| A few weeks ago I slept wrong or I bumped my head on the garage door. My neck ached for about a week. The pain eventually went away, but last week my shoulder began hurting. Am I falling
apart or is there some relationship between my neck and my shoulder? The answer could be that you are falling apart. The more likely answer is that when you hurt your neck, you probably pinched nerves leading to your shoulder
causing inflammation of the shoulder girdle (i.e. a mild form of arthritis).
Shoulder pain is often, but not always, related to injuries from the neck area. The reason this occurs is that nerves branching from your
spine, especially the cervical vertebra (neck bones) innervate or give power to the muscles and joints of the entire upper extremity (shoulder, arm, and wrist). If your neck bones become injured a misalignment of the vertebra can
occur putting pressure on the nerves. The result is a gradual radiation from the neck area to the shoulder, elbow, and eventually even the wrist. If you can go to the source of the problem, (in this case the neck) and correct it,
the radiation can be stopped.
Your spine is made up from 26 movable bones, surrounding 31 pairs of spinal nerves innervating joints, muscles, organs, and tissues of your body. If any of these
nerves become pinched, dysfunction occurs at some related level of the body. As you can see, proper spinal alignment can eliminate pain in your shoulder. This is one possible cause of your shoulder pain. There are also many other
possibilities but, if you have had a neck injury, a relationship can exist between a pinched nerve and pain in other areas. Neck and shoulder problems are very common in today's society because of the stress we place
on our bodies. Gardening, leaning over computers, time spent on the phone, and even golf can cause problems with your neck and shoulder areas. If you are experiencing any type of shoulder problem, the sooner you have it corrected
the faster the healing process can begin. |
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