West Des Moines Chiropractic Care for Cervical Spine Conditions and Related Dysphagia (swallowing trouble)

Many West Des Moines cervical spine-related pain (like neck pain, stiffness, or other degenerative cervical spine disease conditions) sufferers are curious how it might affect your ability to swallow. Dysphagia is the technical term for difficulty with swallowing. While cervical spine conditions may have an impact on pharyngeal swallowing function, it is valuable to recognize just how and why that would occur. Let us, Executive Chiropractic of Iowa and our West Des Moines 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 part, pain coming from the neck can impede your ability to sense what is in your mouth, resulting in difficulty determining when to swallow which may result in issues such as choking or coughing during meals. On the motor side of things, cervical spine pain conditions might also interfere with your ability to move food as it goes through your mouth and throat by disrupting normal tongue, jaw, and hyolaryngeal movements (the movement of the hyoid bone, the bone that supports the tongue). As a result, there may be trouble clearing food debris from your mouth after each bite or sip. Additionally, cervical spine disorder has been associated with heightened risk of aspiration (inhaling food particles) due to reduced laryngeal elevation that normally occurs during swallowing. (1) Executive Chiropractic of Iowa wants our West Des Moines 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 root cause 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 patients whose dysphagia was linked to other issues. (1) In fact, a case report of a female patient with swallowing issues who also had cervical osteophytes, cervical kyphosis, and thoracolumar scoliosis was treated for 6 months with chiropractic reported relief of all issues including dysphagia. (3) In order for individuals with cervical spine disorder-related dysphagia to return to safe eating habits, proper treatment is essential. Treatment at Executive Chiropractic of Iowa typically starts with a thorough examination to determine the underlying cervical spine issue followed by a treatment plan incorporating gentle spinal manipulation care (often in the form of Cox® Technic) and exercises meant to improve strength and range of motion in the neck muscles as well as strategies to swallow safely when eating. Electrical stimulation has been reported helpful in targeting specific areas of weakness related to impaired tongue motion or jaw closure while also promoting increased blood flow throughout the neck region. (4,5) Executive Chiropractic of Iowa offers research based and clinically experienced relieving treatment modalities along with chiropractic spinal manipulation.

CONTACT Executive Chiropractic of Iowa

There may not be 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. Schedule your West Des Moines chiropractic appointment soon.