Dr. Brian G. Najor

Unfortunately there is not enough information provided to decide if manual adjustment of the spine would benefit your fathers condition. Try and seek a consultation with a chiropractor who can make that decision upon reviewing a complete history and performing a physical examination.

I would need more information about possible injury to the neck, which part of the arm/hand/fingers are numb or experiencing pain. Without this information my first thought would be some physical damage to or around the ulnar nerve as it travels through a groove at the bottom of your elbow. It is the nerve that you feel when you hit your "funny bone" and usually causes numbness at the two fingers farthest from your thumb. You can have a nerve conduction velocity study done to see if there is any problem with the nerve; it can also be that the nerve is irritated by inflammation due to the healing process and taking an anti inflammatory medication would confirm that if symptoms reduced or went away.

The human body is typically symmetrical with some slight variance; an injury to a growth plate while a bone is still growing can cause a difference in the final length of the same bone left and right of the body. However, muscle imbalance can create the illusion of asymmetry between left and right. It is possible you have more developed muscles on one side versus the other. A quick posture evaluation by a chiropractor or physical therapist can help you determine what you are actually seeing.

This is a question best answered by a proper medical evaluation, due to the possibilities being stress, fatigue, anxiety, medications, low blood sugar, low oxygen, heavy metal poisoning, Parkinson's, and many more...

Laying on your back on a firm surface, keeping the back of your head on the firm surface use your hands one on each knee and pull both of your knees towards your chest equally until you feel a comfortable stretch on your lower back or you have reached your chest. Hold this position for 30 seconds to a minute, then relax; start with sets of 3-5 and continue each day until you are able to bring your knees to your chest without pain or much feeling of stretch. Stop if pain increases; if you can not reach your knee's place a towel or rope under your knees and use it as leverage. I recommend both knee's pulled equally together; you risk over rotating the pelvis if you do this stretch one knee at a time.

It sounds like a posture imbalance, but I can not say without a proper examination and history. You do not have to strain a muscle to have a posture imbalance; although having a posture imbalance makes you more likely to strain a muscle with certain physical activities like bending or lifting. Posture imbalances form from specific activates over time that create dominate muscle groups and weak muscle groups. It is possible if you have done a lot of bending/lifting or have weak abdominals that your back muscle at the thoracic/lumbar area are very developed and tight. Since you use these muscles when sitting down and getting up they would contract and cause pain or possibly even put your back into extension which could narrow the holes the nerves come out of putting pressure on the nerves. An additional side effect of tight back muscles for many years is lack of motion of the joints which causes the discs to dry up and shrink which further narrows the holes the nerves come out of putting more pressure on the nerves. However, for an accurate diagnosis of your condition see a chiropractor.

Chiropractors typically focus on manipulation of spinal and extremity joints; However, many do focus on soft tissue injuries and use various modalities like electric muscle stimulation, ultrasound therapy, laser therapy, infrared, instrument assisted soft tissue manipulation, taping, stretching, myofascial release techniques, and more. Ideally you find a chiropractor that attempts to treat both the muscle imbalances and joint imbalances for complete care of injuries.

After 4 months the acute phase of the healing process is complete, and symptoms should have drastically improved if they are going to heal on their own. Having pain after that much time is the way your body is telling you something is still wrong. Due to the forces involved in a motor vehicle accident you can strain muscles which causes spasm and restricted joint motion, which leads to degenerative changes over time; as well as sprain ligaments which allows joints to become unstable or misaligned, which leads to degenerative changes over time. Your body will heal with time, but it may heal in a way that leads to accelerated degenerative changes. If you are able to find a chiropractor that understands the importance of treating the soft tissues and can deliver spinal manipulations with low force adjusting techniques (you do not want to over stretch ligaments that have already been stretched through trauma) you will have a better chance to heal with minimal degenerative changes to the spine. It's never too late to go to a chiropractor because treatment can be to improve the condition, maintain the condition, or slow down the degeneration of the condition.

Pain down the arm typically indicates something is bothering the nerve root that comes out of the space between the bones in the neck. It sounds like it could be something physical like a disc bulge possibly narrowing the space between the bones that the nerve exits. It is also possible there is a strain or sprain element to the joint and surrounding soft tissues. Unfortunately if symptoms do not improve shortly an MRI may be needed to rule out physical damage. I would also recommend no further adjustments to that area to try and "fix it" until you see significant improvement on its own or rule out physical damage with an MRI.

What you are hearing is called a joint "cavitation". With the correct combination of gases and fluids within the joint, and a properly delivered manipulation (high velocity, low amplitude thrust) you will hear the "cracking" sound. It is important to understand that a properly delivered manipulation can occur without the proper combination of gases and fluids existing within the joint and no sound will be heard (try cracking your knuckles then immediately try cracking it again no sound will be heard if you initially heard a sound until gases and fluids return to the required levels in the joint for a cavitation). Patients that tend to have more relaxed muscles and/or looser ligaments holding joints together tend to make it easier on the chiropractor to deliver high velocity low amplitude thrusts and thus tend to "crack" more than patients with tight muscles, ligaments, or degenerated joints surfaces which make it harder for the chiropractor to manipulate the joint.

It really depends on your specific condition and needs, I can not say how negative the effect will be on your spine without knowing your condition. I do recommend you continue to see a chiropractor if possible; if you can not see one then you should focus on stretching any tight muscles and strengthening any weak muscles at home. Having proper muscle balance can limit the degenerative effects of the spine.

Massage is great, but only addresses part of the problem if your condition is a combination of muscle tightness/spasm and joint restriction/misalignment. If you can find a chiropractor that performs instrument assisted soft tissue manipulation combined with chiropractic manipulation, if needed, it would be the ideal treatment for a tight neck.

X-rays are not always needed to begin treatment; a chiropractor will decide if x-rays are needed based on history and physical examination.  X-rays expose patients to radiation so they should be used as a tool to rule out serious expected pathology like fractures, tumors, or severe degenerative changes and not simply to check for expected minor postural or joint misalignments; most chiropractors can feel with their hands restricted/abnormal joint motion and see with their eyes postural imbalances.