Who hasn’t had some neck pain whether it was a stiff neck or one where if you turned your head a little way you got sharp shooting pain either up or down your neck. Neck pain can last a day or for some it can last years. There are several different reasons why people get neck pain. Let’s start with some basic anatomy.
Normal posture, your head (specifically your ear) should be directly over your shoulder. In a normal spine, you have a slight curve forward. You develop this curve as a baby when you start to hold your head up (at about 4 – 5 months of age when your neck muscles get stronger). As we get older, because of poor posture or accidents/injuries we not only can lose the curve, we can even have the curve reverse (called a cervical kyphosis). Either having a flat cervical lordosis (military neck) or a reverse kyphosis will lead to neck pain among other things.
All of your neck muscles and your shoulder/midback muscles have to constantly work to keep your head in somewhat of a normal position. The constant muscle contractions can cause neck or midback pain described as “achy”. Correcting and re-aligning the vertebrae and strengthening some weak muscles will not only improve your posture, but it will reduce or eliminate your neck pain. The muscles will be able to work efficiently and they will be balanced.
One or more of your cervical vertebrae being misaligned from side to side can also cause some neck pain. This can be because the bones have rotated, moved sideways, and/or tilted high/low on one side. These types of subluxations (misalignments) can cause neck pain that is either achy and/or sharp for two different reasons. The first is that your muscles are again in constant contraction trying to pull the bones back into their proper place and/or trying to splint and protect the areas from further damage. The second reason is that as the bones are misaligned they can put pressure directly on the nerve roots, which exit between the vertebrae. When you get too much pressure on the nerve root you experience sharp pain. Prolonged constant pressure on the nerve roots can cause arm pain, numbness, tingling, and even muscle weakness.
Some neck pain can also be caused by disc degeneration (see additional blog on disc degeneration). This again can be felt as an “ache” or as a “sharp” pain if the neck is moved the wrong way. Disc degeneration (where the disc between the vertebrae has worn down) means that the underlying condition has been there for a long time. Typically there is osteoarthritis (not rheumatoid) associated with the degeneration. (See an additional blog on osteoarthritis.) Once disc degeneration has occurred it cannot be recovered; however, by re-aligning the vertebrae and strengthening the musculature, we can minimize the effects and stop the progression. Just because you have some osteoarthritis in your spine, does not necessarily mean it is causing the pain – if it is only in the front of the vertebrae, it is not causing the pain.
Other blogs to view: Good posture, normal anatomy, disc degeneration, osteoarthitis, back exercises, and stress reduction and relaxation techniques.