be adjusted but rather getting an opinion from a good neurosurgeon FIRST to truely find out if YOUR findings can be adjusted or a possible surgery may be the only way with what YOU have there.

there just can be some very severe consequences with adjusting the c spine espescially becasue it is so much more highly innervated than the rest of our spines and you are also dealing with very close proximity to major arteries within that area too. people have had dissected vertabral arteries from chiro adjustments. not everyones anatomy is always going to be a "textbook' type either, espescially if injury or disease processes are going on and can change locations of vital areas. this is the main reason you just really DO need that MRI done pre adjustment from any chiro. you also have to keep in mind that any real adjusting that goes on in there is a blind one, meaning the chiro cannot actually even see what it is they are adjusting or could move wrong that could create a problem where you never had one previously.


just be very very careful with the c spine level, always. no one just truely really knows just what is really going on within their own body til at least some level of deeper type of scan than a plain x ray is done. trust me. FB
 
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