What a Pain in the Neck - The Dreaded Stiff Neck
To start, before we can tell if we truly have a "stiff neck", We need to know exactly what it is. A stiff neck is a neck that feels tight or sore and has some loss of one normal motion. We often can get a stiff neck from being in one position too long or straining the neck in some fashion. Most often someone may sleep in an awkward position or work in a certain position for an extended period of time that can cause pressure on a nerve.
Nerves in the neck spine supply our muscles. If we have pressure on those nerves the muscles may get irritated, inflammed or inbalances. This in turn can cause neck pain and/or neck stiffness.
Someone who has an improper posture that is out of alignment will be the most common person to have recurrent or chronic stiff neck. Add to this, the fact that if the person has an occupation where they continually put strain on the neck or someone with a pillow they are sleeping on that does not have good support. Also sleeping on your stomach can cause major neck stiffness or pain. Why is sleeping on your stomach a problem? To breathe we have to turn our head 90 degrees to the left or to the right. As we age, this is not only difficult but not good for extended periods of time when you are sleeping.
Our posture gives us insight into what our spine may look like. So if your sleeping posture is horrible for 6-8 hours every night, your body starts getting trained to shift to an unhealthy, abnormal posture or spinal alignment. And once out of alignment we will more easily get the symptoms of neck pain and stiffness.
To correct neck alignment and reduce bad posture the best things to do are as follows:- Always be aware of your posture- if you are always in one position, move around. If you are constantly walking with your head down- look up more. If you have an uncomfortable work station- set it up to be more ergonomically efficient.
- Use a good neck pillow and avoid sleeping on your stomach. I recommend the cervical traction neck pillow by arc4life.
- See a chiropractor or a physical therapist. Both professionals can give you good postural exercises. Doctors of chiropractic can also adjust or manipulate the spine to help restore neck alignment.
Dr Matt Bellinger is a Chiropractor in Connecticut. He has written many articles on how to easily and naturaly relieve pain, and has helped hundred of patients in his clinic end their neck and back pain. He recommends specific pain relief and posture improving products at http://www.arc4life.com
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