Can My Neck Also Be Causing My Jaw Pain?

Your neck may be the cause of your jaw pain. We don’t always connect the dots on this one, but the fact is, basically everything in the body is connected. It’s easy to think of the neck spine connected to the back because it’s a series of vertebrae or spinal bones stacked on one another.

In this case, your cranium or skull connects to the top of the spine, the jaw connects to the head. We call this the TMJ or temperomandibular joint. The temporal bone and the mandible (lower jaw bone) join to form your TMJ.

When we shift the neck it will shift the head, therefore this joint will be altered. The way the muscles lay will be altered too. Just like any other area of the body, like our upper back and neck, imbalances in the muscles will pull a bone out of place too. As a matter of fact, if you have jaw pain, feel around your TMJ (you can feel it on the side of your cheek when you open and close the mouth), I betcha there are tight and tender spots in the muscle. You will also have tight spots in the neck, guaranteed.

Putting your cervical spine in correct alignment will help balance the muscles and align your jaw also. Massaging the muscles of the jaw will help quite a bit, but the problem will often return until you work on your neck.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Staying Healthy: What Can I Do?

There are a number of things we can do to stay healthy. Here's what I call the big 4:

1. Eating right - try to eat on the more natural side. One big tip is that if you pick up something at the store and the ingredient list literally wraps around the whole package that's not a good sign. The less presservatives, fillers, and junk the better. Drink lots of water and supplement as well.
   
   
2. Get adequate rest - Make you bedroom as sleep conducive as possible, avoid eating and drinking soon before bed, and use the traction neck pillow. Everyone is a little different but most of us need somewhere around seven hours.
   
   
3. Exercise - this is also important, exercise gets you to sweat, it gets blood flowing, and it forces you to breathe more. Remember oxygen is fuel to our brain. It also forces you to use muscles, and I find we tend to stretch more and take care of our self more.
   
   
4. Be aware of stress - this eats away at us mentally and eventually physically too. Also, stress isn't just mental. By doing the other three things I noted you can avoid physical stressors too. For example not drinking enough water can basically stress body tissue and organs.
   

Do your best to have and do the above list because if one of these items is missing your health will suffer. Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Ouch! I knew I screwed up my neck!

Could your episode of neck pain been avoided? Probably, right! Now we've got neck pain, how can we get pain relief?

If it's severe pain use ice to decrease the neck pain and inflammation. 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off works best, and try to do this a few times during the day or night.

Also use muscle massage and any topical pain relief gels like biofreeze are good to have around.

The best thing to do is prevent a neck pain episode from happening in the first place. So next time you know something may strain your neck, try to avoid it. Sometimes this is impossible however. So the next best thing is to have neck pain relief products on hand.

Some of my top picks are as follows:

1. the cervical traction neck pillow
   
2. ice and heat packs
   
3. the back nobber
   
4. a tens unit
   

Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Pillow Recommendation for a Reverse Curve in the Neck

Dear Arc4life,

I bought one of your Linear neck pillows a couple of years ago. I thought it helped some, but now I am waking every morning with neck stiffness and a headache. The headache is usually gone 30 min. after I get up, without any medication. I don't have a good cervical curve in my neck. I have tried both the softer side and firmer side of the pillow.

I went on your site and read about several of your pillows, the linear TRACTION pillow, the water pillow, etc. I hate to keep spending money trying to find a pillow that will help. Do you have any suggestions?
- Petunia

Dear Petunia, if you do not have a proper curve in the neck (it could mean you have a straight neck or a reverse curve in your neck), I would recommend some kind of a traction product (such as the cervical traction posture pump or the pronex traction unit) and also the Arc4life cervical traction neck pillow. The traction side of that pillow (V Side) will help you get the curve back in your neck at night.

I would highly recommend that you get adjusted by the chiropractor. They can also show you how to do traction properly at home. It is also a good idea to use a traction device in their office before buying one. Also neck stretches in the morning will be beneficial, as will using a hot pack on your neck and upper back area.

Also, keep in mind that doing traction and using a new pillow at night, can cause pain in the neck- including soreness and muscle spasms. This is normal- just like when you work out at the gym after a long time. Your neck muscles will not be used to using such a supportive pillow at night, so it is possible that you will have that. Having headaches is also normal after using a new pillow. Again, a chiropractor can also help you choose the right pillow for sleeping, and can also help you with headache pain relief.

Finally, if you are a petite person, I would recommend the small linear gravity pillow for you. If you prefer something a little firmer check out the petite core pillow. The traction pillow is a medium size pillow: 20" x 26". Due to the design of the pillow Arc4life cannot make it any smaller. You could also go with a softer pillow such as the cervical alignment pillow which has 5", 6" or 7" neck rolls.
Hope this helps.
-Nav at the Arc4life Blog

Additional Reading Resources

• Reversal of the Neck Curvature very Detrimental to your Health
  
• I was told I have cervical Kyphosis?
  
• How to choose the right neck pillow
  
• The Neck Pain Relief Kit
  

Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

How can Acupuncture Help me Get a Good Night’s Rest?

Acupuncture has been practiced for hundreds of years and has been shown to help a number of conditions.

It will help to “balance” the body. In the acupuncture world, you refer to it as your body’s Qi (“chi”). Balancing and relaxing the various channels of the body will help you relax. This is directly related to our body’s nerves and nervous system. Studies have shown it to especially help with neck pain and back pain as well as allergies.

Relaxing the body will help with sleep, but reducing allergies can make a big difference too. The cervical linear traction pillow is hypoallergenic, but you can also get a special dust cover. This will protect the pillow over its lifespan against additional mites and allergens. One of the most important benefits of reducing allergies or asthma-like conditions is better breathing. This is a major factor in healthy sleep.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Alignment of the Cervical Spine: A large piece to the puzzle of being pain and symptom Free!

Overall spinal alignment is extremely important because it allows the muscles to stay in balance and pressure to stay off the nerves. The neck, and especially upper cervical spine can be said to be the most important because of the increased amount of nervous system activity.

Being so close to the brain, which is basically our main “switchboard”, there are more nervous system impulses going on every second. Essentially more messages to your body; more communication is happening. This is why keeping this upper neck in check is vital.

This brings me to the following point: a neck pillow like the cervical traction pillow may help with neck pain, but should be used regularly to improve and maintain your health. Pain is a warning sign that something is irritated or “broken down”,

fixing problems as fast as possible will prevent other problems or symptoms from arising.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Overall spinal alignment is extremely important because it allows the muscles to stay in balance and pressure to stay off the nerves. The neck, and especially upper cervical spine can be said to be the most important because of the increased amount of nervous system activity.

Being so close to the brain, which is basically our main “switchboard,” there are more nervous system impulses going on every second. Essentially more messages to your body; more communication is happening. This is why keeping this upper neck in check is vital.

This brings me to the following point: a neck pillow like the cervical traction pillow may help with neck pain, but should be used regularly to improve and maintain your health. Pain is a warning sign that something is irritated or “broken down,” fixing problems as fast as possible will prevent other problems or symptoms from arising.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!