Neck Pain

Neck and Back Pain

Latest Information: June 2, 2010: Read below for more about the chiropractor that I go to now (Dr Brad). Here is a recent story about him. A lady goes to this dentist for TMJ (TMJ is the short version of Temporomandibular Joint or jaw joint and the surrounding muscles. TMJ disorders can be quite painful and include migraines, neck and shoulder pain, and a host of other symptoms. In addition, TMJ problems can make it difficult to eat, swallow, and yawn).

She wore this device for it around her neck. She went to Dr Brad for the first time ever and he adjusted her. She went back to the dentist and the device no longer fitted her. She did not need it anymore. When the dentist found out that Dr Brad fixed her, he called and made an appointment to get adjusted himself. He told Dr Brad that he needed this badly and so do most of his patients.

Dr Brad warns people that just because the following works with one person does not mean that it will work with the next person with this same health problem. He had a teen girl (with her mother) come to him with Tourette's syndrome (neurological disorder characterized by facial grimaces and tics and movements of the upper body and grunts and shouts). After adjusting her all the symptoms of the Tourettes went away. Her doctor explained that it was just a fluke (a result, esp. a successful one, brought about by accident; stroke of luck).  End of latest addition.

One book says that you can get rid of neck and back pain just by being more relaxed. Another book says most of this pain can be gotten rid of with exercise to strengthen the areas around the torso. So you can try them first. But if you have pain from an injury that cannot be helped in those ways, you need professional help. You can try some stretching exercises that I do everyday. See the August 23, 2007 article blog on the blog below.

I had a very severe injury to my spine which included the nerve being pinched in my lower back. When I was 17 years old,  I was learning martial arts and I was practicing double flying front kicks against a heavy bag that boxers use. I was trying to kick as high as possible. My heel came down on the top of the bag and it flipped me back and I landed on the tile floor on my back. I was knocked unconscious but was able to get up and walk away. The next couple of days I walked around like I was 90 years old.

Many years later I found that I had broke a lower vertebrae into 2 pieces. That vertebrae is still in 2 separate pieces so I broke my back and still have a broken back. Although the spinal cord was not severed which causes someone to be crippled. Because of my compromised health due to this injury, it has caused me to learn everything I could about health.

This is similar to what happened with many health experts. That is why some health experts do not live that long. So my advice is to not do things like bicycle and skate board tricks that risk serious injury to your body. Otherwise you may have to endure pain for a lifetime. In fact you could say that I broke my back to bring you the information on this website so I hope that you benefit from it.

I went to 6 different chiropractors with only a tiny bit of relief. Almost all chiropractors use the same method regardless of how the person was injured. The basic treatment is to crack the neck left and right. Then crack the middle back. Then to crack the hips left and right.

Then I went to another (7th) chiropractor 7 years after the accident. But this one said that I had to get an X-ray first and get it analyzed before getting adjusted. I did not like that. Then he said that he would only gently adjust my 1st vertebrae. So I said "Then my whole spine including the pinched  nerve in my lower back (which I could feel all the time) will just magically line up." He said "Yes." He adjusted me and it just worked that way!

Plus they measure how much you are out. The normal C curve in my neck was gone and it was totally straight. Plus I had a 6 and a half degree rotation in my neck. I had him X-ray me again 6 months later. I felt better than I had in years since it was 7 years since the accident where I broke one of my vertebrae into 2 pieces. My C curve was totally back. My neck rotation was reduced to 1 and a half degrees. So this guy saved me of a life of constant pain.

Many years later my car was hit in the rear very hard by a drunk driver driving a van. My neck had a 7 degree rotation in the opposite direction. So now for the first time I am getting adjusted on the other side of my neck. But the chiropractor took care of it quickly since this time it was not years after the accident.

Two decades later I was in a car accident with a guy who was tired and ran a red light. I was curious about what a regular chiropractor could do for me since there was one right around the corner from me whereas my old one was around 10 miles away. I got worse going to the regular chiropractor who used the Gonstead method-- a powerful neck twist. I went to the guy replacing my old one (he retired) and I had a 4 and a half degree rotation. In a few months he was able to get it down to 2 and a half degrees.

The old guy and replacement use the NUCCA method. It stands for National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association. There are fewer of them around than other chiropractors since it is much more difficult to learn. The founder of NUCCA got an award from President Ronald Reagan for his chiropractic research. Regular chiropractic does work sometimes on people. My NUCCA chiropractor works with an animal clinic and they have not researched NUCCA on animals. So he uses regular adjustments on these animals (mostly dogs) and they appear to benefit from them.

The CA governor, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, said at the Arnold Classic, "I am very fortunate to have, so-to-speak, my in-house chiropractor, Dr Franco Columbu, as my own personal chiropractor.

He adjusts my wife, my kids, me, everybody gets an adjustment. And we feel always great when Franco leaves." Lance Armstrong won 7 straight Tour De France events. After one of those events, he said that he could not have done it without chiropractic. Barry Bonds said "I go to my chiropractor on a regular basis, because I want to prolong my career as long as possible. I see him about once a week, in between my training."

Note that you are not just dealing with pain but this type of problem can cause high blood pressure leading to strokes, heart attacks and kidney failure. So get your blood pressure checked. Here is a study about this type of chiropractic care treatment helping to lower high blood pressure.

The one I go to is just outside of Philadelphia area. Contact him at Dr. Brad Hirschhorn 215-663-8555 website (www.nuccadrbrad.com) To find closest one to you and more info on NUCCA go to (www.nucca.com).

For decades my NUCCA chiropractor was Dr. Jay Berke. He was the only NUCCA guy in the whole area. He is a brilliant man. He graduated an Ivy League college (Cornell U). He had a Bridge game that was published in the New York Times. He graduated first in his class at chiropractic college. The guy who graduated 2nd in his class became the dean of that college.

I just came across a book called, What Time, Tuesday. This guy, James Tomasi, had such great results with NUCCA, he wrote a book about it and created a group to let people know about it. After root canal he got TN (trigeminal neuralgia). It is a incurable nerve condition of the face. I had never heard of trigeminal neuralgia (TN). It is the most painful condition there is. It is also called "suicide disease." The only relief he got from it was when he would get a shot of Novacine. This is what dentists give people for drilling cavities and pulling teeth.

He saw chiropractors, acupuncturists and herbalists and got no help. After 12 years of this pain he was going to kill himself (in 1997). Then his wife heard about NUCCA helping a guy with fibromyalgia. He went and after the first adjustment most of the pain was gone. Nine days later he had his third adjustment and was pain free. Here is more on that story and on the group he created to let people know about NUCCA and other upper cervical groups that are similar to NUCCA.

Things that worked against me is the accident was at 17 and I did not learn about the NUCCA chiropractor until I was 24. Also all these years I have not had the money to go as often as I should. I have always been thin so I cannot be healthier by losing weight.

Dr Brad told me about a patient he has. He came in the first time and said "You would not know it by looking at me, but the entire left side of my body has no feeling at all. It had been like that since he had a stroke, 10 years ago. He could not sit still and he could not sleep. He would keep waking up and have trouble getting back to sleep. Dr Brad took X-rays, figured out the vectors and adjusted him. He was able to sit still. That night, he slept through the night. A few days later he started getting feeling back in the left side of his body.

Another patient of his was a construction worker. He was on disability for 6 months. After his first visit with Dr. Brad, he went back to work a few days later. Above I mention the chiropractor that I went to because he lived near me (Dr Tony). Even though I got worse going to him, he was a very nice doctor and was really trying to help me. He just did not know how. After going to Dr Tony for a year, this lady came to Dr Brad for the first time. I was getting ready to leave and she was in his office and I could hear her crying while talking to him.

She had been in terrible pain for 2 years and her life was a mess because of it. I had told Dr Tony that Dr. Brad was able to help me after he could not. He said to this lady that he could not help her and told her to go to Dr Brad. Dr. Brad adjusted her and she was out of pain for the first time in 2 years.

For better neck and back care keep in mind that sitting is the worst position for neck and back health. In some societies, they never sit. So what do they do when eating or talking? They squat for hours in comfort. This way their buttocks are never in the dirt or mud. Walking, standing and lying down are better for the back. I sit too much and it has taken its toll on me. Yoga was originally created to keep people healthy while they sit for hours in meditation. Shaolin temple monks would sit in meditation for hours but also spent hours practicing martial arts. Yoga is very good for the back and neck. See our privacy policy.

The ideal human proportions. I traced my body in 2 positions. (Vitruvian Man)

The human body is based on 5 and phi-- the golden ratio.  The torso has 5 appendages. Each limb has 5 appendages. The face has 5 holes in it. Raise 5 to the 0.5 power (the square root of 5). Multiply it by 0.5 and add 0.5 and you get phi. All animals are based on phi. It is the ratio where when you divide something into 2 parts, the larger part is to the smaller part as the whole is to the larger part. Divide the smaller part into the larger part and you get a number larger than 1 (1.6180339...). Divide the larger number into the smaller number and you get the same number without the 1 (0.6180339...). In other words the inverse of phi is the same number but without the 1. The length of your head compared to the width of your head, the length of your upper body (above navel) compared to the length of your lower body and the length of your lower arm compared to the length of your upper arm are just some of the places on your body that have the golden ratio.

All trees and plants are based on the Fibonacci sequence where the next number is the sum of the two previous numbers (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...). As this gets higher, the ratio of 2 numbers in sequence approaches phi-- the golden ratio. There is the very famous drawing of Leonardo Da Vinci of man (see drawing on the left). He drew this to go in his friend's book, The Divine Proportion, to illustrate phi-- the golden ratio. If you like this website, then tell everyone you know about it and check back for more of the latest news about health and well being.