I want to talk to you about symptoms in the arms. Symptoms that include things like pain, weakness, numbness, tingling; whatever it may be, but we know that it is a neurological issue. And we know that it is most likely coming from the neck. Let’s talk about normal neck physiology and why the neck is the way it is, so we can understand why some may experience pain down the arms.
The neck’s normal curve should look like a backward “C.” The reason being that we have a 10 to 15-pound head sitting on top of a small little neck, and we need the weight of the head to be distributed throughout the entire neck. This provides equal shock absorbency throughout the neck, so the stress of the head does not damage any of the necks. However, when there’s a misalignment in the top bone of the neck, taking the brain off-center, the brain has to compensate the spine in order to level itself out.
What that looks like is when this bone is misaligned, the only way the brain can level itself out is by pushing the head in front of us. This causes a straight neck over time. Now, instead of having nice, equal shock absorbency, you have this 15-pound head putting all the pressure and weight at the bottom of the neck since the neck has lost its curve.
Over time, the bottom of the neck will start to form bone spurs, meaning the bones are starting to grow together. The space between each vertebra decreases. The vertebrae need space between them because that is where our nerves come out to our entire body. In the bottom of the neck, this is where the nerves to the arms, the hands, and the elbows go, as well as vital organs, like the heart and the lungs, but we are just talking about arm symptoms today. Again, when there is pressure on the bottom of the neck because of a straight neck, we start to see the pain, numbness and tingling down the arms because those nerves have pressure on them.
So how does upper cervical care help with the bottom of the neck? Well, if we can get the atlas, or the first bone in the neck, back to where it needs to go, then the brain can now rebalance itself, allowing the body to reestablish the correct curve in the neck, which takes the pressure off the bones and nerves in the bottom of the neck. Now we can have fully functioning and fully healing nerve signals to the arms and the hands, so the symptoms can go away. It really is that simple.