Do you get pain you can’t explain?

Tingling and strange sensations throughout your body?

Do you have hormone imbalances, digestive issues or often “just don’t feel right”?

Has this been going on for some time and getting progressively worse?

Your nervous system may be to blame.

Every single action in your body is controlled by your nerves, from your lungs inflating to your digestive system producing the right enzymes to picking up your feet when you walk. When your nerve system is compromised everything in your body can be affected

All your nerves start in your brain and travel down, through your spine and out to organs, muscles, skin etc. The squidgy discs in your spine (the ones that “slip”) are there to allow nerves out and help you bend.

Every single one of your nerves has to travel through your neck. So if the neck is injured then everything along the chain stops working properly, because they aren’t getting the right messages!

The Science

Some fascinating research has recently come out of the UK from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists. This study followed patients who had car accidents which caused whiplash. In essence, those patients who had suffered whiplash, even if it was only minor or they had few symptoms afterwards were significantly more likely to have a whole range of issues later on in life, from digestive problems, hormone imbalance, aches and pains, the list goes on.

If the neck and, more importantly, the nerves within the neck, are compromised by any trauma (not just whiplash) this can affect the signals and commands for the rest of the body. The symptoms may not occur immediately, you might only experience problems many years later when your body is no longer able to cope with the continued trauma and irritation on the nerves.

What to do about it?

One of the biggest issues is getting a diagnosis. Often patients are only given help for symptoms which, unsurprisingly, doesn’t help.

The biggest factor in getting a successful and useful diagnosis is looking at the body as a whole. Estelle Mitchell, Consultant Physiotherapist at the Bodyworks Clinic says, “one of the biggest advantages of introducing our Full Body Check-Up is that by looking at the entire body we can help those patients who are confused by their symptoms or not getting enough information through other investigations with a more narrow area of focus. By looking at the whole body we can get to the true cause rather than treating the symptoms.”

To further help this we also offer a Musculoskeletal Check-up which includes all the appropriate Thermal Imaging as well as a full consultation with Estelle. This means that we can determine exactly which nerves are damaged and thereby determing which associated systems could also be affected. It is also a useful elimination process, if you are experiencing stomach or digestives problems we can use the Thermal Imaging to determine if the cause is the stomach or digestive system or if this is a referred problem from within the nervous system. This means that you can then get the right treatment for the right problem.

Getting help

Once you understand the problem you can seek appropriate help. Neck trauma causes a whole range of symptoms but, appropriate treatment of the neck should help to resolve these.

Estelle Mitchell says, “the neck is extremely delicate and needs to be handled very carefully with a clear understanding of the neurological implications. English Chartered Physiotherapists are trained in helping patients with neurological symptoms as well as problems in muscles and joints.”

Once you have a full and clear diagnosis there are a number of treatment paths available depending on the exact nature of the problem.

• Acupuncture can also help with pain relief, relief of related symptoms and nerve regeneration.
• Craniosacral Osteopathy can also help the neck to heal and realign with the rest of the spine.
• And of course if the problem is related to arthritic or disc compromise in the neck then MRT may also help.
• There is also physiotherapy with Estelle who combines treatment for the small joints in the neck with treatment for the surrounding muscles and uses the latest technology to help speed up nerve regeneration.

There are many options once the true cause of the problem has been understood. Estelle can then work with you to design a treatment plan that is right for you and your neck.

You don’t need to suffer – diagnosis and help are available.