Get Rid Of Your Neck Pain

Tini in her poke chin posture (posed picture)

Sitting in a sustained forward flexion (or poke chin) posture makes your neck pain worse due to increased loading in the cervical spine and deformation in the connective tissue.

Read here to find out how to treat your chronic neck pain.

Is Your Shoulder Pain Caused By Your Neck?

How many of you had shoulder pain before? Well, guess what? Some of the pain can be coming from your neck. Look at the picture above, see how close the shoulder joint is to the cervical and thoracic spine.

We have been treating quite a few patients with shoulder pain in our clinic recently so I thought I will do a short write up on this topic. Most of the patients had fairly recurrent generalized shoulder pain and all said they have been to other places for treatment but the pain always came back. Besides having pain in their shoulders, some of the patients will also tell us their neck is often painful, sore or achy as well, while others will not have any symptoms in their neck.

After asking many questions about their condition, we will proceed to do a very thorough physical examination. Muscles, joints, ligaments at and around the shoulder and the cervical and thoracic spine are included. We will also do an ULTT (or upper limb tension test) to check the integrity of the nerves. Depending on where the patient's pain is, this can give us clues about whether the ulnar, radial or median nerves are contributing to the patient's pain.

That's quite a lot to go through you might think as you are reading this. Well, that's the exact reason why we are different from other clinics. Instead of just treating the pain, we find out the exact cause of your pain (hence the need to be very particular and thorough during the physical examination), treat the cause of pain instead of just treating your pain. As we begin to move towards evidenced based physiotherapy practices, this is what we do so that our patients get the best care at Physio Solutions. So, even if you are not coming to see us, make sure whoever is treating you doesn't just treat your pain but treat the cause of your pain.

Oh, and make sure they teach you how to prevent that pain from recurring as well.

Reference

McClatchie, L et al (2009). Mobilizations of the Asymptomatic Cervical Spine can Reduce Signs of Shoulder Dysfunction in Adults. Manual Therapy. 14(4) 369-374.

Why Women Get It

Yes you did read correctly, women really do get it. Get what you ask, get neck pain that is. Women competing in sports are at a higher risk of getting neck pain compared to men.

Consider the results in a study done to compare gender difference to control the head-neck segment when an external force was applied to it. The women's head's and necks accelerated faster and moved more even though they recruited earlier and greater muscle activity than the men. Also found in the women- poor isometric (keeping the head-neck stationary) strength (49% of men's strength on average). Women also generally have smaller heads and necks and hence, a lesser ability to resist force. Women may be at a higher risk of concussion from sports with greater loads being applied to the head such as football, martial arts of rugby.
Have a look at the video of your neck muscles in action. Please come and see us if you are suffering from neck pain, our staff can help you.

Reference

Gender Difference in Head-Neck Segment Dynamic Stabilization during Head Stabilization. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2005 37(2): 272-279

Which pillow's the one for me?!

My patients with neck pain report to have a cupboard full of pillows. They've learnt, the hard way, that the most expensive one is not always the best. We're all built very uniquely so a pillow that works for your friend may not work for you. I have no quick fix to that, it's trial and error in the end. But there's a simple way to check if it's really your pillow that's perpetuating your neck pain.

Firstly, if you wake up with a sore neck it becomes more likely it's your pillow. Secondly, experiment by rolling a bath towel (fold into half, then roll tightly till it forms a roll about the length of your pillow) and inserting it into your pillow case. Place your neck where the towel roll is and voila! you've made your own contour pillow. 

If you wake with a neck that's less sore then it's mostly a good idea to buy a new pillow.

Ask your physiotherapist for suggestions.

Aized

Physiotherapist

(Photo by Pizzo)