Neck pain is one of those adverse physiological things that you don’t think about until you have it. Life is pretty good until you wake up one morning and can not move your head in either direction because you slept in a strange position and have sorely tensed up all the muscles in your neck. Now what do you do?
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Having a car crash can inevitably end up with acute or sometimes chronic neck pain. The sudden impact and kinetic energy transferred up through the neck can make neck muscles spasm beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.
Contact sports injuries can cause a wide variety of neck pain. How these people exist is beyond belief because when it comes to a part of the body that has virtually no protection whatsoever, it will be a pay me now or pay me later kind of deal. It is just a matter of time before neck pain becomes a part of every day life for people who participate in contact sports.
At the end of the day, there are myriad ways an individual can end up with neck pain. This pain can be caused from severe injury requiring invasive surgery or it can be pain that needs only massage and heat and everything in between.
If you can look at a calendar and see that you have had many birthdays, arthritis can be the culprit of persistent neck pain. Most of the time this kind of neck pain can be treated with a combination of things.
Treatments of Neck Pain
Cervical Collar – The cervical collar device can be used to support the neck and be used primarily as a reminder not to move or turn the neck. The drawback to using this device is that it can ultimately wind up causing more pain as the muscles to become even more stiff as they remain in place without a change of position. A cervical collar is used as an immobilizer when in doubt of how severe a neck injury is. Rescue personnel will apply one of these if a person is involved in a car crash to keep the neck in alignment until radiography has proven there is no fracture or spinal cord injury.
Massage and Heat – When a person has strained his or her neck, the muscles actually get angry and inflamed which cause a great deal of neck pain and loss of range of motion. This is often referred to as a ‘crick in the neck’ and can be worked out by a professional masseuse, and warm showers.
Yoga and Stretching Exercises – People have found that if they practice a stretching regime such as yoga they can keep their muscles in a much happier place. Once they get used to being stretched and can extend and contract without agony, neck pain will virtually melt away.
Chiropractic Adjustment – Believe it or not, most everyone’s body gets out of alignment on a regular basis. This can be caused from poor sleeping habits, poor standing and walking habits, carrying a heavy handbag over a one shoulder on a continuous basis and even from having a fat wallet in one pocket all the time. Eventually this takes a toll and results in back and neck pain. The chiropractor will determine what parts of the spine needs to be adjusted to bring it back into alignment and release the tightness causing the pain.
Cervical Traction – The cervical neck traction can be applied at home or in the office of a physical therapist. A chiropractor can also apply manual traction to help relieve pressures on nerves brought on by misalignment. Cervical traction in actual fact using counter weights to pull the head vertically away from the body. In doing so, the areas called foramen become less compressed allowing for nerves to be released from possible pinching. It also extends the muscles so they are not in continuous spasm.
Drug therapy – In conjunction with physical treatment, medications can be administered to help in alleviating the magnitude of neck pain. These medications can range from NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) such as ibuprofen to oral corticosteroids. If it has been determined that the neck pain is due to a pinched nerve, the final drug intervention would be to have a steroid injection directly into the region of pain to block the nerve from causing the non-stop mind grabbing pain that is sometimes unbearable to live with.
Surgical Intervention – If all else fails, meaning drug therapy combined with one of the other neck pain treatments does not work and the physician has to literally go in and operate on the effected vertebrae and or disc, then this would be the final and most significant choice in alleviating neck pain.
If neck pain has suddenly become a way of life for you, there are many ways to combat it as you can see. From a hot Jacuzzi and massage to months of rehabilitation neck pain treatments are available. Take a look online for cervical collars and cervical traction devices to be used in the comfort of your own home. The majority of the collars listed are made of foam which are not only comfortable but actually provide added warmth for the muscles that are in pain. In the event there is a need for complete immobilization, there is an adjustable stiff necked collar made by Laedal as well. There are many different companies to choose from and many different prices to compare with.
Various retailers also have over the door cervical traction devices such as the ones manufactured by NeckPro. Pronex makes a pneumatic cervical traction device that is expensive but rated high by consumersIt is recommended that you always get professional advice when you are treating your spine. Chiropractors and physicians and physical therapists will be more than happy to help you with choosing a system that is right for you as you begin a treatment regime to alleviate and hopefully eradicate neck pain. Your neck is an extremely delicate and critical area of the body and dealing with acute or chronic pain can be done with the right treatment and equipment.
