Why the simple act of breathing may be making your neck pain worse

Let's face it, the world our bodies evolved to live in and the one that we force them to be part of are very different. This is definitely the case with our body's approach to breathing during stressful times in our lives.

Here's an example:
You all of a sudden develop neck pain (maybe it came for no reason or maybe you were recently in a motor vehicle accident). For any rational and reasonable human being, realizing you are injured is quite stressful. You think to yourself "How am I going to get everything done you had planned to do for the next few hours, days, weeks, or possibly months?"

Over the next few days your situation starts to get worse so you come to me for physiotherapy treatment with the following symptoms:

• Headaches
• Tender shoulder muscles
• Dizziness
• Numbness or tingling into the extremities
• Lightheadedness
• Weakness
• Sleep Disturbance

How to find a great Physiotherapist

Whenever I give friends from other cities physio advice, it always ends with them asking the same question: "How do I find a good physical therapist?"

This is a question I have had years to ponder, and still have difficulty answering. As a patient, it is very difficult to tell if you are getting quality care, or if you are just being viewed as another dollar sign to help a clinic reach its bottom line. The whole reason for seeking help is because you are not a medical expert. So without being an expert, how can you tell if you are getting the treatment you deserve? After much thought and deliberation, here are two simple questions to ask when deciding where to book your physiotherapy treatments.

Healthy nerves need to move

Nerves need to be able to move, slide and stretch as the body moves. This may seem like common sense, but ironically this way of thinking has only come to be incorporated into rehabilitation since the 1980s and still isn't completely acknowledged across all medical professions today.

When you lift your arm over your head the path some nerves follow is 20% longer than when your arm is at your side. Although our nerves do have the ability to stretch, this ability is limited. Primarily, nerves need to be able to slide around other tissues of the body as we move. Nerves can slide up to 2 centimeters under surrounding structures, and if this ability to slide is restricted, problems can occur.

Fascia, the under-appreciated tissue

I've spoken with many patients about the wonderful experience they had at Body Worlds learning about human anatomy. I myself did countless laps of the place in awe of the intricacy of the body. Gunther von Hagens did an amazing job bringing the wonderful world of anatomy to the masses. However, there was one thing missing. The one thing that always bothers me whenever I view dissections is often the missing link when understanding how the human body moves. We always view anatomy with the fascia removed!

Now some of you may ask: what is fascia?