Fascia is a type of connective tissue that covers nearly the entire inside of the body. It binds together muscles, organs, and other tissue in addition to contributing to the structural integrity (the shape) of the body. For exercisers, the type fascia that is the most important is the fascia that covers and binds together the muscles. This type of fascia is sometimes referred to as deep fascia. You can think of deep fascia as the skin of your muscles.

Fascia, like all connective tissue, grows in response to stress. If you prefer a certain posture, the resulting stress on the muscle, bone, and other soft tissue will eventually result in the growth of fascia to help the other tissues cope with the demand of holding a new posture. For example, if you happen to sit slouched over at your computer 8 hours a day while at work, eventually fascia will grow to help support this body posture, making it much easier for you to carry your caveman-like computer posture with you for whatever other activities you may engage in.

The nervous system of the human body consists of two parts. The voluntary nervous system is the one you control with your brain. If you want to throw a ball, all you do is think about moving your arm and the necessary muscles work in a coordinated fashion to make it happen. The involuntary nervous system is the part that controls everything else. Most people are aware that it controls things such as your heartbeat, breathing, and digestion, but it also controls all the muscles you don’t think about. When you raise your arm to throw a ball, the muscles on the other side of your body also contract to keep you in balance. You don’t have to think about it; it just happens.

The main goal of the involuntary nervous system is to keep you alive. This requires placing more importance on certain areas of the body than others. If you fall down, your hands automatically go out to protect your head from hitting the ground. Better to have a broken arm or wrist than a brain injury. Likewise, if you have a splinter in your left foot your body automatically places more weight on your right foot. If you don’t remove the splinter, eventually your right foot would start to hurt because it is overcompensating for the injured foot.

If that was a bit confusing for you, I will go back to the computer posture analogy to clear it up. After slouching for 8 hours a day at the computer for a period of weeks (or even years), your body creates more and more new fascia to help meet the demands of your new slouching posture. After a period of time, this fascia can become restrictive and make it hard for you to move out of poor posture. Your neck and upper back feel tight all the time because you have adapted to poor postural patterns even when you are not on the computer. To combat this, you might try to stretch your neck but it only provides temporary relief; you might get a massage and it feels great for the next 30 minutes but sooner or later you are back in pain. This is because the brain is telling the fascia to stay put.

Both latex and memory foam mattresses are good choices for shared sleeping, especially if one person tosses and turns more than the other, because they isolate motion. Bedding made from this visco-elastic material is effective for anyone whether he is a side sleeper or one who sleeps on his back or stomach.

A dentist trained in TMD treatment that relieves the stress on the jaw joints has the potential to relieve most if not all of the above symptoms. If the symptoms have been long standing, however, other health care providers such as chiropractors, osteopathic physicians, physical therapists, and massage therapists may be needed for complete relief. And in certain cases, the “TMD symptoms” may not be due to the jaw joints at all. Back and neck disorders can also cause the same symptoms as TMD. In these cases, TMD treatment will be of limited benefit and your dentist may be able to refer you to the appropriate health care provider.

If you suffer from any of the symptoms listed in this article, it may be worth your while to have your dentist perform a TMD screening. I speak from personal experience; I suffered from lower back pain and numbness in the fingers for many years, potentially a career ending condition for a dentist. I never believed I had TMD because my jaw joints never hurt. With the proper diagnosis and treatment of my TMD, however, I have now been pain free for over two years, and continue to practice dentistry with no numbness in my fingers

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Fascia And You Neck And Upper Back Pain

How trigger point protocols are adjusted for self-massage

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Viniyoga Therapy for the Upper Back, Neck and Shoulders - $19.99 This instructional video consists of yoga routines designed by Gary Kraftsow to help alleviate pain felt in the upper back, neck, and shoulder area. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

My Neck Hurts! : Nonsurgical Treatments for Neck and Upper Back Pain $17.24 No Synopsis Available

What to do for a Pain in the Neck: The Complete Program for Neck Pain Relief $6.69 Hurt No More No one who works at a computer or drives a car will be surprised to learn that neck pain is on the rise. About 70 million people in the United States have had neck pain, and the incidence is increasing. Like back pain, neck pain can become a constant plague that is both mysterious and difficult to treat. Here at last is help. In What to Do for a Pain in the Neck , one of today’s leading experts on neck pain provides a broad range of treatments and preventive measures so that you do not have to learn how to live with pain — you can banish it. Combining his own extensive experience with the best scientific information available, Dr. Jerome Schofferman presents strategies ranging from such simple tips as rearranging your desk, workstation, and computer height to daily exercise routines to aggressive treatments requiring professional care. Among the areas he explores in depth are Potential causes of neck pain Neck-related headaches Whiplash (including the effects of litigation on the rate of recovery) What to expect from a chiropractor or physical therapist Over-the-counter and prescription pain medications Acupuncture, meditation, magnet healing, massage, and other complementary therapies First aid for intermittent flare-ups

Back and Neck Pain (Paperback) $76.4 It has been estimated that 60 million Americans suffer from pain. There has been an explosion in pain research, new pharmaceuticals, the recognition of complementary and alternative therapies, interventional techniques and surgery, professional pain societies and providers with expertise in pain management. The most common condition seen in primary care settings and in pain clinics is lower back pain. Several studies indicate that primary care providers feel ill-prepared to deal with pain issues. Back and neck pain, myofascial pain, whiplash and fibromyalgia are particularly challenging and troublesome for this group. There are multiple reasons for this discomfort, including lack of training, absence of guidelines, concerns about addiction risk and many other issues. As part of the Oxford American Pain Library, this practical handbook is designed to serve as a concise yet authoritative resource on diagnosing and treating back and neck pain. Co-authored by two primary care physicians and a nurse practitioner with extensive expertise in pain medicine and management, the book is tailored to the needs of busy health care professionals treating patients in the primary care setting, and focuses on essential clinical information for physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in family practice, and internal medicine. In addition to covering all aspects of diagnosis, treatment-both pharmacological and non-pharmacological, and ongoing management of back and neck pain, the handbook also features a section dedicated to similar conditions of myofascial pain, whiplash and fibromyalgia. In addition to covering traditional clinical areas such as pathogenesis, co-morbidities, pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments, the book also presents an array of practical tools and features such as screening tools for easy diagnosis, disability assessment tools, tips on best questions to ask, useful checklists and additional patient resource information.

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