Many people often experience neck pain, headache and other symptoms. Many of us consider neck pain as a small disease, which is easy for us to ignore. However, cervical spondylosis ranks second in the World Health Organization's latest list of the "Top Ten Chronic Diseases in the World". The cervical vertebra is a very precious part of our body. Once damaged, it may lead to big problems.
So today we will discuss neck pain from three aspects, including what kind of people are prone to cervical vertebra problems, how to relieve neck pain, and how to prevent neck pain. Now let’s get started.
Part 1. What kind of people are prone to neck pain?
1. Age
With the increase of age, excessive chronic strain of the cervical spine can cause a series of degenerative pathological changes, such as intervertebral disc degeneration, weakening of elasticity, formation of bone spurs at the edge of the vertebral body, facet joint disorder, ligament thickening, and calcification etc. Therefore, more middle-aged and elderly people suffer from neck pain. And in the composition of the intervertebral disc, the proportion of water is nearly 70%. With age, more water is lost, so there are more people with cervical spine problems as well.
2. Occupation
People who bow their heads at desks for a long time or those who often turn their heads and necks in a certain direction are prone to neck pain. Such as office workers, typists, computer programmer, accountants, and teachers.
This improper posture year after year causes strain on the muscles and ligaments of the back of the neck. The head and neck are often on one side, causing local muscle strain. Therefore, the incidence of neck pain of these people will be higher.
3. Sleeping position
If the pillow is too high, too low or the position of the pillow is incorrect, it will cause a bad sleeping posture, and if this situation lasts for a long time, it is easy to cause the muscles, ligaments, and joints to be out of balance and tension. One side of the neck is prone to fatigue and result in strain. Therefore, those who like to lie on high pillows and those who have repeated stiff necks will have a greatly chance of suffering from neck pain. In addition, people with too many bad postures in daily life such as reading books or playing digital devices are also prone to cervical spondylosis.
Patients with head trauma
Cervical spine injuries caused by traffic accidents and sports injuries often lead to the occurrence of neck pain. Post-traumatic neck pain is more common in young people. Inappropriate movements in sports activities exceed the amount that the neck can tolerate or accidental neck injuries caused by training often lead to neck pain.
Part 2. How to relieve neck pain?
Method 1. Adjust your sleep position
The correct sleeping position for neck pain is sleeping on your back. When sleeping on your back, the cervical spine and the muscles on both sides of the cervical are in a relatively relaxed state, which will relieve your neck pain.
Method 2. Pick a suitable pillow
It’s recommended to choose a pillow with suitable height and cervical traction, which helps to relax the muscle on your neck. And the height of the pillow should fit the curvature of the cervical spine as much as possible, so that the neck can have good support.
Method 3. Correct bad posture and habits in life
Remember to maintain good posture while you sit, stand or lie down. Correct your bad habits when using your neck such as reading books or play smartphones.
Method 4. Take a break and relax regularly
When you work or study for a certain time, remember to take a break for your body and neck. Don't keep your neck and body in one position for long periods of time, give them enough time to rest. Especially these people whose occupation are what we mentioned above.
Method 5. Take daily rehabilitation exercises
There are some simple exercises you can take to help strengthen the muscles on your neck and relieve your chronic neck pain. You can choose and take the exercises each day to help relieve the neck pain.
Part 3. How to prevent neck pain?
Tip 1. Drink more water.
As we mentioned above, the initial performance of intervertebral disc degeneration is a decrease in water content and elasticity, so it makes sense to keep your body well hydrated to delay the degeneration of the intervertebral disc.
Tip 2. Pick a suitable pillow
The most important function of the pillow is to maintain the normal physiological curve of the neck during sleep. When lying on your back, the part of the pillow in contact with the head should be slightly concave, while the part in contact with the back of the neck is raised, providing support for the neck and allowing the muscles of the neck to fully relax.
When lying on your back, the pillow should be relatively lower. If the pillow is too high, the neck will flex forward and accelerate the degeneration of the cervical intervertebral disc. For people who like to sleep on their side, the pillow should be relatively high.
Your pillow is too high or too low will make the neck muscles unable to relax during sleep, and feel sore and stiff in the neck after waking up.
Tip 3. Maintain proper posture
Today's young people are inseparable from mobile phones and computers in their daily lives. But when we play on the phone, we are basically in a posture of obviously bowing our heads. In normal head-up view, the cervical spine only needs to bear the weight of the head. When the neck is flexed 45°, the pressure increases by about 5 times, and when the neck is flexed at 60°, the pressure increases by about 6 times.
When using a mobile phone, you should pay attention to raising the height of the mobile phone or adjust the height of the computer monitor, try to look straight, and pay attention not to take too long.
Tip 4. Avoid cold and trauma
With age, cervical intervertebral disc and its surrounding structures begin to degenerate, and special attention should be paid to the protection of the cervical spine. Cold in the neck can cause local vasoconstriction, block microcirculation, and insufficient blood supply to cause muscle spasm, increase cervical spine pressure, and cause neck pain.
Neck trauma is not just a car accident. Young people like bungee jumping, equestrianism, skiing, skateboarding and other extreme sports, which are easy to cause cervical spine injuries. Therefore, keep in mind that sudden external forces involving the head and neck should be avoided as much as possible, as sudden force acting on the cervical spine may injure it.
Tip 5. Neck exercises and stretches
As mentioned above, neck exercises can improve the curvature of the cervical spine, strengthen the neck muscles, maintain the stability of the cervical spine, and delay the degeneration of the cervical spine. Especially for people who feel neck pain and fatigue, neck stretches can help relieve the neck pain.
Summary
This article explains how to prevent cervical spondylosis and how to relieve cervical pain. Now you should know how to do it. However, if you have frequent neck pain and the neck pain is severe or even affects other parts of your body, you should be alert to whether it is caused by cervical spondylosis, and you should go to the hospital for examination and evaluation in time. Hope that you can take good care of your cervical spine and stay away from neck pain.
