A box-truck driver came in for his neck. He had neck pain and upper-back dysfunction, and he had noticed changes in his breathing as well. His neck was where he felt it. As the films showed, his neck was not where the problem started.
What he came in for
He arrived with neck pain and upper-thoracic dysfunction, and he mentioned changes in his breathing that had him paying closer attention. Driving a truck all day, he assumed his neck had simply taken the brunt of it. That is a reasonable assumption, and it is the one nearly everyone makes: you feel it in your neck, so the neck must be the problem.
What the analysis found
Full-spine structural analysis found an anterior-inferior sacrum subluxation as the primary displacement. The sacrum is the foundation of the spine, the base every vertebra above it is built on.
The correction
The analysis found the subluxations; we corrected them, beginning with the lumbosacral subluxation.
A neck complaint with a sacral origin. The anterior-inferior sacrum subluxation changed the mechanics for the entire column.
What happened
For this patient, the neck pain and the upper-back dysfunction eased as the foundation was restored, and he noted his breathing settling as well. The video walks through the structural findings and his outcome, from the base of the column to the top. His spine is his own, but the sequence — correct the foundation, let the compensation above it release — is one I return to often.
How can a sacral subluxation relate to neck pain?
The sacral base is the foundation the entire spine sits on. A spine is supposed to be stacked on top of itself, and when the sacrum is subluxated, everything above it has to adapt to an uneven base. The body can compensate for years, until it can't anymore. For some people, the neck is where that finally shows up.
Want to understand how the anterior-inferior sacrum subluxation disrupts the whole column, and why foundation correction changes everything above it?
Read the AI sacrum explainer →