Why do you Experience Neck Pain?
The muscles around your neck is one of the most susceptible areas to injury and pain. That’s why adopting yourself in an awkward position for prolonged period of time can easily strain your neck muscles. For example, the way you sleep, whether it’s on an airplane, in the car, or in your own bed, affects your neck. Muscles tension around the neck can often cause pain referral to the shoulder and even up the head. Tension headache is a type of headache most commonly originates from the built-up tension around the neck.
Other causes of neck pain include cervical disc herniation, where disc in the cervical spine bulges or leaks from the disc space. This can cause mild to severe pain, accompanied by stiffness in the neck and radiating pain to the arm. Like cervical disc injury, whiplash is another common cause of neck pain that often have a history of accident/injury. While whiplash is thought of as a relatively mild condition as its effect often comes months or years after the initial injury.However, it is well documented that it often cause long-term pain and disability to the neck. Whiplash occurs when a person’s head moves backward and then forward suddenly with great force.
In the aged population group, degeneration of the cervical spine/ osteoarthritis responsible for most of their pain, stiffness and discomfort. Degeneration in the spine is a common process but unfortunately for most individuals, it happens prematurely and lead to many signs and symptoms. These include reduced spinal flexibility due to muscle stiffness, wearing of the cartilage between the vertebrae (Intervertebral Disc), and bone spurs formation around the spine.
Although bio-mechanical dysfunction is by far the most common cause of neck pain, threatening conditions like meningitis, thunder-clap headache, or other space occupying lesion in the spinal canal can lead to severe neck pain and headache. It is important to seek medical attention in such circumstances.
Ways to Ease Your Neck Pain
The good news is that you can relieve your neck pain very easily and effectively through massage. Professional doctors say that regular massage therapy helps keep your neck free from pain. By massaging your neck regularly, you will find significant improvement in your neck function and the pain might slowly go away. Massage stimulates the muscles’ circulation, delivering blood carrying oxygen and nutrients to help muscles eliminate waste products such as lactic acid. You might consider buying a neck massager for regular home use. The PowerRest Neck and Shoulder Massager has a built-in heating function to improve blood circulation. It is suitable for the neck and shoulders, as well as other parts of the body. The speed is adjustable and the faster the speed, the greater the strength.
However, for more severe cases like osteoarthritis, frequent unresolved neck pain, headache and dizziness, we would recommend you seek professional advice from the Essential Chiropractic and Functional Medicine Centre. As each individual is unique and has a different medical history, a licensed and qualified Chiropractic Physician can carefully investigate the factors that might lead to your persistent neck pain.
