Question
QUESTION: Hello I am 13 years old. Today I have been experiencing neck and throat pain and I am not sure as why this is and what I could have done.

This morning, I did a paper round and the bag over my shoulder was quite heavy, forcing weight onto the right of my body.

A few hours later, I had football training and did some fitness work (long distance running mainly), as well as playing a normal match and cannot think of getting injured.

I first got the pain about half an hour after I got back from football training and it was about halfway down my neck on the right of it.

A couple of hours later, my throat started to hurt when I was breathing deeply, yawning, coughing and swallowing. My Mum has checked out my throat and see says that she cant see any soreness.

I've had some ibuprofen (or however it is spelt) and it isn't hurting as much as before but I can still feel it hurting slightly.

Do you know what I could have done and how long it will be before it gets better? I have a football match tomorrow that I desperately want to play in and my team are quite short of players so I don't want to let them down.

Do you think I will be okay to play and can you tell me what I may have done as well as any advice on what to do?

Thanks alot.

ANSWER: Ryan,
It is highly likely that you are suffering from the result of an Upper Cervical Injury.  This is basically a misalignment between the head and the neck.  When this happens there is interference to the mental impulse and the body cannot function properly.  Drugs do not fix the problem and actually make it worse in the long run.  You need to get an evaluation from an Upper Cervical Doctor of Chiropractic, this is the Doctor that can locate and correct the Upper Cervical Subluxation that is most likely causing your health trouble.
Please send me your town, state, and country so that I may refer you to a specialist that can help you to get well.
Yours in Best Health,
Dr Rob Arnone

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks very much for your reply but 4 days on, the pain has just about gone now so is there still any point in this?

Answer
Ryan,
If you ever have any health problems whatsoever in the future or have any health questions, please feel free to ask me a question if you would like to get to the root cause of the problem and have that root cause corrected so that you can get well.

Yours in Best Health,
Dr Rob Arnone