There’s only one way to describe neck pain: It’s a real pain in the neck. People develop neck pain for all kinds of reasons. From neck strain and sleeping wrong to being involved in a car accident, living with neck pain can negatively affect your life.
But when it comes to relieving neck pain, not all treatment modalities are the same. Some instances of neck pain are mild and clear up as fast as they presented. However, other episodes of neck pain can persist, leaving you wondering what to to do.
Before definitely choosing one type of treatment over the other, it’s important to accurately diagnose the cause.
Causes of Neck Pain
Neck pain is one of the most common ailments a person can experience. Our necks are comprised of many muscles, ligaments, vertebrae and bones that are linked from our skull all the way to our torso. These parts can become easily damaged or strained if overexerted.
There are many causes of neck pain including:
– Compressed nerves
– A disease like arthritis or meningitis
– Whiplash
– Herniated disks
– Muscle strain
– Age-related changes
Even something as simple as sitting hunched over a computer can cause neck pain. Regardless of the cause, if you’re experiencing constant neck pain that’s accompanied by numbness, tingling or loss of function, you need to seek immediate medical attention.
Symptoms of Neck Pain
In order to determine the cause of your neck pain, you need to keep an eye on the symptoms. In mild cases, people may experience a slight headache and stiffness. The stiffness can make it difficult to move your neck. They may also feel a little tenderness, but that depends on what’s causing the pain.
For more severe cases of neck pain, it’s possible to experience things like arm tingling and weakness, having difficulty lifting things, pain in the throat and radiculopathy.
Again, it’s important to remember that some of these symptoms are kind of rare and depend on what the cause of your neck pain is. You should go see a doctor if you exhibit more than one of these symptoms, has persisted for a few days, or pain starts to spread through your arms and legs.
Preventing Neck Pain
Despite there being more than one cause, most cases of neck pain are usually due to having poor body posture or the natural aging process. Preventing neck pain is actually pretty simple. All you need to do practice proper sitting and standing positions.
Your shoulders should sit align with the rest of your body, not hunched forward. Your neck should not be thrust forward ahead of your shoulders or body. There are also other methods to prevent neck pain such as adjusting the way you sit, stop smoking, refrain from carrying heavy objects and having a good posture while sleeping.
Chiropractor vs Masseuse
A very common question among people is who is better to treat neck pain, a chiropractor or a masseuse? These two share similar goals, but the methods of achieving them are drastically different.
A masseuse, also known as a massage therapist, uses various hand techniques to manipulate a person’s muscles. This is done to help improve the blood flow in muscles, which leads to faster healing and stress relief.
Chiropractors, on the other hand, don’t manipulate muscles. Instead, they manipulate a person’s spinal cord and other parts of their body. Because of this, however, chiropractors have gotten a less-than-ideal reputation.
But there are cases where people have reported that their range of motion was back to normal, they had much better flexibility and better coordination.
So, how do you know which one is better? Truth be told, there is no final answer on which treatment is better. It depends on what you think is better suited to treat you and what’s causing your neck pain. The choice is ultimately yours to make. But as with any type of chronic pain, it also needs to be evaluated to rule out potentially more sinister causes.
Neck pain may be a nuisance, but that doesn’t mean it has to impact your lifestyle. If you’re dealing with neck pain, contact us at 205-637-1363 for more information on how we can relieve your neck pain.
