Every individual must have experience neck pain once in their lifetime and others may experience it too often than they want but fortunately most causes of neck pain is not really that serious. It can be due to muscle strain due to poor posture especially if you spend a lot of time in font of your computer. Another common cause of neck pain is arthritis.
In some instances neck pain can be cause by more serious condition thus make sure to seek immediate medical attention if you experience any of the following – If you cannot touch your chest with your chin, change of bowel or bladder habits, shooting pain down in your arm or shoulder and loss of strength in your hands or arms or numbness.
Neck pain causes can vary and range from simple muscle strain to disease. As mentioned above neck pain can be cause by muscle strains, this is due to overuse of the muscle when you spend too many hours driving or in front of your computer. The muscles in your neck can get too fatigued and eventually get strained.
There is one term that eye care specialists are using to constant use of computers and this is the Computer Vision Syndrome or CVS. This is quite common with computer workers or office workers and symptoms for such include neck pain. According to American Optometric Association, 45% of Americans suffers from back or neck pain after long period of use of computers or cell phone from a recent survey conducted (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine).
Your joints in the neck is no exemption, just like any joints in your body it experience the wear and tear brought about with age and this can result to osteoarthritis of the neck. Nerve compression can also cause neck pain as well as injuries. Neck pain can also be cause by diseases like Rheumatoid arthritis, Cancer and Meningitis.
A treatment for neck pain depends on its cause that is why it is important to identify first the cause of your neck pain. Fortunately the most common type of neck pain often responds well to home care. You can always start with the best home neck pain remedies before advancing to a much advance method of treatment which your doctor can recommends. But before that try the following home neck pain remedies.
• The use of an ice pack in your neck can relieve pain. This is very effective especially if the pain is cause by an injury. It can decrease the swelling if there is any.
• After applying the cold pack you can follow it with application of a heating pad in the same area. If you do not have any heating pad then you can take a hot shower instead.
• Doing a gentle stretching exercise can aid your neck muscles to get relaxed. This is one of the best home remedies so far for it does not just lessens pain but it can also prevent neck pain from happening later. Try to perform two sets of neck exercise every day.
• Deep breathing, Yoga and meditation are just great to reduce pain from your neck for it lessens the stress and tension in your neck muscles.
• Massage is another great home remedy for neck pain. Before having a massage it is best if you take a hot shower first to loosen up your neck muscles. A ten to fifteen minutes massage is good enough.
• Observing the right posture when you sit, walk, stand and even when you talk in the phone. Some people have this bad habit of not holding the phone instead use their head and shoulders to hold it in place. This can be damaging to your neck especially if you talk over the phone for a long time.