Do you or someone you know suffer with debilitating neck pain?
Neck pain makes work, and life miserable.
Your productivity, quality, and mood all get worse. All you want is to be done with the day so you can get home, relax, and put some ice on your pain.
I understand how debilitating and annoying neck pain can be. So, this blog post and video are meant to bring more awareness to why you’re having the issue.
This way you can begin to start making changes.
I’m going to lay out the different causes of neck pain, and then we will get into more details on each one.
If you’d rather watch me discuss these points in the latest PrimeTime Health TV episode, click the link below…
The 3 Main Causes of Neck Pain are:
- Electronics
- Emotional Upset
- Trauma
Electronics –
Neck pain can be created/made worse by being in a compromised position for an extended period of time.
What do I mean by ‘compromised’…
One example, is anytime your head is in a position other than the natural position- which means the head is pulled back over the shoulders. This puts a tremendous amount of stress on the shoulders. You’ll find this commonly in people who haven’t set their desk up properly at work. Or, someone who constantly looks down at their phone/ipad/computer.
If that position is allowed to remain, over time muscles will fatigue, weaken, and lead to pain, discomfort, and injury.
Emotional Upset –
You know emotions can cause trouble, but did you know they’re a big contributor to neck pain?
Think about it…when you are tense, or stressed, the muscles that typically tighten down are your upper back and shoulder muscles, in order to guard against some sort of outside threat. Your body doesn’t react any differently whether it’s your emotions causing the stress or an attacker.
Over time these muscles fatigue and lead to pain and discomfort in your neck. If this process occurs regularly, it can also lead to degeneration in your cervical (neck) spine.
Truama –
Trauma can be from whiplash in a car accident, falling off a curb, getting hit in the head or back, etc.
Unlike the previous two categories, trauma is typically unavoidable. Unless, you play some sort of contact sport for fun.
When there’s trauma, there is typically enough force to shift soft tissue, and bones in the spine.
Studies have shown that anything over the speed of 8.2mph has the potential to cause structural damage. Link to Research
Trauma doesn’t have to be associated with an accident. For example, simply riding in a car on a bumpy road can cause enough force to shift structure out of place in your neck.
Here’s the good news…66% of the main causes of neck pain can be avoided. If you’re more aware of what your daily habits are doing to your body, it will be much easier to avoid the problematic ones and replace them with something that is more beneficial for your health and body.
In the next post, I’ll be discussing what you can do to fix some of these problems and get relief from the neck pain.
-Dr. Matt