Dr. Lonny C. Skjervheim, D.C.

Without knowing the exact cause of the pain or doing a history and examination to know what the condition might be, conservatively, the "RICE" approach is a good way to begin. Rest, Ice the area, Compression, and Elevation, if required or needed. Begin your workout slowly and work your way into condition. Try not to jump right in and keep up with everyone from the onset.

First I'm assuming this is not from an acute injury or trauma that just occurred. You did not mention an incident. Being in a long time posture either through work positioning like sitting or maybe a yoga position you might of been in for awhile. Swelling will occur when their is inflammation in the area due to a trauma or irritation. First would be to find out what is causing the swelling and resolve the problem. Possible rest and icing to reduce and control the swelling. Check with your Chiropractor or health care provider and try to identify the cause. With my patients, I let them know once with know what caused it or is causing it, we can start. You have to be aware and have that awareness before you will change anything. Otherwise you just keep doing the same thing! As for exercises, the right ones can be beneficial. Your health care provider can recommend the ones that could benefit you for your condition or posture recommendations for your work environment.

I don't know your city of residence. Depends on your state laws, what a chiropractor can do in your state or the chiropractor's scope of practice. I myself do not do this for my patients. We might discuss this and I might advise to do this at home or seek another healthcare specialist. I would assume a naturopathic doctor might do this!

Without knowing you or your history, a number of different conditions can be causing this. What is your age? How often are you in the car? How long or far do you drive before you start to notice the pain? What type of car and seats do you have? What is your seat position in the car or your posture while driving? Any previous history of neck or shoulder problems or old injuries? When you say the shoulders, are you referring to the actual shoulders or is it more by the muscles up by the neck (which is usually coming from the neck, but most of my patients call it shoulder problems)? I would seek care with your healthcare provider and find the cause of the problem or pain. Being a chiropractor, this is what we try to do. A history helps and goes a long way towards diagnosing a condition and also the examination and, if need be, any appropriate X-rays of your neck might be recommended. With the head in a forward head carriage or translation, it very likely causes more pressure or strain on the lower neck and upper back area. In general, every inch your head goes forward past your posture line adds about 10 lbs of stress in that area of the body. 1 inch about 10 lbs., 2 inches about 20 lbs., you get the idea. I tell my patients, think of a bowling ball. You hold it close to you and support it, it's OK. If you had to hold it straight out in front of you, arms straight, you would be tired and staining pretty quickly; you would feel it. When lying down, pain goes away, your head is not hanging out there and the muscles of the neck and upper back are not having to support them to try to hold them back, causing fatigue and tightness.

I would think initially you have some type of impingement on a nerve root coming from your lower neck. Without a more detailed history or examination and possible X-rays of the neck, could possibly help to determine the cause. I would seek your chiropractor or find one that is recommended. We deal with this on a daily basis. Once a cause is found, a treatment plan can be set up. Time can vary from a few visits to a number of months, depending on previous injuries to the area, degeneration in the area, activities that might aggravate it, and work or home activities of daily living.

A strain you would generally feel in a muscle in that area. A radicular pain could be caused by a number of different conditions. First thing conservatively would be rest and ice. You mention starting recently. Start off slowly, easily at first, and work your way up and into the condition. I see a number of patients that start off too quickly and injure or aggravate an old injury. If you find, after a rest period, the symptoms remain, I would advise seeking a healthcare provider who treats this type of injury. Being a chiropractor, sports practitioner, and extremity adjuster, I see these types of injury on a daily basis.

Chiropractics can help, yes. Not knowing your history, chiropractics can help; it might be of great benefit, or it might be a temporary relief. We would try to find the cause and work to correct it. If weight gain is the main issue, this should be something you're willing to address and work at, along with diet, nutrition, and exercise.

A number of conditions could possibly be causing the hip pain. I would suggest seeing a healthcare provider. They can do a history, examination and possibly take some X-rays of the hip or hips and/or even an MRI to determine the probable cause of the pain. It is important to know how old you are, what activity you were doing at the time, and if you have a family history of hip pain.

Being a chiropractor, I try to see my female patients soon after giving birth. It varies from days to weeks when they seem to get in. Chiropractic adjustments do very well initially after delivery. The body responds quite well. At 8 months, I would advise getting in and seeing your chiropractor or finding one that could help. It might take a bit longer, but I have had very good results in a short time after.