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How To Fix Neck Pain When Turning Head

David Kulla  0:09 Hi everyone, Dr. David Kulla here with Synergy Wellness. Today, we have someone here who yesterday couldn’t even turn her neck. So, she’s doing better today. She fell asleep on the couch doing one of these. We’ve all done that before, not a good idea. If your couch is set up in a funny direction where you have to lie like that, then you may want to move your TV or your couch, which again, may be hard to do depending on how your living room is set up or your bedroom. But that was one thing I mentioned to you, I don’t know if you were able to change that. So, how are you doing after the last visit?

Patient  0:43 Much better.

David Kulla  0:43 Good. You got more range of motion?

Patient  0:45 Yes, I’m not stuck.

David Kulla  0:46 Okay. So, what I’m doing here for her today is cold laser therapy. And cold laser therapy, she had asked me right before we started filming, “What does this do?” And great question. So, cold laser therapy does a lot, but, for muscles, what it’s going to do is it’s going to reduce inflammation, reduce muscle spasms. And muscles have nerves that run through them, it’s also going to inhibit those nerves. So, if your muscle spasms are due to irritated nerves or stress, it’s going to calm all that down. And then, we have other frequencies we can use for healing, and repairing, and breaking up scar tissue. So, there’s a lot of different things this works for, I hope that answers your question, it just depends on the frequency I’m using. Right now, I’m focusing on your pain, and your inflammation, and muscle spasms. But, for carpal tunnel syndrome, it’s really good. It’s only FDA-approved right now for carpal tunnel syndrome, but they’re slow to do that kind of stuff, the FDA. It’s been used throughout Europe, Israel and Russia, this treatment, for decades, probably about two decades, maybe more now. So, a lot of research also out of the Scandinavian countries. It’s called Cold Laser Therapy or Low-Level Laser Therapy; LLLT. That’s a Triple L and a T. And we have some more information on cold laser therapy if you really want to get into it and learn more about it. Because also, from a scientific level, it excites the mitochondria to speed up the healing process. That’s why you’re seeing a lot of sports teams, professional sports teams use these lasers instead of injections because the injections break down the tissue over time, especially if you do more than two or three cortisone injections in a joint. So, the laser helps to heal and repair the tissue completely opposite of a cortisone shot. So, if you’re considering a cortisone shot in one of your joints, any joint in your body, as long as it’s not your eye, you can use cold laser therapy. So, even like inflammation from arthritis, it’s really good for. So, we’re going to do her last trigger point. Are you tender right there?

Patient  2:52  Mm-hmm.

David Kulla  2:53  Okay, I’m going to leave it on there for about a minute and a half, and you’ll see right afterwards that that tender spot subsides. And then, we’re going to go ahead and adjust her and check her range of motion after. Can you go ahead and turn your head to… It was hard for you to turn it to this side, correct?

Patient  3:07  Yeah. Much better.

David Kulla  3:09 Okay. Are you able to go all the way, or no?

Patient  3:13 Pretty much as far.

David Kulla  3:15 Like the other side?

Patient  3:17 Yeah, I think so.

David Kulla  3:18 Okay. When you turn to the side… What kid from Addams family with the hair over his face?

Patient  3:23 (Laughs) Cousin Itt.

David Kulla  3:24 Cousin Itt, yeah. And your hair is pretty short, you just got a cut, huh?

Patient  3:28 I actually just straightened it.

David Kulla  3:29 Straightened it, okay.

Patient  3:31 Yep. It’s usually curly.

David Kulla  3:32 Yeah, mine too. For those of you that didn’t catch that, that was a hair joke. Okay, now we’re good. We’re going on 90 seconds, and we’re just going to test spot again. Okay, and how’s that?

Patient  3:48 Wow, much better.

David Kulla  3:50 We can use it on the lower back too. It can be used anywhere in the body, anywhere. She’s got some subluxations here in her mid-back that are affecting the way that she turns her neck because the thoracic spine, these vertebrae down here, actually rotate to the opposite side when you turn your head. So, if you turn your head to the left, they rotate to the right, and she turns her head to the right they rotate to the left. So, let’s have you turn over on your back. Give yourself a big hug here. Tuck your chin down. Take a deep breath in. And tuck your chin down again. And blow all the way out. Okay. We’re not going to force that, come on up. Now, what we’re doing is checking her neck for subluxations, misalignments, and cervical spine limiting her range of motion and irritating the nerves, making it…

Patient  4:50 Right there.

David Kulla  4:51 Right there?

Patient  4:51  Mm-hmm.

David Kulla  4:52 Making it painful for her to turn her neck. So, it’s tender for her on the left side is what she saying of her neck, but really, what I need to do is adjust on the right side. Relax here. Let it go. Okay. Now, a lot of people crack their own necks, I do not suggest you do that. I can’t even adjust myself, so you can’t adjust yourself. Sorry, you can’t. So, stop doing that and go see someone else, a professional that knows what they’re doing. When you do that, you’re stretching out ligaments and tendons. And I have a feeling, this is just a hunch, and I’m going to put her on the spot, do you crack your own neck?

Patient  5:37 I do not.

David Kulla  5:38 You don’t?

Patient  5:40 I do not. I wish I could, but I don’t.

David Kulla  5:42 You don’t take it, and do this with your chin, and twist it, and…?

Patient 5:45 No.

David Kulla  5:46 Okay.

Patient  5:46 I have figured out how to crack my own back, but not my neck.

David Kulla  5:50 Okay. So, those of you that crack your own neck, you know who you are, stop doing that. Relax yourself here. Now, if you want to crack your own neck without using your hands on your head, or shoulders, or neck, that’s okay, nothing wrong with that. Tender right there?

Patient  6:10 Mm-hmm

David Kulla  6:11 Take a deep breath in. So, she has some suboccipital trigger points. So, tender points underneath her occiput right where it comes to meet the top of the neck. So, for most of us it’s the bottom of the hairline. That ridge that you feel there in the back of your skull, the bottom of your skull, that’s the suboccipital region or suboccipital tendon there. And oftentimes, it gets really painful and tender because people are staring at their phones, staring down at their phones all day, and that adds additional stress to the muscles in the back, the suboccipital tendons and some of the other smaller muscles in the back of the neck. But, for her, she just slept funny on the couch. Take a deep breath in and blow out. Now, with her neck, we just don’t always get that traditional cracking noise. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. What would you say?

Patient  7:02 Yeah, it depends.

David Kulla  7:01 50/50?

Patient  7:04 Mm-hmm.

David Kulla  7:05 So, what I’m going to do today here with her because her lower cervical spine didn’t move great… Tender right there?

Patient  7:14 Mm-hmm.

David Kulla  7:15 Okay. We’re going to do something called stair stepping. This is like a figure-eight motion. This is to help get the facet joints in the neck gliding better. And sometimes, I just need to do this, and that frees up the subluxation. So, you were a 10 last time I saw you, where are you at today?

Patient  7:33 Oh much better, like, I’d say 4. If I forget about it, and I turn too quickly, it goes to maybe like a 5 or 6. But yeah, it’s much, much better.

David Kulla  7:41 Okay. So now, we just want to get you to a point where well, it’s the holidays, we want to get you pain-free to a zero.

Patient  7:48 At least I can drive now.

David Kulla  7:49 You can turn. Yeah, that’s dangerous driving when you can’t turn your head. Okay, we’re going to do a couple more here. That was better. And that’s it, folks. Stop sleeping on the couch in a funny way. Realign your TV and couch. And if you have any questions about cold laser therapy or about inability to turn your neck, comment below. Go ahead, sit up. Turn your face left and right, and let’s see how you’re doing. That was to the right, this was the harder one.

Patient  8:17 Yeah. I still feel it, but it’s much better.

David Kulla  8:19 Yeah, you’re still a little limited about 5, 10 degrees. So, maybe one more visit to completely clear it out. It’s still pulling?

Patient  8:25 It pulls right here.

David Kulla  8:27 Okay. Have a seat right here.

Patient  8:29 Sit or lie?

David Kulla  8:30 Yeah. Sit right there. Take this hand, now turn it.

Patient  8:40 Oh, much better.

David Kulla  8:42 That’s not your average Theragun folks. Much better?

Patient  8:45  (Laughs) That was much better. Yeah.

David Kulla  8:47  Thanks for tubing in. Thank you, guys, so much. If you got anything from this video, or even if you just like this view of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, give me a like and don’t forget to subscribe. I appreciate you guys.

[End Of Audio]

Dr. David Kulla, D.C.

Dr. David Kulla graduated from Life University in Atlanta, Georgia with a Doctorate in Chiropractic. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Hofstra University in New York.  Dr. Kulla was very fortunate to be under chiropractic care before he started his doctorate program. While attending college, he interned with his professional mentors, helping to gain a wide range of therapeutic tools he would later use in a clinical setting. Working as a fitness trainer gives him great insight into injury rehabilitation and working with the disabled population has given him the compassion needed to be a well-rounded, successful Chiropractor in New York City.

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