Listen or Read Dr. John Vilkelis’ Podcast Interview!

Topic – Neck Pain is on the Rise

Below you will find an easy to read transcript of Dr. John Vilkelis’ podcast interview. You can click the video to listen to the podcast or simply read the easy to follow transcript below. Enjoy!

Podcast Interview:

RC: Hello everyone. This is Liz Harvey coming to you from our studios in New York City where we are dedicated to bringing you top quality advice from many of the leading expert professionals across the U.S.
In today’s episode, we are speaking with chiropractor Dr. John Vilkelis of Vilkelis Chiropractic, located on West 57th Street in New York City. Dr. Vilkelis has been in chiropractic practice for over 20 years since graduating from Palmer College of Chiropractic. He has been affiliated with the New York Theater Ballet as well as local and regional rugby all-star teams. He has been awarded for his work treating many emergency care workers and support staff in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center in 2001.
Dr. Vilkelis is widely considered to be one of the top chiropractors in the U.S. and is also a contributing member of our national network of industry professionals.

RC: Today we’re going to talk about a very important topic:

Neck Pain is on the Rise

RC: Hi, Dr. Vilkelis, how are you today?

Dr. John Vilkelis: I’m doing great, Liz. How are you?

RC: I’m great. Thanks for joining me.
Can technology, specifically handheld devices, be blamed for the rise of neck pain?

Dr. John Vilkelis: It definitely plays a very large factor in what is going on with the increase in neck pain. People are constantly on their handheld devices, on their phones and leaning over and bending their head all the way down to stare at the phone. That is putting a lot of pressure on the musculature and all the other soft tissue in the neck, as well as tractioning your neck out of position in kind of an unhealthy way.
RC: What are some other less obvious causes of neck pain?

Dr. John Vilkelis: What I see in my office is that often times people are working for long periods at the computer, and it’s not that computer work definitely will cause neck pain, but if your work station isn’t set up properly or ergonomically, it puts a lot of pressure on your body because you’re moving in ways that your body is not designed to. I see that as a big cause of neck pain. And then also that people are more sedentary now than they really have been in the past, longer work hours. More time at the computer, they’re at the computer in their leisure time instead of going out and doing things. That also helps to create some of the neck pain.

RC: Can neck pain that is left untreated affect other areas of the body?

Dr. John Vilkelis: It most certainly can affect other areas in the body. Your upper cervical spine, a lot of the nerves that come out from your spinal cord actually go back up into your head and what we see is they can cause headaches and migraines. They can cause sinus problems. They can cause facial pain and jaw problems like TMJ. It can also cause balance problems.
In the lower part of your cervical spine, the nerves are going down through your shoulders in your arms and hands and so it can cause pain anywhere along the course of the nerve, as well as causing numbness and tingling in the arms and hands. In fact, I have people come in to me lots of times being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, which is pain and numbness and tingling in the hand from the wrist, but it’s actually being caused by something in their neck.

RC: How do chiropractors help alleviate neck pain?

Dr. John Vilkelis: Chiropractors help to alleviate neck pain in a few ways. The first is through a chiropractic adjustment. What we’re doing is we’re unlocking the joints that are locked into subluxation, which puts pressure on the nerve. It takes the pressure off the nerve and gets things moving the way they’re supposed to. Often times we’ll give patients different exercises to do and use different traction devices to make sure that the alignment is corrected and then they’re not going to keep having neck pain.

RC:Are there good exercises people can do at home to strengthen and help alleviate neck pain?

Dr. John Vilkelis: There are. Some of them are more complicated than being able to describe them on air but some things patients can do just from talking about it is they can do isometric exercises. What that means is you’re not actually moving, you’re just putting pressure. What you would do is you would put pressure on the front of your head and hold your head in a neutral position, but you’re pushing against your hands. Then you do the same thing to the back, and then you would do it to each side near your ear. By doing that, you start off maybe holding it for three seconds, and you do it maybe three times for each direction, but then after that you’re going to keep increasing the amount of time until you’re up to about 30 seconds a piece, and you’re going to do each direction still three times. By doing that, you’re strengthening everything in your neck, and it’s going to make everything more stable. It will help to alleviate some of the pain.

RC: Okay, great. Thank you so much, Dr. Vilkelis. We know you’re extremely busy, so I just want to thank you for your time and help today.

Dr. John Vilkelis: You’re welcome. Thanks for having me on.

RC: For our listeners across the country, if you are interested in speaking with Dr. John Vilkelis, you can either go online to www.vilkelischiropractic.com, or call 212-582-9704 to schedule an appointment. On behalf of our entire team, we want to thank you for listening, and we look forward to bringing you more top quality content from our country’s leading experts.