When it hurts or becomes stiff and difficult to move, your neck can compromise your ability to engage in a number of basic yet essential activities. Safely changing lanes while driving your car could be next to impossible. Even sitting at your desk and working at your computer will prove challenging. Understanding why neck pain occurs is an important part of resolving it.
Although you can take prescribed and over-the-counter medications to temporarily alleviate your discomfort, addressing the problem at its source will provide the natural and long-lasting relief you truly want. According to chiropractors, misalignment of the spine is frequently at the heart of neck pain. Also referred to as having a subluxated spine, misalignment can be the result of a car crash, a slip and fall accident, and many other jarring, impact events
. Neck pain can alternatively be the result of simple, everyday activities that are performed either repetitively or incorrectly. These include:
- Frequently craning your neck to look at your mobile phone or tablet
- Maintaining poor posture while sitting or standing for long stretches of time
- Making quick, sudden movements
- Sleeping on the wrong pillows
Neck pain can even be attributed to musculoskeletal problems in other areas. If you’ve got massive amounts of tension at the shoulders, between the shoulder blades, or in the upper or mid-portion of your back, your neck may be having to overcompensate as a result. Learning why neck pain is occurring is always an essential part of resolving it. That’s why chiropractors start their care with comprehensive patient examinations. Treating neck pain at its actual source is key for promoting natural pain relief and improved overall wellness, and for ensuring that neck pain doesn’t quickly recur.
Why Neck Pain is Becoming Increasingly Common
Whiplash is among the most common causes of neck pain. This is joint dysfunction, inflammation, and pain that results from having the head rock back and forth during or immediately after a car crash. With whiplash, turning the head or craning the neck is virtually impossible, and efforts to do so cause extreme discomfort. When treated by a general doctor, most people with whiplash are given pain relieving medications and instructions to rest.
In most cases, this is an issue that will gradually heal on its own. Chiropractors, however, leverage hands-on therapies that help expedite the body’s natural healing. They do this by improving alignment in the affected area to ensure optimum nerve to brain communication, better blood flow, and improved immune system functioning among other things. Although severe car crashes are often responsible for serious head and neck injuries, whiplash can occur even when accidents happen at relatively low speeds. Stiffness and soreness at the neck was once something that people became increasingly prone to as they grew older.
Now, however, chiropractors, general doctors, and physical therapists are seeing a vast number of patients for neck pain who are still in their 20s and 30s. In fact, some of their patients are even in their teens. This is largely the result of changes in daily behaviors and habits. Digital device use often requires people to keep their heads tilted or craned over them. If you have neck pain and have not been in a jarring impact event, pay attention to how much time you spend looking down at your mobile phone or tablet, or hunched over your laptop. One of the best ways to prevent and mitigate this type of neck pain is by limiting your device use.
You can also invest in ergonomic desk accessories so that your computer or laptop screen is at eye level. When people have extraordinary muscle tension in the shoulders or upper back, all of their movements are affected by it. Learning the right stretches for alleviating this tension can help limit demands on your neck. Chiropractors can help relieve this type of neck pain with:
- Postural correction services
- Spinal adjustments
- Massage therapy
- Inversion therapy
- Recommendations for lifestyle changes
In instances of severe neck pain, subluxations that have significantly displaced vertebrae may have caused nerve compression. Slipped, compressed, and even ruptured discs can be the result of impact events like car crashes, unhealthy life habits, and many other factors. No matter what the cause of neck pain may be, chiropractors can put together individualized, needs-specific plans for promoting relief and gradually restoring spinal wellness. If you’ve been suffering from neck pain and are looking for a natural and effective way to resolve it, we can help. Call us today at 205-637-1363.
