A Common Issue at the Base of the Neck

        Stress at the juncture of the cervical spine with the thoracic region, at the lower neck, may cause compression between the parts of the vertebrae that touch each other and the neighboring soft tissues.

The vertebral parts that touch are called the facets. Here the compression causes a “jamming” of the bone areas together. The adjacent soft tissues become involved, and the result is similar to a clenched fist. 

This causes pain to be referred out into the shoulder, and it can be persistent, usually needing precise intervention to resolve.

Most often the patient presents with complaints of a shoulder problem. However, the real cause of the problem is not in the shoulder at all, but in the neck.

I see this problem often in my office. Specific, precise adjustments with the Activator instrument release the compression and bring patients relief.

Distortion of the Rib Cage

  Often when patients present with pain in the thoracic region, an underlying, global aberrance of the rib cage is involved. 

The patient may say, “I feel twisted,” or “Something feels pulled.”’ They may have been coughing, may have tripped on a curb, fallen, or lifted something while their upper body was turned to one side.

After adjusting misalignments in the thoracic spine, including relieving jammed ribs at their articulations with vertebrae, I always check the status of the rib cage.

Nine times out of ten, I find a torquing of the ribs, in which one side is stressed superiorward, while ribs on the opposite side are stressed downward.

Precise, vectored, subaxillary adjustments with the Activator instrument correct the global rib cage distortion, and put the “finishing touch” on relieving the patient’s discomfort.