If you are in the harmful habit of cracking and popping your neck on a regular basis, you should break the habit right away, for a number of reasons. It can be very detrimental to the health of your muscles, and your spine.
After all, if you are a chronic neck cracker you are probably doing more harm than good. Understand exactly what happens when you manipulate your neck on your own can help you to get the motivation to stop.
Your spine is made up of many different vertebrae, each of which forms a joint with the vertebra above, and the vertebra below. Because there are twenty four moveable segments in the spine, the combined motion of these joints allows us to bend forward, look over our shoulders, and perform nearly all of our daily activities.
Without spinal motion, people would not be able to perform even the simplest of tasks, such as walking, running, or reading to grab something. This is why protecting these muscles and joints can make such a big difference in your health.
There is a normal motion to all of our joints, and those who crack their necks on a regular basis are disturbing this natural motion. There are four specific phases of motion-they are active, passive, paraphysiologic , and sprain.
When joints pop, movement through the paraphysiologic zone occurs when the passive range is exceeded, but before actual damage can occur. Paraphysiologic motion involves the "play" of a joint, not just further passive motion.
Passive motion can be observed by pulling your finger gently out of the knuckle socket-you can also see it when you push the finger backward to the endrange motion. In the paraphysiologic zone the surfaces of each bone - which do not actually quite touch in a normal joint - move slightly farther apart than normal.
When you tug on your neck to get that cracking feeling, a sudden and momentary vacuum occurs, which is just as suddenly filled by gas which has been, up until that moment, saturated in the joint fluid. A popping or cracking noise is produced, which you can hear.
This exchange of gas and fluid is called cavitation. You can create this same effect when you make a popping sound in your cheek with your finger.
While this may seem harmless, there are harmful side effects to this kind of action, particularly when you do it on a chronic basis. If you are a chronic neck-popper, you are very likely stretching the ligaments which support and stabilize your neck joints.
Stretched ligaments result in a condition called hypermobility, in which the joints lose their natural springy end play. This can cause a lot of pain, and future problems.
To someone skilled at feeling joint motion, like a chiropractor, this loss of springiness can be detected. They only need to observe the motion of your neck, and do an easy diagnosis to discover exactly where and how the problem is occurring.
As the ligaments become more stretched and over-relaxes, the small muscles that connect one vertebra to the next become tight, which causes pain and restriction. They have to work harder to make up for the loss of stability due to the overstretched ligaments.
This makes your neck feel tight, and sore. When this occurs, the only think you want to do is to create that crack again, for a little relief.
However, it will only cause this negative cycle to keep continuing, causing you more pain and soreness. This gives you that uncomfortable feeling once again, causing you to self-manipulate once again.
The muscles are stretched, they relax, and you feel some relief. However, you will be back to pain and headaches in no time at all.
While it will be a very difficult habit to break, doing so is the only way that you can find consistent and permanent relief. You need to make sure that you return your muscles to the shape and tautness that they should be in, so that you can stop the vicious cycle of pain and discomfort.
Every time you feel the need to crack your neck, try doing something else instead, such as gently stretching it, or closing your eyes and taking some deep breathes. If you are careful and determined enough, you can break the habit, and save the health of your spine before it is too late.
Author Resource:-
Tom Selwick has worked in the field of chiropractics for 15 years and has written numerous articles on chiropractic therapy for treatment of automobile accident injuries. He recommends Utah Car Accident for treatment of your autmobile accident injury.
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