Chronic Neck Pain

Chronic neck pain (pain continuously for 3 months or more)  is one of the leading causes of disability in the U.S..  It is very difficult to “rest the neck” as even lying on your back requires a measure of neck muscle contraction to stabilize your head.

This can effect how well you sleep, effect your healing rate, and effect your next day’s performance.  It has been wisely said, “the next day begins the night before.”

There Are Many Mechanisms For Neck Pain

Not every neck pain is caused by the same mechanism (the actual cause and way the pain is generated).  Neck pain can be basically broken down into 3 categories: muscular causes, skeletal causes, and neural (nerve) causes.

As you might expect, different causes require different treatments.  Muscular causes require improvement in blood flow to hasten healing.  Skeletal causes need to have the spine aligned.  Neural causes need to allow the nerve to heal by reducing tension and compression of the nerve.

The Treatment For Neck Pain Depends On Its Mechanism

The best way to treat chronic neck pain is to know the mechanism for the pain.  This will require a proper evaluation by your medical health practitioner.  After you know the mechanism you can begin the proper method to treat the pain.  Many people never learn just what is the mechanism for their pain and never initiate the proper therapy.

One final word on chronic neck pain…it will take time to achieve sustained relief.  You may need to apply your specific therapy for 6 weeks or more.  Remember you didn’t develop your chronic pain overnight (otherwise it would be acute pain) so you cannot realistically expect it to get better overnight.

If you have any further questions, please comment. I’d like to help.

Wishing you joy and healing