Natural Neck Pain Relief

Your Neck is Connected to Your Whole Body, and so is Your Pain and Inflammation

As a result, the cause of neck pain and inflammation comes from many factors, requiring a whole-body approach to relieving pain.

Dr. Squires’ approach brings together a holistic treatment of all the factors contributing to your chronic inflammation and pain. Personalizing treatment to the factors most impacting your source of pain.

And combines it with a Regenerative Medicine approach that stimulates your own body’s healing response naturally.

Regenerative medicine is a cell-based therapy using advanced scientific techniques in the treatment of degenerative disease, orthopedic injuries, and joint conditions.

Discover how Dr. Squires can help by scheduling an initial consult »

“I’ve been seeing Dr. Squires for severe neck and shoulder pain that I’ve been dealing with for 10 years. Over that time, I’ve seen every type of provider under the sun, and have only had minimal relief. With a combination of adjustments, dural attachment therapy and perineural injection therapy I am now 100% pain free! I am a medical provider as well, and have been so impressed with Dr. Squires’ physical medicine abilities that I’ve now sent several of my own patients to see her, and have heard only rave reviews from them.

Dr. Squires has a true gift. Her holistic approach to taking care of her patients is thoughtful and intentional. She’s truly invested in the well-being of her patients. I can’t recommend her enough for overall wellness. I’m so appreciative of her diverse skills and offerings. We’re lucky to have her here in Seattle!”

 

– Patient Testimonial

Cervicogenic Headache/Neck Pain with Headaches​

• Cervicogenic headache refers to a headache of cervical origin = headache caused by injury to the neck.
• Common post whiplash, concussion, and trauma.
• There are many causes for headache and an accurate diagnosis is the first step in treatment.

Causes of Cervicogenic Headache/Neck Pain with Headaches:

• Weak or stretched out neck ligaments and/or tendons may act as headache triggers.
• Whiplash injuries and concussions cause stretching and injure neck ligaments leading to ligament hypermobility and joint instability.
• Muscles tighten and spasm in unstable joints due to being overworked trying to stabilize the neck because the damaged ligaments and tendons are not doing their job to stabilize the joint.
• As muscles tighten they cause constriction of the nerve which leads to increased inflammation in the area, decreased function, and increased pain signals to the brain.
• Instability also results in the body thinking there is ongoing injury = constant low-grade inflammatory response producing chronic pain and degenerative changes.

Regenerative Medicine Injections for neck pain and headache include:

• Prolotherapy – is a therapy to help strengthen tendons and ligaments to improve joint stability.
• Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) – involves using your own blood plasma and platelets as an enriched source of growth factors and immune cells to stimulate healing of bone and soft tissue.
• Perineural Injection Therapy – is a treatment for nerve inflammation.

Whiplash or Cervical Ligaments Strain/Sprain

• Whiplash injuries often happen in motor vehicle accidents.
• Initiation of quick forward and backward movement causes stretching and injury to the ligaments of the neck leading to ligament hypermobility and joint instability.
• Muscles tighten and spasm in unstable joints due to being overworked trying to stabilize the neck because the damaged ligaments and tendons are not doing their job to stabilize the joint.
• As muscles tighten they cause constriction of the nerve which leads to increased inflammation in the area, decreased function, and increased pain signals to the brain.

Symptoms of Whiplash Injury and Joint Instability

• Tight sore muscles
• Deep aching neck pain
• Decreased mobility
• Persistent neck and shoulder pain
• Increased risk of osteoarthritis

Whiplash injury can also result in:

• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Balance problems
• Paresthesia
• Tinnitus
• Visual Changes

It is believed that many individuals are able to heal on their own or with physical therapy, chiropractic and acupuncture within a few months, however, recent research suggests that approximately half of individuals still experience neck pain one year post trauma or motor vehicle accident.

Regenerative Medicine is an injection therapy used to help the body heal and relieve pain

• During injury either from high force such as a trauma from a car accident or a sports injury, our bodies regenerative processes may not be able to produce an efficient inflammatory and immune response to heal the injury.
• Constant low-grade inflammatory response produces pain and further degeneration.
• Regenerative medicine utilizes specific types of injections and/or techniques to induce an immune response in and around the joint in order to mimic an injury and bring the body’s own immune cells, growth factors and collagen-building precursors to strengthen, repair and rebuild injured and degenerated soft tissue.

Regenerative Injections for whiplash and neck pain includes:

• Prolotherapy – is a therapy to help strengthen tendons and ligaments to improve joint stability.
• Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) – involves using your own blood plasma and platelets as an enriched source of growth factors and immune cells to stimulate healing of bone and soft tissue.
• Perineural Injection Therapy – is a treatment for nerve inflammation.

Dr. Squires has extensive training in all regenerative medicine injections providing the most effective combination of treatments. She has had success in alleviating symptoms and treating the root cause of pain with individualized treatments for chronic neck pain and headache.

Other Treatment Considerations for Neck Pain:

Trigger Point Injection Therapy

• Trigger points are tight, sore areas in muscle tissue that are caused by trauma or injury, strains/sprains, chronic overwork, and poor posture.
• Common symptoms:
  • Discomfort and pain
  • Muscle spasm
  • Decreased mobility
  • Tension headaches
• Trigger point injection therapy is a minimally invasive injection technique that releases areas of acute and chronic tension and pain.

Dural Attachment Therapy (Biocranial)

• Dural attachment therapy is an osteopathic manipulation that releases tension on the dura, a strong connective tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
• Tension of the dura not only results in structural misalignments resulting in muscle tightness and pain signaling, but will also affect the tone of the nervous system leading to altered function.
• Imbalances in the cranial system can lead to
  • Migraine/Headaches
  • Vertigo
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Neck pain
  • Low back pain
  • Tinnitus
  • Sleep apnea
  • Anxiety and depression
• This treatment successfully treats alignments from back or neck pain to mood and energy issues. This treatment will relax your nervous system and align your skeletal/muscular structure promoting your body’s innate ability to heal itself.

“I think of your “miracle work” often as you completely changed my life with your adjustments”. A patient’s message after solving her chronic, debilitating neck pain with Dural Attachment Therapy.

 

– Patient Testimonial

CCI – Cranial Cervical Instability

Craniocervical instability (CCI) also known as atlantoaxial instability or cranio-atlanto-axial instability is a structural instability at the junction between the skull (occiput) and the neck (upper cervical spine). These joints allow the majority of flexion/extension and rotation of the head and neck. This junction also surrounds critical structures such as the brain stem, cerebellum, spinal cord, and cranial nerves, which is why instability of these structures can have dramatic whole-body affects.

Common Symptoms of CCI:

Structural instability leads to increased mobility of the craniocervical junction. Too much movement in the upper cervical spine may result in compression on the brainstem, spinal cord, vertebral artery, cranial nerves and cervical nerve roots that may cause neurological symptoms.

• Headache that is often located at the back of the head
• Feeling like your head is too heavy for the neck to support
• Headache due to intracranial pressure which would be aggravated by exercise, yawning, laughing, crying, coughing, sneezing or straining.
• Neck pain
• Facial pain or numbness
• Balance problems
• Muscle weakness
• Dizziness and vertigo
• Vision problems
• Reduced gag reflux and difficulty swallowing
• Ringing in the ears and hearing loss
• Nausea and vomiting
• Impaired coordination
• Brain fog
• Decreased concentration
• Anxiety
• Fatigue
• Dysautonomia: brainstem compression can lead to a dysfunctional autonomic nervous system (the involuntary regulator of all body functions). Symptoms of this include, but are not limited to:
  • tachycardia (rapid heart)
  • heat intolerance
  • orthostatic intolerance (low blood pressure when standing)
  • syncope (fainting)
  • polydipsia (extreme thirst)
  • delayed gastric emptying
  • chronic fatigue

Treatment Approach:

Surgical Interventions:

• Severe cases of CCI require surgical fusion.
• Appropriate workup including, physical exam, traction trials and imaging with specific measurements will be used to determine what level of intervention is best.

Non-surgical Approach:

• Comprehensive prolotherapy and PRP (platelet-rich plasma) utilizes various types of injections to induce an appropriate immune and inflammatory response in the joint in order to mimic an injury and bring the body’s own immune cells and healing signals to repair, rebuild, and tighten injured and degenerated soft tissue or joints.
• Prolotherapy creates an inflammatory/immune response recruiting fibroblast, growth factors, and other collagen building precursors to the area. In turn this helps with reinforcing connective tissue resulting in ligament/tendon thickening and stability. Prolotherapy is a great treatment for hypermobile tendons and ligaments that are resulting in moderate symptoms of craniocervical instability.
• Prolotherapy is a non-invasive, outpatient injection therapy done under ultrasound guidance using local anesthetic.