Neck pain, back pain, and disc problems, plus shorter notes on headaches, joints, and nerve pain.
Where to start
Neck pain, back pain, sciatica, and disc problems are common enough to explain on their own. Use the three links below first if one of those is your main complaint. The shorter notes further down cover headaches, a pinched nerve, joint pain, and a few other problems that often travel with the spine.
Dr. Alan Levitt examines at 6200 Excelsior Blvd, Suite 201, Saint Louis Park, MN 55416. Phone 952-920-7535. He has practiced since 1987 and at this office since 1999. The exam standard does not change with the label: history, hands-on testing, and imaging only when it would change the plan.
Common problems
Each link is the fuller explanation. Describe the symptom if you are not sure which name fits.
Also seen here
A headache that begins where the neck meets the skull can be mechanical, and that exam is part of neck care. Noise, fatigue, and stress can aggravate headaches without causing them. A sudden severe headache, a headache after a head strike, or a headache with confusion is an emergency. We do not quote a percentage of headaches that come from the neck.
The phrase means a nerve is irritated or compressed. In the neck that can show up in the arm. In the low back it can show up as sciatica. Neck care and back care sort those patterns. Weakness that is increasing is not a pinched-nerve wait.
A stiff joint can hurt locally and can make the next joint work too hard. Sacroiliac pain, where the spine meets the pelvis, often imitates sciatica or a disc. It is tested in the back-pain exam, not diagnosed from a list. The adjustment, if one is used, is aimed at the joint the exam found.
Numbness, weakness, or burning with repetitive hand use can involve nerves that travel through the arm into the neck. Wrist pain still needs a screen for fracture and for a problem that belongs to a hand surgeon. An adjustment is not a carpal-tunnel cure. Laser is sometimes discussed for the soft tissue, and it has limits.
Worn cartilage in a knee, hip, spine, or hand can hurt and can change how you move. Chiropractic care here can look at the motion you still have and at the compensation. It does not regrow cartilage. A hot, swollen joint with fever is medical, not a mobilization visit.
Widespread pain without a single known cause, sometimes with poor sleep. We do not offer a cure. A visit can look for mechanical contributors and for sleep and load problems. It should not be presented as the treatment of the syndrome. Sleep and daily-habit questions, if they help, belong with functional medicine.
Safety
Chest pain, trouble breathing, a sudden severe headache, a blow to the head with vomiting or confusion, fever with spinal pain, progressive weakness, groin numbness, and a change in bowel or bladder control are not chiropractic conditions to browse. Use emergency care. Cancer treatment, infection, and a psychiatric crisis are not conditions we treat in this office.
Maintenance visits are sometimes useful once a mechanical problem is understood. They are not a shield against those red flags, and they are not sold here as immune boosting or as guaranteed prevention you can count on. If you want a visit after the acute problem has settled, say that when you book. Existing patients use the other form.
Once a condition is real and safe to treat, the tools are adjustments, cold laser, exercise, and orthotics. Each of those is chosen after the exam, not from a list.
If you are between labels
“It burns down the left leg when I sit” is more useful than the word sciatica. “I cannot turn my head to check a blind spot” points to the neck. Bring imaging you have. Do not wait to learn the vocabulary. Call 952-920-7535 if the form feels like the wrong door.
Lead with place and behavior. “Left calf buzzes after twenty minutes of sitting, and the foot feels weak on stairs” is a back-pain problem until proven otherwise. “I cannot check a blind spot since Tuesday, no arm symptoms” is a neck-pain problem.
Mention what you have already tried only if it changed something. A week of a store-brand insert that did nothing is useful. A list of every video you watched is not. Bring the imaging report if a sentence on it scared you. The sentence is not the diagnosis until it matches the limb.
If you have two problems, say both, and say which one limits the day. You do not need the correct medical name before you are examined. Your appointment can cover more than one finding. It should not cover a medical emergency that you hoped would fit a chiropractic label.
We do not claim that spinal care treats allergies or the immune system. If that is what you were hoping to hear, you will not find that promise here. You will find an explanation that matches the pain, and a referral when the pain is not ours to treat.
Hand pain, jaw tightness, and rib pain sometimes get asked about in the same breath as the spine. A hand that is numb may still be a neck finding. Jaw pain and rib pain are worth mentioning even though they are not the main focus of care here. If they are outside what an exam can responsibly handle, you will be told before a plan is written, including when the next step is another clinician.
Questions
How we sort common problems, and which claims we do not make.
No. Neck pain, back pain and sciatica, and disc problems each have their own explanation below or in the links. Shorter notes here cover problems that are less often the whole story. The exam decides what is actually going on.
Allergy emergencies and immune disease belong with a physician. We do not claim spinal care treats the immune system. If you also have a mechanical spine problem, that part can be examined on its own.
If they start in the neck, neck care is the right place to start. If the headache is sudden and severe, or follows a blow to the head, use emergency care and do not wait for a chiropractic slot.
Yes. A disc and a sacroiliac joint can both hurt, and a neck can be stiff while a back flares. The exam says which one is driving today. You do not need a separate philosophy for each label.
Book a new-patient visit and describe the symptom in plain language. Call 952-920-7535. The office is at 6200 Excelsior Blvd, Suite 201, Saint Louis Park, MN 55416. You do not need the correct medical name to get on the schedule.
Services under the labels
Condition first, then the service. Not the other way around.
Address
6200 Excelsior Blvd, Suite 201
Saint Louis Park, MN 55416
Phone
952-920-7535Hours
