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Healthy Habits
Wry Neck
Owls have an incredible ability to turn their necks virtually 180 degrees to look behind them. Humans, on the other hand, are limited to about 90 degrees of rotation to the left and the right. Through experience and observation, I would estimate that no more than 50% of the adult population retains this full mobility for very long. Although only speculation, I think most people would agree that they could no longer turn their necks as far as they could some years ago.
Regardless of the exact figures, the importance of being able to freely turn the head is obvious. In order to safely assess and interact in our environments it is valuable to be able to turn our eyes, ears, nose and mouth to where we can gather the most use of their function. If you fail to see the importance of this simple task, try not to move your neck at all for an entire day while going about your normal routine. I'm sure you can imagine the frustration as well as the inconvenience.
The mobility of the neck also makes it susceptible to injury. Teetering on the end of 7-stacked bones in the neck is our head weighing about 10% of our body weight. Thanks to some great engineering and muscles, bones, joints and ligaments specially designed for the area we seem to do just fine. Fine until we overuse the neck cradling the phone, crooning to paint the corners of our ceilings, sleeping coiled up like a housecat on the couch or catching a cool breeze on one side of the neck all day long while snowmobiling. Then our bodies' defense mechanisms kick in and protect the area from further abuse. This results in a condition that is known as torticollis, also known as wryneck.
Torticollis is commonly first noticed in the morning after sleeping. Either the position someone has slept in (especially on the couch) or the activities they had carried out the previous day caused some level of trauma to the structures in the neck. Upon waking-up the neck is very stiff, difficult to turn or bend and painful. Outside of this common presentation of torticollis other causes also exist. Children are susceptible to ocular or auditory torticollis due to turning a certain direction to always listen to or look at something. Other times viruses that cause colds or illness can irritate the muscles, glands or other structures in the neck leading to a spasming of the neck muscles.
Regardless of the cause care should be taken to ensure the neck not only feels better but also returns to a healthy level of function. If often left to improve on its own, the pain may disappear but the movement may have not adequately returned allowing for possible aggravation and re-injury in the future. Therefore, some points to keep in mind include:
- Cold packs to decrease inflammation and pain to the irritated area of the neck.
- Pain free movement of the neck to slowly start increasing the range of motion while avoiding aggravation.
- Careful use and possible rest of the neck depending on the extent of the condition so as to not make matters worse.
- Consultation with a Doctor of Chiropractic to determine the extent of injury and what needs to be done to completely resolve and correct the condition.
Torticollis is usually dealt with easily and is fully corrected in a short period of time. Neglecting to do so may only cause unneeded future problems or a delay in returning to normal daily activities. So keep your chin up, don't crash out on the couch too often and owl or not at least you'll be "looking" your best!
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