It’s one of the most common complaints that we come across, but neck pain doesn’t have to be something you just put up with. With the many treatment options available to us within the scope of Myotherapy, we can help find the cause of your neck pain, treat the symptoms, and work towards avoiding the problem in the future.
Our bodies are amazing things. We’ve evolved over millions of years to do many physical things in the most efficient way possible, running, jumping, even driving at high speeds.
The trouble is, certain aspects of our modern life aren’t conducive to great posture and spinal support. Car crashes, phone calls, scrolling on social media and working for long hours in substandard environments – all of these things can contribute to muscular pain and dysfunction.
Neck pain can be anywhere on the scale from mildly uncomfortable to absolutely debilitating. If possible, we would want to address the issues that are causing your neck pain before it gets too bad and causes more problems down the track.
It’s very important to see a doctor immediately if you’ve had some sort of injury to your neck, including motor vehicle accidents or falls. You may need specialist medical treatment, and it’s important to rule out any structural damage.
What does it feel like?
You may be feeling a range of different things in your neck. It could be a sharp pain, focused on one particular spot, or it might be spread across the whole area. Often, neck pain will refer up to the head, causing headaches, or down to the shoulders, or even further down into your hands to the tips of your fingers, causing tension and more pain.
The duration of your neck pain can vary. It could be acute – lasting for 4 weeks or less, usually the result of some sort of injury that is being properly rested and treated. Subacute is pain that might last for around 12 weeks. If left untreated, chronic neck pain might last for three or more months. It’s very important to get little niggles looked at before they turn into something more problematic.
What can cause neck pain?
Your neck is designed to support the heavy weight of your head, and it’s flexible to allow for movement. For this reason, your neck can be quite vulnerable to injury that cause pain and dysfunction.
Most common neck pain is caused by your muscles overreacting to some sort of negative stimulus, or through degeneration caused by the natural aging process.
Some of the things that can cause neck pain include:
Whip lash – the sudden thrusting of the cervical region due to high impact of some sort, usually a car crash, contact sport, or falling accidents. Whiplash is the result of a shock to the nervous system due to velocity involved with these type of accidents. Your body will try and protect itself, and will lock itself down as a result.
Discogenic – disc related pain caused by disc degeneration, disc bulges or ruptures.
Vertebral stenosis – the narrowing of the foramen. The hole where the nerve exits the vertebra narrows, impinging the nerve in the neck, causing pain.
Unfortunately, our bodies natural response is to increase the tension of the muscles as a protective measure in response to the potential danger that your nervous system is reacting to. However, this can exacerbate the actual problem by increasing tension at the insertion point, increasing the symptoms unnecessarily.
What we can do to treat your neck pain
Myotherapy is a great tool for working out the cause of your pain, and creating a treatment plan to help ease the tension and reduce inflammation. We can help your muscles relax and get your body back into a neutral state. Some of the treatment options can include:
If you’re feeling pain or tightness in your neck, and you’d like To book an appointment click here, or to talk to a myotherapist, call us on 02 55931265