Why Stress is Underestimated 

Stress can take many forms. Some people experience it directly as anxiety, frustration or confusion.

Others only vaguely notice that the daily commute leaves them less energetic or hectic times at work make make them sleep less well.

And it’s not just the mind that suffers from chronically high stress.

Stress is bad for everything.

When you live a very stressful life, you die sooner. [1]

For your physique and fitness, chronic stress has been documented in research to have the following negative effects compared to low stress conditions.

• Reduced energy expenditure.
• Increased appetite.
• Comfort food cravings.
• Poorer carb tolerance and impaired nutrient partitioning.
• Up to twofold lower strength development.
• Up to twofold slower recovery post-exercise.
• Reduced muscle growth.
• A roughly twofold increase in injury risk.

As such, it’s not an exaggeration that poor stress management can make a twofold difference in the results from your diet and exercise programs.

So here are 5 tips to master your stress level and take control of your life.

1. Handle Stress with Active vs. Passive coping 

In the psychological literature, coping strategies to deal with stress are classified as either passive (avoidant) or active (facing).

Many people spend their lives being passive and so too they deal with stress.

Passive coping means not dealing directly with situations or emotions.

Instead, people reach out to others (social diversion) or engage in different activities that ignore the stressor and provide short-term relief such as self-medicating through food, alcohol or instantly gratifying and distracting activities like watching television (task diversion).

Active coping generally results in better stress management.

Surprise: procrastination and ignoring the problem generally don’t make it go away.

Active coping means addressing or eliminating the situations or emotions themselves (problem- focused) or manage the resultant emotions (emotion-focused).

You’ll often hear psychologists emphasize emotion-focused coping: accepting responsibility, thinking of the bright side, seeking social support, that kind of thing.

That can all be useful, but it’s at its core still just a band-aid approach. Problem-focused coping generally works significantly better than emotion-focused coping.

Simply put, you need to address the root cause of your problem with actions, not thoughts.

• Got into a fight with your partner? Talk to him or her.
• Run into an obstacle at work? Fix it.
• Car problems? Call your mechanic or garage right now.

Dealing with the problem immediately and directly takes advantage of the stress. Acute stress is good.

It energizes you and motivates you to solve your stressful problems.

It’s only when the stress becomes chronic that you get problems.

Don’t let it fester.

2. ‘Work hard, play hard’ Does Help with Stress

Stress is unavoidable and indeed it needn’t be avoided altogether.

It simply needs to be managed.

An effective stress management technique is organizing your day into high and low stress phases.

Stress should have a circadian rhythm.

Most people do have phases in their lives, but these phases are called the workweek, where they are chronically stressed if not depressed and weekends/holidays, where the ‘relaxation’ looks an awful lot like hibernation.

Research on both animals and high-level athletes shows that they suffer much less from stress than the average person, because they are generally more calm (parasympathetic dominance) but they get more aroused (sympathetic dominance) in times of stress, like exercise. For a good read on the subject, check out Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.

So they experience strong but transient episodes of stress and thereafter let the body recover.

The stress is episodic, not chronic.

This is perfect in terms of General Adaptation Syndrome.

If you have a regular 9-to-5ish job, this generally means that the first part of your day should be the high stress part and your training should be during this part of the day.

When you get home, relax.

Turn off your mobile or at least turn off its internet connection.

When I was an intern at MD Anderson, I was literally the only one in my group who didn't carry a smartphone. I was also one of the few without symptoms of burnout.

Self-employed people have to be even more conscious of their lifestyle rhythm, because the office is generally also your home.

It helps to have a separate room in your house where you work.

Other than that, it’s highly individual (self-employed people tend to be eccentric), so you have to experiment.

And don’t just nod. Actually experiment with it.

Try working until you fatigue and then doing something else.

Try relaxing upon waking up and working at night.

It’s generally not a good idea to work all the way up until bedtime, as arousal can disrupt sleep quality and onset.

Note that you can also have several phases of productivity in a day.

You could, for example, have a productivity phase in the morning and in the evening with do-whatever- you-want phases in the afternoon and before going to bed.

3. Mindfulness Training for Stress Management

Mindfulness training is one of the few scientifically established tools that can actually help you cope with the negative feelings of stress.

The most popular form of mindfulness training is meditation, but there’s no need for any of the spiritual stuff.

Most of the studies on mindfulness training have very poor methodological quality, e.g. no control group, lack of blinding, no randomization, etc., but that still leaves dozens of convincing studies.

Meditation effectively resets your mood state.

A digital analogy is clearing out your brain’s cache.

Other benefits of meditation are much less documented, but the reduction in anxiety and depression have strong scientific backing.

Mindfulness meditation comes down to simply focusing intensely on something that does not evoke any emotional response, like a cube or a chair, for several minutes.

It sounds easy, but it’s really not and will take consistent practice.

For example, try going for a walk and focusing on every present moment. You'll find that your thoughts start thinking backwards and forwards and it's very hard to simply focus on what's in front of you.

It’s easier to do in a quiet, un-stimulating environment or with ear plugs, with your eyes closed, in a relaxed position (bonus points if you do it in lotus position).

If you don’t like ‘the hippie stuff’, it’s good to know that mindfulness training is no more effective than other relaxation therapies.

Being with friends, watching a relaxing TV series or getting a massage can all achieve the purpose of making you relaxed.

However, there is some evidence that mindfulness training can make you more mindful as a person in general and improve your ability to allocate attention.

Mindfulness training may increase our ability to observe and reflect without anxiety or judgement, improving our ability to make rational decisions.

While meditation is inherently a passive coping strategy, meditation can make active coping more successful.

It can help to meditate before you tackle a problem so you can deal with it in a rational manner.

There’s strong evidence that mindfulness training can improve our ability to deal with distress in both clinical and non-clinical settings, resulting in significant improvements in our mental and physical health, including mixed support for the treatment of eating disorders.

4. Expose Yourself to Nature for Stress

This is yet another piece of hippie sounding advice with good scientific backing.

Exposure to nature significantly reduces stress in various settings.

Here's a few other articles to meditate on or read on a nice patch of grass:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4419447/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21431424
• https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es903183r

Exercise in nature is perceived as less effortful.

Even cancer is less common in greener areas.

Getting into nature is of course great, but it’s not always practical. Fortunately, even something as simple as having some indoor plants can significantly reduce your stress level.

So buy some plants.

See if you can take a more scenic route to your work or the gym, even if it’s a slight detour.

And try to go out into nature more often when life is stressful.

5. Be Flexible to Reduce Stress

Life often doesn’t pan out as planned and things don’t go the way you want them to.

And that’s how you experience stress.

Often though, this stress is needless neuroticism and you have options that are just as good as your original plan.

You just need to let go of your original plan.

For example, one of my patients had planned for their first bodybuilding show, but in a different state.

He booked the show, a flight and a hotel, had his whole contest prep planned out and asked for a holiday that week at work.

A few weeks later, however, his boss told him he couldn’t really go on holiday after all and they needed him in a different state for a short but important assignment.

Fighting his boss didn’t prove fruitful.

He even thought about suing and changing jobs. He had to do that show. Fortunately though, the solution was far simpler: change the show, not the work.

There was a similar bodybuilding show in the state he was required to be in for work that week. His work wasn’t a difficult assignment and wouldn’t interfere with his peak week.

He’d have to cancel the other show, hotel and flight and book new ones, but the overall cost was only about a hundred dollars, far less than the bonus he’d get from the extra assignment.

Don’t get fixated on the original plan.

Being flexible in how you cope with problems makes you more resistant to stress.

When things don’t go the way you want them to, rather than forcing through your plan at all cost or abandoning it altogether, reassess: what is my goal and what are my options?

There is always going to be options, you just have to meditate on it :)

Final Thoughts 

Stress is not going anywhere. It's always going to be an issue.

What matters is how you learn do deal with your stress and whether or not you're improving your ability to deal with it.

Even Chiropractic Adjustments have been shown to reduce circulating levels of cortisol (stress hormone) in the body.

This is because the spine is the root of the nervous system and adjustments not only help to relieve tension in the muscles and joints, but calm the fight or flight reaction by activating the parasympathetic system.

To Get Sick, is Human

Why are we so shocked and upset when we, or someone we love, comes down with a sickness?

Why are so many people scared of bacteria and viruses and get so panicked about germs, they start doing crazy things like buying up all the face masks?

A strong, healthy body is responsive to its environment.

When you experience a cough, a runny nose, achiness, fever and chills – these are all signs that your body has detected a pathogenic (harmful) invader and it is responding appropriately.

Each of these is a mechanism that your body has evolved to fight infection.

For example, a sneeze is the body’s way of expelling, or, pushing out, an irritant.

Vomiting is a way to clear our digestive system from something harmful.

Fever initiates a cascade of events that leads to seeking and destroying viruses.

Today, we now know that there are two major kinds of diseases: infectious and non-infectious.

Infectious diseases are caused by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites.

These pathogens can enter the body through the air we breathe, the food and drink we consume or through openings in the skin, such as cuts.

Not every pathogen that enters the body results in illness because our bodies come equipped with immune systems to fight off foreign agents.

That is of course, if you've done the right homework to build a healthy immune system – one that is responsive and that hasn't been blunted by any external (i.e. antibiotics or fever reducers) means.

Why A Fever is Important

Fevers are more than just a symptom of illness or infection.

Fevers result in an elevated body temperature that sets in motion a series of mechanisms that regulate our immune system.

To halt or interfere with this process is like interrupting calculus class when you're just about to learn the most important step in solving the equation.

When we are healthy, our body temperature tends to hover around 98.6°F (37°C ).

But when our bodies are faced with an infection such as a virus, our body temperature should go up and we experience fever.

A low grade fever would be 100°F, whereas a high grade fever is anything greater than 103.5°F.

When we have the flu, for instance, we may come down with a mild to high and somewhat uncomfortable fever (anything between 100° – 103.5°F) which can be nerve wrecking.

As a general rule, when your fever is higher than 103.5° for longer than 30 minutes, then consider using a mild fever reducer.

What's important to understand here is that fevers aren't always a bad sign; but a good indication that your immune system is doing its job.

It's also important to understand that fevers are simply a byproduct of getting sick, but a direct safety mechanism of the immune system.

An elevated body temperature triggers cellular mechanisms that ensure the immune system takes appropriate action against the offending virus or bacteria.

But if you interfere with this process, then you are preventing your immune system from learning and even causing a greater risk for future infections.

Our Body has Temperature-Immune Sensors

A signaling pathway called Nuclear Factor kappa B (NF-κB) plays an important role in the body's inflammation response in the context of infection or disease.

NF-κB are proteins that help to regulate gene expression and the production of certain immune cells.

These proteins respond to the presence of viral or bacterial molecules in the body, and that is when they start switching relevant genes related to the immune response on and off at a cellular level.

Dysregulated NF-κB activity has been linked with the presence of autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, Crohn's disease, and arthritis.

Researchers note that NF-κB activity tends to slow our body temperature lowers. But when body temperature is elevated over the usual 98.6°F, it tends to become more intense.

This is why fevers tends to spike at night.

With a lower than average body temperature at night, the viruses tend to come out and play. But during the day, overall body temperature is elevated and the opposite is true.

Now our biological clocks regulate our internal temperature and determine mild fluctuations — of about 1.5°C (34.7°F) at a time — during wakefulness and sleep.

So,  the lower body temperature during sleep might provide an explanation into how shift work, jet lag, or sleep disorders also cause increased inflammatory disease and dysfunctions.

This is also why sleep disturbance is linked to decreased immunity!

Fever Reducers Blunt Immunity

As we've already discussed, fever isn’t an illness – but a biological defense mechanism.

It’s the body’s attempt to fight illness.

So when we treat fever with antipyretics, such acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen, we severely blunt an important part of our immune response.

Although it might seem counter intuitive, several studies have now shown that antipyretics increase the severity of infections.

I can't say this enough: it's time to get over our fear of fever.

Nobel Prizes, animal studies and human studies have all demonstrated the positive effects of fever.

These studies were even performed in children!

And the results have been consistent:

• Antipyretics prolonged the excretion of salmonella bacteria in people suffering from this intestinal infection.
• Children with bloodstream infections (sepsis) or pneumonia were more likely to die if their temperatures were lower.
• Antipyretics prolonged symptoms in patients infected with influenza.
• Antipyretics prolonged viral shedding and worsened symptoms in volunteers experimentally infected with a common cold virus called rhinovirus (PDF).
• Antipyretics delayed the resolution of symptoms in children with chickenpox.

Consistent with these clinical observations, recent studies have shown that at higher temperatures, white blood cells (neutrophils), B cells, and T cells work better.

Why does that matter?

Neutrophils kill bacteria. B-cells make antibodies that neutralize viruses and bacteria. And T cells kill virus-infected cells.

Why Are We So Fever Phobic?

Given all of this information, why are we so intent on treating fever?

Why are we so fever-phobic?

The most common reason is that we feel more comfortable when our temperature is normal.

But feeling more comfortable is not necessarily better when you're body is raging war internally.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be so calm if someone in my neighborhood was going around murdering everyone! I certainly wouldn't want to shut down the defense system.

We assume that if we lessen fever than we have lessened the degree of illness, but the opposite appears to be true.

Another reason is the fear that high fevers can cause brain damage—a concern that hasn’t held up to scientific scrutiny.

Just so you know, brain damage from a fever generally will not occur unless the fever is over 107.6°F (42°C). And untreated fevers caused by infection will seldom go over 105°F (40.6°C).

Another reason is the idea that treating fever will prevent febrile seizures, a phenomenon that while frightening, doesn’t cause permanent harm. As it turns out, fever reducers don't even prevent febrile seizures.

But probably the most common reason for treating fever is that we feel more comfortable when our temperatures are normal.

Fever increases the basic metabolic rate, causing us to breathe faster and our hearts to beat faster.

When we have fever all we want to do is lie in bed and drink fluids, which is exactly what we should be doing instead of going to work or school and infecting others.

Fever is a sign that we should isolate ourselves from the herd, not medicating ourselves so we can go back and join the party.

Pharmaceutical companies haven’t helped with this either.

With ads like “Let’s get that temperature down!” or “Just what the doctor ordered,” we are constantly bombarded with the notion that fever is bad and must be reduced or eliminated.

In closing, Hippocrates, who lived around 400 B.C., had it right.

He believed that a fever was essential to healing and it cooked whatever was causing our problems.

Then, in 1899, the German company Bayer invented aspirin. And all of a sudden it became important to treat fever, popularized by the advice, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.”

In retrospect, we should have listened to Hippocrates.

Pollution, Toxins and Your Health

Each Year, An estimated 1.2 Billion pounds of toxic chemicals are released into the air & water in the United States alone, with approximately 80,000 different Chemicals.

Less than 10% of these chemicals have had any safety evaluations.

As a child, I still remember TV commercials from chemical companies with sales slogans that said, “Better Living Through Chemistry!”

As we advance in our ability to make products that are more efficient and effective, we have also increased our toxic burden in the world.

Chemicals play a significant role in many of the products that we take for granted in modern society such as adhesives, ceramics, electronics, plastics and petroleum.

Modern agriculture is an area where the use of specific chemicals has allowed for mass food production resistant to common pests.

However, the impact of these chemicals on the environment and human health can be severe and lasting.

Although scientists have yet to fully uncover the long-term effects of these chemicals in our environment, food or bodies, they have discovered more than 200 chemicals in the newborn umbilical cord blood of babies.

Another study foundwide exposure to environmental toxins in cohorts of pregnant women. Eight of the 59 chemicals analyzed were detected in more than 90 percent of both the maternal and cord blood samples, with the median number of chemicals at 25 in maternal blood and 17 in umbilical cord blood.

Birth defects, immunological disorders, developmental disabilities such as autism, ADD/ADHD and autoimmunity are all linked to chemical exposure.

A recent study is now suggesting that living in polluted cities may make our bones weaker and easier to break!

Air Pollutants Linked to Reduced Bone Mass

A study of nearly 4,000 people in India found those who inhaled more toxic airborne particles had less bone mass in their spines and hips. 

Researchers believe that our bones become weak because of tiny pollutants that make their way into the blood when inhaled, causing the ageing process to speed up.

Say what? Air pollution might make you age faster?

Yes. Inhalation of toxic compounds or nanoparticles can seep into your blood stream and cause a loss of bone mass and accelerated ageing due to the production of oxidative stress (tissue damage) and inflammation.

But this isn't new news.

A 2018 study by Columbia University of more than nine million people was the first to find a link between traffic fumes and fractures caused by osteoporosis.

Previous studies have linked air pollution to low levels of parathyroid hormone, which regulates calcium production, leading to more fragile bones.

Osteoporosis is a health condition that weakens bones, making them fragile and more likely to break.

Broken bones aren't fun, but within a year of a bone fracture in older adults, the risk of death increases by 20 percent, with only 40% regaining full independence!

In two separate studies, Dr Baccarelli, a world leader in the science of epigenetics which examines the effect of environmental factors on our genetics, found that vitamin B can reduce pollution fueled cardiovascular disease, and damage to DNA.

While supplements and nutrition are important, focusing on helping your body to rid these pollutants needs to be a comprehensive and holistic effort.

Described as an invisible killer, pollution causes an estimated seven million premature deaths a year worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.

But it's not just ageing or brittle bones, heavily polluted cities have been also been linked to an increased risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, acute respiratory diseases such as asthma and even dementia.

What Else Does Pollution Do To Us?

CAUSE CHILDREN TO HAVE A LOW IQ: Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found in May 2019 that children born to mothers who live in polluted areas have an IQ that is up to seven points lower than those living in places with cleaner air.

CAUSE CHILDREN TO HAVE POORER MEMORY: Researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health found boys exposed to greater levels of PM2.5 in the womb  performed worse on memory tests by the time they are 10.

DELAY THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN: Youngsters who live less than one-third of a mile away from busy roads are twice as likely to score lower on tests of communication skills in infancy, found researchers at Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health in April. They were also more likely to have poorer hand-eye coordination.

MAKE CHILDREN MORE ANXIOUS: University of Cincinnati scientists claimed pollution may alter the structure of children's brains to make them more anxious. Their study of 14 youngsters found rates of anxiety was higher among those exposed to greater levels of pollution.

CUT YOUR CHILD'S LIFE SHORT: Children born today will lose nearly two years of their lives because of air pollution, according to a report by the US-based Health Effects Institute and the University of British Columbia in April 2019. UNICEF called for action on the back of the study.

RAISE A CHILD'S RISK OF AUTISM: Researchers at Monash University in Australia discovered youngsters living in highly polluted parts of Shanghai have a 86 per cent greater chance of developing ASD. Lead author Dr Yuming Guo said: ‘The developing brains of young children are more vulnerable to toxic exposures in the environment.'

CAUSE ASTHMA IN CHILDREN: Four million children around the world develop asthma each year because of road traffic pollution, a major study by academics at George Washington University estimated. Experts are divided as to what causes asthma – but exposure to pollution in childhood increases the risk by damaging the lungs.

MAKE CHILDREN FAT: University of Southern California experts found last November that 10 year olds who lived in polluted areas when they were babies are, on average, 2.2lbs (1kg), heavier than those who grew up around cleaner air. Nitrogen dioxide pollution could disrupt how well children burn fat, the scientists said.

LEAVE WOMEN INFERTILE EARLIER: Scientists at the University of Modena, Italy, claimed in May 2019 that they believe pollution speeds up ageing in women, just like smoking, meaning they run out of eggs faster. This was based on them finding almost two-thirds of women who have a low ‘reserve' of eggs regularly inhaled toxic air.

RAISE THE RISK OF A MISCARRIAGE: University of Utah scientists found in January that pregnant women are 16 per cent more likely to suffer the heartbreak of a miscarriage if they live in areas of high pollution.

RAISE THE RISK OF BREAST CANCER: Scientists at the University of Stirling found six women working at the same bridge next to a busy road in the US got breast cancer within three years of each other. There was a one in 10,000 chance the cases were a coincidence, the study said. It suggested chemicals in the traffic fumes caused the cancer by shutting down the BRCA genes, which try to stop tumours growing.

DAMAGE A MAN'S SPERM: Brazilian scientists at the University of Sao Paulo found in March that mice exposed to toxic air had lower counts and worse quality sperm compared to those who had inhaled clean air since birth.

MAKE MEN LESS LIKELY TO GET SEXUALLY AROUSED: Scientists at Guangzhou Medical University in China found rats exposed to air pollution struggled to get sexually aroused. Scientists believe it may also affect men, as inhaling poisonous particles may trigger inflammation in blood vessels and starve the genitals of oxygen – affecting men's ability to become sexually aroused.

MAKE MEN MORE LIKELY TO HAVE ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION:  Men who live on main roads are more likely to have difficulty getting an erection due to exposure to pollution, a Guangzhou University in China study suggested in February. Toxic fumes reduced blood flow to the genitals, tests on rats showed, putting them at risk of developing erectile dysfunction.

RAISE THE RISK OF PSYCHOSIS: In March, King's College London scientists linked toxic air to intense paranoia and hearing voices in young people for the first time. They said uncovering exactly how pollution may lead to psychosis should be an ‘urgent health priority'.

MAKE YOU DEPRESSED: Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers found in January that that the more polluted the air, the sadder we are. Their study was based on analysing social media users in China alongside the average daily PM2.5 concentration and weather data where they lived.

CAUSE DEMENTIA: Air pollution could be responsible for 60,000 cases of dementia in the UK, researchers from King's College London and St George's, University of London, calculated last September. Tiny pollutants breathed deep into the lungs and enter the blood stream, where they may travel into the brain and cause inflammation – a problem which may trigger dementia.

Key Takeaways & Tips

In order to protect ourselves and our children against environmental toxins in the modern environment, we should:

1. Reduce exposure as much as possible
2. Support detoxification pathways
3. Cultivate a healthy gut microbiota

Here's a few additional tips:

• Make sure you have optimal levels of iodine and selenium. Optimal iodine and selenium intake has been found to attenuate the toxic effects that heavy metals and perchlorate can have on the thyroid.
• Purchase a high-quality water filter for their drinking and bathing water; municipal tap water can be a significant source of toxins. However, a water pitcher filter is not enough if one hopes to remove as many toxins as possible. Reverse-osmosis filters, on the other hand, have been found to effectively remove perchlorate, pesticides, PCBs, plastics, and a wide variety of heavy metals.
• When possible, eat organic food or purchase your food from a local farm or market as much as possible. This will help to not only reduce pollution but minimize excessive pesticide and herbicide exposure.
• Stop using synthetic antibacterial products and to limit your use of plastics at home. If you still choose to use some plastic products, look for “BPA-free” options. However, keep in mind that BPA-free products may still contain other bisphenol derivatives with potential thyroid-disrupting effects, so it really may be best to entirely avoid drinking from or storing food in plastic containers.
• Stop using non-stick cookware. PFOA from non-stick cookware can leach into food and is subsequently ingested. Suggest that they use stainless steel or enameled cast iron cookware instead.

The curvature in your neck is an all too often, neglected step-child of spine care.

No one every thinks about the loss of curvature in the neck when it comes to neck pain.

Neck pain is one of the most common complaints and ranked 4th highest in terms of disability. [1, 2]

From 1990-2010, the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) as a result of neck pain, increased from 23.9 million in 1990 to 33.6 million (47%).

Experts agree that the incidence of neck pain is rising due to poor posture, ergonomics and the adoption of smart devices.

The most common treatment for neck pain includes over the counter medication such as aspirin and ibuprofen, steroid injections, surgery and chiropractic care.

Previously, I discussed the problems associated with using over the counter medications.

NSAIDs (like tylenol and advil) can result in stomach ulcers and bleeding and are associated with an increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular incidents. This is common with continued and prolonged use.

In addition, research, published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, found that chiropractic care was better at reducing neck pain than taking medications like aspirin, ibuprofen or narcotics.

Despite the fact that research has proven chiropractic care to be better than other treatments for neck pain, spinal surgery is often recommended.

For years spinal surgeons and orthopedic physicians performed surgeries that completely disregarded the curvature of the neck.

Regrettably, these surgeries have caused more harm than good and resulted in a diagnosis known as failed neck surgery syndrome.

Failed neck surgery syndrome (FNSS) is a general term used to describe pain or discomfort that continues after a surgical procedure to the neck. Chronic pain following neck surgery may come from recurrent damage to vertebrae or tissue in the cervical spine, inadequate healing of bone or tissue surrounding the surgical site, or from scar tissue formation.

It's ridiculous to know that a loss of the cervical curve is what causes neck pain, and very few doctors, spine specialists and orthopedics are aware of it.

In our personal clinical experience, well over 90% of patients with headache and neck pain have a loss of the normal cervical curve that is easily observed with digital X-Ray examination and abnormal posture.

We even have patients who have visited orthopedic doctors and were never informed of this loss of curvature?

Normal cervical curvature presents with a lordotic or “C shaped” curve of approximately 42 degrees measured from C2 to C7.

Without this normal curvature, most often the balance of the weight of the head will be shifted forward, creating more wear and tear of the spinal discs and tension on the muscles and ligament surrounding the neck.

This eventually leads to bony spurs and osteophytes, decreased mobility of the cervical spine and neck pain.

Among other conventional treatments, corrective chiropractic techniques are proven to improve the curvature of the neck.

Let’s explore why fixing the neck curve is a big deal and what you can do short of surgery to help it.

What is a Normal Neck Curve?

The neck curve is also called the cervical lordosis.

It’s a curve that distributes weight evenly to the joints in the back and front parts of the spine.

This curve can be measured on a digital xray and the normal amount of curvature is anything > 30 degrees.

Think of this as a biometric similar to blood pressure, where 120/80 mm hg is normal blood pressure. Similarly, anything > 30 degrees is considered normal.

Anything less than 30 degress and the incidence of neck pain and damage begins to occur.

The neck curvature is ultimately a primary factor in the development of spine dysfunctions.

It also balances out the other curves in your spine including the upper mid back (known as a kyphosis) and the opposing curve in the low back (lordosis).

So a loss of the normal neck curve can even contribute to mid back pain and low back pain.

What else happens when you lose the normal neck curve?

The head begins to shift forward and this changes the body's center of gravity.

In short, it causes forward head posture and effectively increases the amount of weight and pressure placed on the spine. The loss of curvature in your neck places more weight on the discs, which causes them to fail much sooner.

The loss of the neck curve is also associated with “hump back syndrome” or age-related hyperkyphosis. This condition impairs mobility and increases the risk of falls and fractures. In fact, a 2011 research study found that age-related hyperkyphosis was associated with an increase in all cause mortality!

All that said, if you have neck pain and you know that you have a loss of curvature in your neck – that's they primary reason why you're hurting. [3]

If you don't know what your neck looks like on X-ray, you should consider getting an X-ray examination!

Why Neck Surgery is Not a Good Option for Neck Pain

As I mentioned previously, surgeons have often ignored the normal curvature in the neck.

Until recently, the devices to fuse the spine would cause the spine to straighten even more, even though the spine needs to be curved in order to stop the deterioration of joints and discs.

Fortunately, newer spine-fusion devices allow for the curvature, but we’ve seen plenty of those installed that still result in any changes.

What's ridiculous is that you can restore the normal neck curve without surgery.

But what happens to patients who get neck surgery?

Their head is forced forward, and the muscles that are supposed to hold up their bowling ball end up getting overloaded, causing pain and disability.

This means that people who have gotten surgical fusions or plates placed into their necks during surgery, will most likely suffer from long term chronic neck pain because the curve was not corrected.

A new study looked at neck surgery where the curve was corrected and they found much better outcomes. [4]

Forgetting about the problems with neck fusions for a moment, the new research results suggested that fusing patients with a neck curve was better and that special tools could accomplish that goal.

The authors also found that by fusing more levels, they could make it more likely that the whole neck still had a curve after the surgery.

At first this all sounds pretty good, and for the few patients out of 100 in the U.S. who get a fusion surgery and actually needed one, this might be a great approach.

However, in our experience, the vast majority of patients who end up with these aggressive surgeries don’t need them and in fact develop complications far worse than the initial neck problem.

Let me explain.

Getting a neck fusion is a lot like owning a dog with fleas; it comes with baggage you might not have expected before.

You see, the surgery doesn’t really cure anything; it just accomplishes a goal while screwing other things up.

Why does this happen? Because of something known as adjacent segment disease.

Adjacent segment disease (ASD) is where the levels above and below the fusion get worn out faster than they normally would.

So either way, neck surgery is only a temporary fix.

In addition, the more segments you fuse, the more common ASD will be.

Nonsurgical Ways to Fix the Neck Curve

Yes, you can absolutely correct your spine without surgery.

First, there's Corrective Chiropractic techniques much like our office prescribes.

The chiropractic technique utilized in our office is one of the most well-researched chiropractic techniques called Chiropractic Biophysics. [5]

It basically uses specialized traction methods, exercises and chiropractic adjustments to improve the curvatures of the spine.

In addition, there are cervical orthotics that can absolutely improve the cervical curve.

Recently a breakthrough randomized trial was conducted at Cairo University in Egypt and co-authored by CBP Non-Profit research organization where it was determined that using a Denneroll Cervical Orthotic improved the cervical curve. [6]

The study investigated 40 patients with chronic pain and disability. There was a short (10-weeks) and long term (1-year) outcome measurement of neck disability, neck pain, arm pain, and measures of neuro-physiology were assessed.

The investigation used a standard intervention frequency and duration of 3x per week for 10 weeks or 30 total chiropractic treatment sessions.

Patient participants were assigned equally to one of two groups: Denneroll Cervical Orthotic group and Non-Denneroll Orthotic Group.

Both groups received a standardized multiple treatment procedure protocol including:

• Spinal manipulative therapy for the thoracic spine,
• Myofascial stretching and release techniques to the cervical spine and anterior brachial plexus area,
• Functional and strengthening exercise protocol designed to improve strength, flexibility, posture, and reduce pain,
• A series of home care instructions.

Only the Denneroll group received the cervical Denneroll in addition to the standardized multiple treatment techniques.

All treatments were applied 3x per week for 10 weeks. At the end of the 30 treatments, following a minimum of 1-day with no treatment, all subjects were re-evaluated.

Lastly, treatment was then stopped and all subjects were followed for an additional 1-year to see if the 10-week outcomes were maintained at this long term follow up.

What did they find?

The addition of the cervical Denneroll orthotic was found to improve the cervical curve by an average of 13° and improved forward head posture by 12mm.

This improvement in cervical curvature and posture in the Denneroll group was found to be associated with improvement in chronic neck pain, arm pain, and neck disability and a reduction in medication usage over the 1 year time period.

Furthermore, in the group receiving the Denneroll and curve correction, their peripheral nervous system speed was found to increase by 24% and the spinal cord–central conduction time–was found to increase by 23%! [16] 

Increases in Neck Curvature Results in Increased Blood to the Brain

We all know that blood needs to flow in and out of the brain to keep us healthy.

But what happens when the channels where the blood passes through to get to and from the brain is not aligned properly? Bad Stuff – that impacts every single part of your body!

In a recent study, published in the journal Brain Circulation, a positive correlation was found between cervical lordosis (neck curvature) and blood flow to your brain. [8]

When people used the Denneroll neck orthotic, it instantaneously changed the curve in their neck, and an MRI measured more blood flow to the brain.

Why does this matter?

Proper neck curve has a lot to do with how well your neck and spine function.

Not only does the improvement in neck curvature result in better movement, but it also results in better function i.e. increased blood to the brain, increased nerve conduction to the arms and hands.

It makes sense that when a head or neck injury occurs, it can affect many things like: memory, hearing, vision, headaches, dizziness and neck pain.

Now we know that if the neck has lost its proper orientation in a c shaped curve of 30-40 degrees, then the blood flow can literally be restricted to the BRAIN as well!!!

And what's bad for the brain is bad for the entire body.

So if you know someone with a head or neck injury and who complains of chronic pain or problems, it might be time to have a look and see what’s going on.