Sitka Chiropractic Care for Cervical Spine Conditions and Related Dysphagia (swallowing trouble)

Many Sitka people suffering from neck pain, stiffness, or other degenerative cervical spine disease conditions wonder how it might affect your ability to swallow. Dysphagia is the technical term for difficulty with swallowing. While cervical spine conditions may affect pharyngeal swallowing function, it is valuable to recognize just how and why that would occur. Let’s, Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka and our Sitka chiropractic client, look more closely at the connection between cervical spine disorders and swallowing function.

The Link Between Cervical Spine Pain and Swallowing Function

The relationship between cervical spine pain conditions and swallowing function involves both sensory and motor components. When it comes to the sensory component, pain originating in the neck can affect your ability to identify what’s in your mouth, resulting in trouble knowing when to swallow which can lead to issues like choking or coughing during meals. On the motor side of things, cervical spine pain conditions may also disturb your ability to move food as it moves through your mouth and throat by disturbing normal tongue, jaw, and hyolaryngeal movements (the movement of the hyoid bone, the bone that holds the tongue). As a result, there may be trouble clearing food debris from your mouth after each bite or sip. Furthermore, cervical spine disorder has been linked to heightened risk of aspiration (inhaling food particles) due to reduced laryngeal elevation that normally occurs during swallowing. (1) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka wants our Sitka cervical spine pain patients to be aware of such issues.

The Importance of Proper Treatment

The ability to swallow impacts your quality of life. A variety of diseases and spinal conditions may be the source of the swallowing trouble. Researchers are fine-tuning their evaluation of patients with swallowing issues. (2) A recent study documented that, lucky for these patients, those who have spine-associated dysphagia had better outcomes with treatment than those whose dysphagia was linked to other issues. (1) In fact, a case report of a female patient who had both dysphagia and cervical osteophytes, cervical kyphosis, and thoracolumar scoliosis was treated for 6 months with chiropractic and reported relief of all issues including dyspagia. (3) In order for individuals with cervical spine disorder-related dysphagia to again experience safe eating habits, proper treatment is important. Treatment at Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka typically starts with a thorough examination to determine the underlying cervical spine issue followed by a treatment plan including gentle spinal manipulation care (often in the form of Cox® Technic) and exercises meant to increase strength and range of motion in the neck muscles as well as strategies for swallowing safety during meals. Electrical stimulation has been reported beneficial in targeting specific areas of weakness associated with impaired tongue motion or jaw closure while also promoting increased blood flow throughout the neck region. (4,5) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka offers research based and clinically experienced relieving treatment modalities along with chiropractic spinal manipulation.

CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka

While there isn't necessarily a quick fix for this problem—treatment typically takes some time—with patience and commitment you can get the results you want with individualized care tailored specifically for your needs. Make your Sitka chiropractic appointment today.