Head and Neck Pain

 

 

Are you experiencing pain in the neck?

 

Does the pain feel stiff and diffusive, or sharp and local?

Are you unable to turn your neck backwards, making driving or riding a bicycle difficult?

Do you also have blurred vision or are you feeling dizzy?

Do you also have pain in your jaw?

 

Pain in the neck can often be mistaken for cervical disk compression or subluxation of the vertebrae.

 

Possible causes for muscular pain of the neck: Poor posture (kyphotic posture, rounded shoulders, big-breasted women), keeping your arms out in front unsupported for long periods (driving a car), sleeping on your side with little neck support, sleeping on your stomach, making a phone call without using your hands, keeping your face and forehead contracted in an expression of excitement or anxiety, et al.

 

Muscles that also cause neck pain can also have the following effect: Pain may extend as far down as the fingers, covering the upper arm, forearm, wrist and hands. You may also feel a burning pain in the mid back as well as between the shoulder blades. And of course, headaches:

 

Are you experiencing headaches?

 

Do you feel a tight band of pain that encircles half of your head just above the ear?

Does the pain feel like it is inside your skull?

Are you feeling any dizziness? Balance issues? Blurred vision?

Do you feel pain in the eye, face, tongue, jaw, teeth or neck as well?

 

There are many kinds of headaches, classified by the area they cause pain to as well as by the kind of pain they cause. The most common kinds of headaches are tension headaches (named by areas they affect: Crown, Temple and Frontal). Cluster headaches and migraines are more severe forms of headaches. Presently the cause of these severe forms is still unknown, however we do know the cause of tension headaches: tight muscles.

 

What can you do to ease your pain?  Taking a paracetamol for muscular pain only temporarily and artificially resolves the problem. Once the medicine wears off, the pain returns---sometimes even worse. Massage will address the source of the pain to alleviate the stress to the particular muscles and soft tissues involved, as well as affect the nervous system to produce hormones that make us naturally feel better.