Mobilization therapy

A study in the American Journal of Public Health reported that gentler manual therapy for the neck (“mobilization”) is probably just as helpful as traditional adjusting (i.e. “cracking”) for neck problems. Two years later, the lead researchers also concluded that the gentler therapy causes fewer side-effects, such as stiffness or headache afterward. 

I’m neither surprised nor disturbed to read this research; in fact, mobilization is my manual therapy of choice for the neck. I have been very satisfied (as have many patients) with the results of gentler therapies for the neck. In addition, many patients who feel nervous about having their necks worked on have been relieved to find that neck therapy, in my office, can be gentle enough to fall asleep to!