5 Secret Causes to Neck Pain And What To Do About Them

By Vince Leone, D.C.

SECRET #1: THE MAJORITY OF ALL NECK PAIN IS MUSCULOSKELETAL IN ORIGIN

According to the American Academy Of Orthopedic Surgeons... "most cases of neck pain come from problems in the muscles, joints, bones and nerves and usually does NOT come from organic problems like diseases or infections". Here is why that is important: If you are relying on drugs or pain medications to relieve your pain, you may only be masking the symptoms, while the problem may be getting worse.

The good news is that musculoskeletal problems are relatively easy to correct if they are diagnosed properly and treated properly. The longer you wait, however, the more difficult it can be, so determining the root cause of the problem is the most important first step to getting a treatment that really works.

SECRET #2: EXERCISE CAN ACTUALLY BE HARMFUL

This is probably not what you want to hear. Especially if you have been through rounds of physical therapy or even tried to exercise the problem away yourself without any relief, or worse, it even increased your pain. You see, if you have a disc or nerve problem, exercise can actually be harmful to you. Certain directions like twisting or bending into the wrong positions can actually damage the disc or even pinch the nerve and make your pain worse. And...if you have untreated muscle imbalances from poor posture, the last thing you want to do is go to the gym and exercise. Untreated muscle imbalances get worse during exercise. Again, the good news is that there are simple muscle tests and even high tech computer equipment like Surface EMG that can show muscle imbalance or a pinched nerve. These tests are painless and can immediately locate the problem.

SECRET #3: ONLY 1 IN 100 PEOPLE WITH NECK PAIN NEED SURGERY

According to the U.S. Federal guideline on back pain, "Surgery has been found to be helpful in only 1 in 100 cases of back problems." If you have been told you need surgery, you should get a second and a third opinion and reserve this as a last resort. You may be also interested to know that once tissues like muscles, ligaments and bones have been surgically cut, these tissues never regain their normal ability to stretch and move.

Rest easy though, because in most cases, non-invasive therapies that include joint and posture realignment, along with specific stretching and low impact stabilization exercises can usually fix neck pain without having to resort to surgery.

SECRET #4: JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE ARTHRITIS IN YOUR NECK DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO HAVE NECK PAIN OR STIFFNESS

This is a huge lie that is perpetuated by drug companies and even some health care professionals. Since so many people in our population have arthritis, most people are told that they have to live with it...and that this is the cause of their pain and stiffness. Not true!

Thousands of people who have arthritis have absolutely no pain at all and live a pain free, active life with great flexibility. How do they do that?

It is important to understand first, that arthritis is usually caused by imbalances in the joints and muscles that begin to break down the joints over time and cause arthritis if the imbalances are not corrected. Obviously, the longer you wait, the harder it is to correct the degeneration.

People who live pain free with arthritis increase their time every day in motion (moving the body-the more the better), and even more important, getting the alignment of the spine and surrounding joints corrected.

SECRET #5: PROBLEMS IN THE NECK CAN ALSO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HEADACHES AND CARPAL TUNNEL SYMPTOMS

If you also suffer from headaches or carpal tunnel symptoms, your problem may be originating in the neck. In fact, it is much more common than you would imagine. It is not unusual for the majority of our patients with neck pain to also have headaches or carpal tunnel symptoms. This is caused by a structural misalignment putting pressure on nerves that either travel up into the skull or down into the arms and hands. Pressure on nerves cause dysfunction, and dysfunction comes in the form of pain, numbness or other altered sensations.

Here is why: certain muscles in the neck develop "trigger points" (small knots in the muscles) from imbalances or repetitive stress or even poor posture and spinal misalignments. These "trigger points" then "refer" pain to different areas of the body. In the case of headaches for example, 2 small muscles in the neck are often responsible for a high percentage of all headaches.

And... there is a specific location between the muscles in the neck and collar bone, that when pinched, cause pain and tingling down the arm or into the hand and fingers. Often, this is misdiagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome. Again, the good news is that this is relatively easy to fix (without drugs or surgery) in most cases if a handful of simple, painless muscle and orthopedic tests are performed and more serious problems are ruled out.



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