Blog & Columns
Useful information about health and Korean medicine.
Total 29 posts
Your jaw has clicked for years, but now it's started to hurt
Half the people who come to us about their jaw start with this question: "My jaw makes a sound. Is it something serious?" A jaw that only makes noise usually doesn't need treatment, and we don't recommend treatment for it. The jaws that need treatment are a different group, and we start by helping you tell which is which.
The best posture is your next posture
There's a sticky note on your monitor that says "Sit up straight!" Yet the more you focus on good posture, the stiffer your shoulders get. Not being able to hold good posture isn't a sign of weak willpower. Any posture becomes a bad posture if you hold it too long. People who change their posture have easier necks than people who guard it.
When neck pain comes with tingling down the arm, it's a different story
Your hand tingles, so you shake out your wrist and wonder if you slept on it. But it's been going on for weeks. Tingling is a signal from the wiring. Even when the pinch is in the neck, the tingling is felt in the arm and fingers. Where it hurts and where the problem is can be different places. We've put together three clues to gauge at home, and four signs that mean getting checked right away comes first.
Turtle neck posture bands: what to know before you pay
If there's a posture correction band sitting in your shopping cart, take three minutes to read this before you click. There's still no established, good-quality evidence that posture bands reduce neck and shoulder pain. And there's an even earlier problem: the premise that "it hurts because of turtle neck" hasn't itself been confirmed by research.
Does turtle neck cause the pain, or does the pain cause turtle neck?
People come in with a side-view photo of themselves. Their ear sits in front of their shoulder, so it's turtle neck, and that's why it hurts, they say. A review pooling 15 studies is more cautious. There was a link in adults but not in teenagers, and it still hasn't been sorted out whether posture is the cause or the result. The stronger evidence lies somewhere else.
Not Every Clicking Jaw Needs Treatment
One in three adults has jaw joint problems. If your jaw only clicks and doesn't hurt, watching and waiting is usually the right call. If it hurts, doesn't open as far or gets stuck, that's a different story. When you visit us, we measure how wide your mouth opens in millimeters on the first day and tell you right then whether it's something to watch or something to treat. We handle acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, Chuna and, when needed, a jaw splint all in one place. We've seen a patient who could open only 25 mm get back to 40 mm.
When tests show nothing wrong, but you have trembling and ringing in your ears
If the trembling is on only one side, or you have weakness, slurred speech, or one side of your face won't move, see a neurologist first. If ringing in the ears started suddenly, or you can't hear in one ear, see an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor first. People come to us after those checks have been done.
When your child can't sit at a desk for long
Parents tell us that after sitting for just a little while, their child's neck and shoulders pull so badly that they end up slumping over the desk or lying down. Many nights, the discomfort keeps them from sleeping well. Parents assumed it was a posture problem and kept saying, "Sit up straight." But that didn't change anything, so they came to us.
When you thought it was just your neck and shoulders, but now your head hurts too
If you have a sudden, severe headache unlike anything you've had before, a fever with a stiff neck, or weakness in your arms or legs or slurred speech, go to the emergency room or see a neurologist first. Many people come to us after those checks, still without a cause. What we look at comes after that.
When your child stands with their head poking forward and belly pushed out
Parents tell us their child has settled into a posture where the head juts forward when sitting, and when standing, the belly pushes out and the lower back arches too much. Even at a young age, the child says the back of the neck feels stiff and the lower back is uncomfortable. They also mention the child doesn't sleep deeply and tosses and turns at night.
When your jaw hurts and your sleep and stomach are off too
They come in for jaw pain, but when we ask, they also sleep lightly and their stomach feels bloated. They think they're dealing with three separate problems. In fact, many are getting treatment for each one at a different place. But when we look at them all together, they're sometimes connected.
When we decide to use a jaw appliance, and when we don't
When hands-on treatment alone can't hold the jaw in place. We don't recommend it from the start. If after several sessions of acupuncture and hands-on treatment the improvement only lasts that day and keeps coming back, that's when we discuss it.