Neck Pain Management Strategies
Neck pain management is becoming a necessity these days due to the changing technological world around us. Even here in Lacey, we are seeing many more patients with neck pain due to excessive time looking down on smart phones or working on computers every day.
Consider this fact derived from neck pain studies:
The average human head weighs between 12 and 15 lbs. In normal posture, the upper back and neck muscles work all the time to keep the head in that upright position. This their primary function and they do it well. However, whenever we look down on our computers or for any other reason, studies show that an additional 10 lbs burden or so is placed on these muscles for every inch the head it moved forwards. That is a lot for the neck to be burdened with. See the image above for a graphical illustration of this.
So what can we do?
Keeping Thinking Posture
The first thing to do is to retrain your posture. This is a challenge, but absolutely necessary if you want to break the habit and relieve pressure on your neck. What you do is bring your chin down thus creating a double chin. Hold the position for ten seconds and continue speaking. Your voice will sound funny. After 10 seconds slowly come back up from this position until your voice starts sounding normal again. This becomes the position you want to try to keep throughout the day. It may take several months to get back to your proper position, but it will be worth it.
When Sleeping
Ensure that your pillow is the correct thickness and support for your head. For most of us, our necks are narrower than our heads, so in this case the pillow needs to be thicker to provide proper spinal support.
Sports & Activities
Keep a close eye on what you do in relation to physical activities. If you hurt yourself, stop what you are doing and recover. If you don’t recover in a couple of days, you may need to revisit your activity and adjust your intensity.
Chiropractic care can really help with neck pain management and it would be a good idea to see a chiropractor such as Dr David Warwick to help with your pain. Moreover, chiropractic care also helps to prevent future injury by helping the joints stay in proper alignment as well as providing useful neck exercise ideas. In fact, many of these exercises are found on this site, you can check them out right here. There’s plenty to choose from and they will provide a great way to keep your neck in good shape.
But if you are suffering, the best thing is to get in to see us. We can examine you and help you get out of pain. With well over 200 5 star Google reviews from other happy patients, we are confident we can help you too.
