Whether it’s from a sports injury, years of poor posture, or just bad luck acute and chronic neck pain is one of the most common ailments among the U.S. populace. Neck pain tied for second in a recent survey by the National Institute of Health Statistics that asked respondents about four common types of pain at 15% with headache and migraines. Low back pain was predictably first at 27%. While it might be slightly less common, it can be just as detrimental to one’s health as the side effects of lower back pain.
About 45% of today’s workers suffer from some kind of neck pain. Avoiding neck surgery is a primary goal of many people that can’t afford it, or just don’t want to go under the knife, even though many places do offer minimally invasive micro spinal neck surgery. Here are three ways to treat the pain yourself and possibly prevent it from getting any worse.
1.) OTC Treatments: Over-the-counter drugs and topical treatment options are one common way to reduce the pain at least for periods of time. Typical pain medications used to treat lower back pain are great to use such as, acetaminophen and Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). There are also topical analgesics, like Icy Hot, that can help soothe the discomfort.
2.) Core Strength: One of the reasons many humans develop conditions like back and neck pain stems from a poor internal foundation, or core strength. The muscles in your core includes, the abdominal wall, pelvis, lower back, and obliques. Weak core strength or stability can greatly hinder your bodies ability to hold itself up in a healthy and biomechanically correct way. Bad posture can lead right up the spine and affect the neck region. Forget the grueling crunches though, work on your core strength with things like planks and leg raises.
3.) Flexibility/Stretching: Stretching every day is one of the things that could probably fix, or at least help, a lot of peoples problems, but similar to flossing and life expectancy they still don’t do it. A program of back exercises and physical therapy will usually include a combination of strengthening, stretching, and low-impact aerobic exercise and there’s no reason someone trying to fix their neck pain shouldn’t do so as well. Stretching neck muscles routinely will help develop the muscles and keep them ‘oiled’ in a sense, which can reduce the risk of a sudden injury in the future as well.