Neck Pain
Find Pain Relief
Do you suffer from neck pain? We understand how debilitating it can be, whether it’s short term or chronic pain. But you don’t have to live in pain, and you can prevent neck pain from recurring. We believe one of the first steps in finding neck pain relief is understanding your pain, how your neck works, and what’s causing the pain in the first place.
How Your Neck Works
Your neck is the uppermost part of your spine – the cervical spine. It’s a complex structure of vertebrae, discs, facet joints, muscles, ligaments, nerves, and tendons. Your cervical spine does a lot:
- Carries the weight of your head (approximately 11 pounds)
- Protects your spinal cord
- Supplies blood to your brain
- Supports range of motion of your head and neck, such as nodding, turning your head from side to side, and looking up and down.
Your cervical spine has seven vertebrae C1-C7, with discs in between them. The discs are made up of outer flexible tissues and an inner gel-like substance. The discs act as shock absorbers and hold the vertebrae together.
What Causes Neck Pain?
Whether you woke up with neck pain or you have chronic neck pain, you want to find out the root cause. It may be obvious if you suffered some sort of injury, but in many cases, finding the cause of your neck pain may require a visit to your doctor or chiropractor.
Common causes of neck pain include:
- Sleeping wrong
- Frequent texting or gaming where you’re looking down
- Poor workstation ergonomics
- Poor posture
- High levels of stress
- Car accident injuries such as whiplash
- Sports injury
- Herniated disc
- Pinched nerve (cervical radiculopathy)
- Osteoarthritis
- Degenerated facet joints
- Muscle strain
Neck Pain Symptoms
Nearly 30% of Americans will suffer neck pain at some point. Neck pain can affect children, teens, and adults, with the most common causes varying with the age group. Neck pain symptoms to tell your doctor about include:
- When the neck pain started – sudden after an injury, or gradually over time
- Exact location of the pain
- Severity of the pain –excruciating or a nuisance or somewhere in between
- Nature of the pain – sharp pain, dull pain, etc.
- Pain is constant or only with certain movements (which movements?)
- Neck pain radiates down your arms or legs
- Headache and neck pain at the same time
- Neck pain and dizziness
Your description of your neck pain symptoms will inform your treatment.
Neck Pain FAQs
Q: When is neck pain serious?
A: Neck pain is serious if it is severe, is the result of an accident or sports injury, or won’t go away with self-care.
Q: When should I see a doctor for neck pain?
A: You should see a doctor if your neck pain:
- Gets worse despite self-care
- Doesn’t lessen even after several days of self-care
- Radiates down your arms or legs
- Is associated with headache, weakness, dizziness, numbness or tingling
Q: Can neck pain cause headaches?
A: Yes. Neck pain can cause headaches, and neck pain can also be a symptom of certain types of headaches.
Q: Can neck pain cause dizziness?
A: Yes. Cervical vertigo (cervicogenic dizziness) can make it seem like the world is spinning. It can also affect your balance. Dizziness can last for minutes or hours.
Q: How do I sleep with neck pain?
A: Neck pain can make it hard to get to sleep and stay asleep. But something as simple as using the right pillow can help you sleep better and event prevent neck pain. Sleeping on your back or side are the best sleeping positions to support your neck and spine health. If you sleep on your back, you’ll need a pillow or rolled towel that supports the curve of your neck, and possibly a second, flatter pillow for your head. If you sleep on your side, you’ll need a taller pillow that helps your neck align with your head. You can also sleep upright using a horseshoe pillow to support your neck.
Q: How do I get rid of neck pain?
A: If you woke up with neck pain, you may be able to resolve it yourself with self-care such as pain relievers and heat. But if your neck pain lasts beyond a few days or is a chronic issue, you should see a doctor for relief.
How Cima Health Can Help
Cima Health provides restorative, lifelong solutions that target the root cause of your neck pain. Your care will start out with a comprehensive evaluation to assess your pain. We will also ask questions about your work and home life, lifestyle, and habits before making recommendations for an integrative plan of care. Together, we come up with conservative and alternative treatments that can help you achieve whole-body wellness and live pain-free for life.
Treating and preventing neck pain involves several treatment modalities, all of which you can receive in one location. They include:
- Chiropractic Care
- Stretching Programs
- Physical Therapy
- Massage Therapy
- Physical Fitness
Let’s take a look at how each of these areas works together to provide you with natural pain relief and inspires you to make lifestyle changes to prevent neck pain in the future.
Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care may provide nearly immediate neck pain relief, depending on the location and underlying cause of your pain. Cervical spine adjustments using cranial sacral (CST) therapy or sacro-occipital technique, dry needling, and Class IV laser treatment can all help relieve your pain.
Our Palm Beach Gardens chiropractors are all highly trained professionals and include:
Working with neck pain
Working with neck pain can be difficult, depending on the severity of your pain. But there are some things you and your employer can do to help prevent future neck pain. This can include:
- Create an ergonomic-friendly work station. Get an adjustable office chair and raise your computer monitor to eye level.
- Place the computer monitor directly in front of you, rather than at an angle.
- Stand and move around more.
Stretching Programs
Tight neck, back, and shoulder muscles can lead to neck pain. We will develop a stretching program for you that will help ease pain before it gets worse. These are stretches for neck pain you can do here under our supervision, but also at home or at work.
You will want to become familiar with these stretches and add them to your daily routine to prevent neck pain. Many of our patients do their stretches first thing in the morning, in the car, at work, and before going to bed.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy (PT), when combined with other treatments can also help with neck pain. PT for a pinched nerve in the neck can be particularly helpful. Rather than keep the neck still to avoid pain and tingling, with physical therapy, you learn exercises to strengthen your muscles and increase your range of mobility, all while reducing your pain.
Massage Therapy
Massage therapy is another modality we offer that can help you find neck pain relief. The trained massage therapist will use massage techniques to help with a stiff neck, pinched nerve in the neck, or pinched nerve I the shoulder, which can cause referred pain In the neck. Regular massage can also help ease neck pain you may get because of stress.
Physical Fitness
The last component of preventing neck pain is becoming physically fit. Strengthening and fitness exercises have been proven to help reduce neck pain as well as prevent it. By strengthening neck, back, and shoulder muscles, as well as your core muscles, you reduce the risk of neck pain. And if you’re overweight, those extra pounds are putting extra stress on your spine. Our physical fitness team of personal trainers can help develop an exercise and weight loss regimen to help you say goodby to neck pain.
The entire team at Cima Health works together to provide you with restorative, lifelong solutions.
Read What Our Patients Have to Say
Book an Appointment
Neck pain can make it hard to enjoy life, let alone play with your kids or play a round of golf. If you’re looking for a conservative treatment for neck pain, book an appointment today. One of our chiropractors will do a comprehensive examination to get to the root cause of your pain and develop an integrative plan of care to relieve your pain and inspire you to achieve whole-body wellness.
