Some of the factors linked to chronic neck pain include stress, a lack of moral support, and anxiety. Stress releases a hormone in the body called cortisol. This hormone tenses your muscles for action, especially in the neck and shoulders. When stress levels remain high on a consistent basis, that can take the stiffness and soreness in the neck and amplify it to chronic pain. When you deal with constant stress, neck pain is almost sure to become an issue. How can you find natural help?
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Neck pain can often be relieved by stretching the stiff or tight muscles. You should stretch your neck every day if you deal with persistent neck pain. In fact, if you work at a desk, you should stretch your neck periodically throughout the day to relieve the strain of looking at monitors and other devices all day. Stretching can help your neck to retain a full range of motion.
Joining a support group or seeing a therapist can help you to deal with the stresses you are facing. Understanding and working through your stress may lead to less stress, anxiety, or feelings of isolation. This, in turn, can reduce your neck pain. If you don’t want to jump straight into therapy, you can try telling your stresses to a trusted friend or family member to see if that is enough to help you relax.
However, some people need a forum where they feel they can say anything without changing a person’s opinion about them in order to work through matters entirely. In these cases, a professional may be able to offer the relief you need.
Is your stress is related to repeating negative thoughts, a mind that is cluttered with too many thoughts, or maybe you don’t even know what thoughts or feelings relate to the anxiety? In these cases, you may want to try meditation techniques. The methods range from forcing your mind to focus on positive things for increasing lengths of time to maintaining positions or making sounds that distract your mind from being able to focus on negative or repeating thoughts.
Sometimes, we get stressed out just because our to-do list seems insurmountable. Could you get some help from a family member or friend? Delegating some household chores to your kids is a great way to teach them responsibility and to reduce the burden on you. Even at work, there are times when you can shift a project to someone else so that your schedule isn’t so overwhelming.
Prioritizing your to-do list can also help when you don’t have anyone to share the load. Put the most important jobs at the top of the list so that you know you accomplished what you absolutely had to get done. Sometimes, it may also help to put several easy tasks at the top of the list so you can check a few things off quickly and see the list dwindle.
There’s nothing quite as relaxing as a good massage as far as most people are concerned. Massage is excellent for both stress and neck pain in several ways. First of all, it can help to relax the tense muscles in the neck and shoulders. Second, it can improve blood flow, which is good for healing. Finally, getting a massage is often just relaxing in general. You may feel the stress melting away.
While getting a massage from a licensed massage therapist is always going to provide you with the most medically sound massage, you can also have a loved one provide this relaxation method for you. There are even plenty of YouTube videos that show the best massage methods.
Exercise is another activity that is ideal for stress, neck pain, and many other health situations. Training can allow you to strengthen the muscles that support your spine, thereby assisting the soft tissue around your neck. Regular exercise increases blood flow in the body, which can help you to heal faster. Activity also releases hormones that help you to cope with stress and make you feel better in general. Exercise even lowers pain levels in the body. So increasing your daily activity is a great way to reduce your neck pain.
If you have never heard of upper cervical specific chiropractic, this is a form of chiropractic that focuses on the top two bones in the neck. Even slight misalignments of the C1 and C2 vertebrae can lead to chronic neck pain, reduced blood flow to the head, and other central nervous system effects. Therefore, if you are dealing with neck pain, even if your issue is stress-related, the gentle adjustments of upper cervical care may help.
Even fractions of a millimeter matter when it comes to the bones that balance the skull. Therefore, the low force corrections of upper cervical chiropractic are just what you need to find pain relief without stressing the soft tissue even more. Once the surrounding soft tissue stabilizes, you can spread your appointments out to make this a cost-effective form of care.
To learn more, contact an upper cervical practitioner in your area. You may find that this is the solution to stubborn neck pain that you have been searching for. Even if your primary trigger is stress, neck pain may be related to a correctable misalignment.
to schedule a consultation today.
TV show host Montel Williams describes how specific chiropractic care has helped his body.
The content and materials provided in this web site are for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended to supplement or comprise a medical diagnosis or other professional opinion, or to be used in lieu of a consultation with a physician or competent health care professional for medical diagnosis and/or treatment. All content and materials including research papers, case studies and testimonials summarizing patients' responses to care are intended for educational purposes only and do not imply a guarantee of benefit. Individual results may vary, depending upon several factors including age of the patient, severity of the condition, severity of the spinal injury, and duration of time the condition has been present.
