Neck Pain and Treatment for it

 Neck pain is a very common condition and will affect most of us at some point. 

We can split neck pain generally into 2 types short term (acute) or long term (chronic). 

Short term neck pain can often be caused by muscle spasms in the neck or irritation of a joint or joints. It can lead to a loss of the ability to turn the neck and be very painful! However, it normally resolves after a day or 2. 

Long term neck pain is where we  get thickening of the soft tissues of the neck including both the muscles and the connective tissue. The nerves around the neck may also start to give off pain signals more easily  (a process called sensitisation). So if you've had neck pain for 3-6 months or more this might be going on in your neck, especially if your neck pain seems to be getting worse more frequently. 

When I see people in clinic with neck pain they are usually either in a lot of discomfort  in the acute stage or  they are incredibly frustrated having explored various treatment options and not getting any long term improvement for their ongoing neck pain. 

Neck pain is one of my areas of specialty and in my experience one of the important things to do is get a diagnosis as to what is causing your current neck pain. For example joint irritation is quite different to a muscle spasm and therefore they require different advice, treatment and exercise approach's. 

Once I have assessed your neck, and developed a diagnosis I will have a discussion about your treatment options and prognosis. Each case is different and how long things may take depends on the history of your condition. 

Neck pain although often very uncomfortable,  responds well to gentle hands on treatment and exercises. As the structures of the neck are often very sensitive I don't use heavy massage techniques or try and 'click' the neck. There can be a temptation to try and do to much in the early stages (which is totally understandable). However, this can lead to more irritation and/or inflammation of the area and make things worse. 

Neck pain that has been going on for a few months or even years,  requires a slightly different approach. Usually the nerves and tissues themselves are very sensitive and require careful treatment to calm them down before we get to the underlying issue.

It is then important to look at the how everything is working together, as often the areas where we repeatedly get pain have caused compensations elsewhere in the body or have developed as a compensation for a previous injury. 

As an example I had a patient that has had years of neck pain but it wasn't until we dealt with an issue in the lower back that the neck problem changed. 

I know you've probably come to this page looking for  advice that may help you to find long term relief from your neck pain, hopefully the information on this page has provided some clarity. 

If you want more advice or treatment for your neck pain then please click button below go give me a call: 

Here is a testimonial from a recent patient with long term neck pain (which they very kindly left me): 

"This guys is something else, have had historical neck issues for 20 years with no hope of ever being relieved of pain. Had around 6 sessions and I’m experiencing less discomfort than I’ve ever had, getting better each week. He’s the real deal so hugely recommend."