Neck Pain Support Blog

Treat A Stiff Neck Naturally At Home

Neck pain, Stiffness, decrease in neck motion: symptoms of a stiff neck.

Source: http://www.arc4life.com

Ever Wake Up with a Stiff Neck?

What happens when you wake up with a stiff neck in the mornings? Well quite frankly it can be a pain in the neck. You cannot turn your head because it is too painful- it is just an uncomfortable situation. This hubpage talks about what to do for a stiff neck at home naturally. When you have a stiff neck, all you are thinking about is how to get rid of it. How to get back to being pain free in the neck area.

What causes a stiff neck?

A stiff neck can be caused by many things- many simple things actually. First a stiff neck can occur when we sleep in any awkward position. Sleeping in a recliner, on a sofa or on a bed that is too small can cause one to sleep in an weird position, thus leading to stiffness, pain and tightness in the neck muscles. Also, your pillow plays a roll. If you sleep with no pillow, or use too much pillow under your neck, that can be the reason for a stiff neck in the morning. Finally, sleeping position plays a roll; sleeping on ones stomach can cause neck pain. Many people grew up sleeping on their stomach, and continuing this is not healthy for the cervical spine or the neck muscles.

How Can you treat a stiff neck naturally, without medication?

• One of the first things is to use a heating pad on the neck. You can also take a hot shower and stick your neck under the hot shower. This will help to loosen up the muscles. Now at the same time, do some gentle neck stretches. You won't be able to move your head and neck a lot , but just do what you can.
• Other things that work well for a stiff neck is sombra warming gel. This pain relief gel can be applied to the neck muscles such as the cervical paraspinals and the suboccipital muscles. This can also loosen up the muscles and help to decrease pain.
• Do Neck stretches at home.
• Get a chiropractic adjustment. A chiropractor can treat your neck without drugs.They can do gentle mobilization, neck traction, give you specific exercise and do a cervical adjustment to restore the motion and function in your spine.
• Other treatments that can help with treatment of a stiff neck are acupuncture and massage therapy.

What can I do to prevent getting a stiff neck in the first place.

There are a few recommendations to prevent getting a stiff neck in the first place. First use a neck pillow to sleep. By this i mean a contoured neck pillow, such as the arc4life linear gravity neck pillow that provides proper neck support while you are sleeping. Second, don't sleep on your stomach. IT is a no no. If you do sleep on your stomach, get a special pillow that will make you start sleeping on your side such as the tear drop pillow. Finally, get your neck regularly adjusted so that you can keep proper neck alignment.

Use a cervical neck pillow at night to prevent stiff neck.

 

Additional Reading Resources:

• Choose the Best Neck Pillow for Neck Pain
• Home of the Arc4life Cervical Linear Traction Neck Pillow
• A Water Pillow Recommended by Chiropractors
• Severe Neck Pain From a Herniated Disc? What Are Your Treatment Options?
• The Hunchback Posture: How to correct this area of your upper back that sticks out!

Stomach Sleepers Take Warning…!

If you truly sleep on your stomach, you’re flat on your belly with your neck cranked to one side or another. If you look at a baby, they can easily do this, mainly because they are still developing those neck muscles to hold their head up.

Of course we have learned that sleeping like this often can even be problematic for a baby, so they have them sleep on their backs. When we start to lose that neck elasticity (aka us older individuals) then we just can’t comfortably sleep like this. However, if you get stuck in this habit, you may find yourself in this position when you wake up.

Getting a good night’s sleep is extremely important and I can guarantee that if you are a true stomach sleeper you won’t always get a good night’s sleep. Not only may it often be harder to breathe, your neck is constantly in a strained position and can stiffen and spasm causing neck pain. If you are mainly on your side and partially on your belly you are fine, but if you are one of those true stomach sleepers be prepared to visit your chiropractor often.

Additional Reading Resources

• Anatomy of the Neck
• Is it possible to get rid of the hump on my neck?
• Cervical Neck Traction for Pain Relief
• Stomach Sleeping: The Worst Position For Sleep
• How Can I Stop Sleeping On My Stomach?

Is it possible to get rid of the hump on my neck?

I recently came across this yahoo question about the humpback posture:

I have recently been developing a little hunch on my neck. I think that I am laying around too much, a lot of times at night I lay on the couch with my head bent forward, almost overly propped up with pillows. Is there any way to reverse this, or is it a permanent thing once it is here?

One of the culprits of the humpback posture is forward head posture.I am sure if you look around you can see people whose head and neck stick way forward from the rest of their body. That forward head posture is reinforced by also utilizing too many neck pillows at night. You are pushing your head and neck into an unnatural position- one that will create this posture. It can result in stiff neck, achyness, muscle spasm, tight muscles, loss of range of motion in the neck, neck pain and even headaches.

My recommendation would be start using an orthopedic neck pillow each night. This is far better then laying flat on one's back and also sleeping with too many pillows. Both of these scenarios can cause neck pain and create a bad posture for the cervical spine.

The best pillow for a hump on the neck is the arc4life cervical traction neck pillow. This pillow will help put your neck into the right position for sleeping. Yes this "hump on the neck" can be corrected but it will take some time. In addition to using the arc4life pillow, also consider doing neck traction to get the proper c curve in your neck.The best neck traction device would be the posture pump 1000. It works to get the curve in the neck reinforced. Most patients do 10-15 minutes a day and they are all set. Do the traction during the day, and using the traction pillow at night.

Additional Reading Resources:

• The "Hunchback" Posture- How to Correct this Area Of Your Upper Back That Sticks Out !
• The Arc4life Cervical Traction Neck Pillow
• Traction units for the neck
• I've been getting neck pain, what could it be?
• The Bow Tie Pillow for Neck and Shoulder Pain Sufferers

Source: Is it possible to get rid of the hump on my neck?

They Told Me I Have Cervical Radiculopathy. What Is That, It Sounds Really Bad?

Cervical Radiculopathy refers to the fact that you have radiation of symptoms from the neck down and arm coming from one specific nerve root. This diagnosis is used when you have pressure on a cervical (this refers to your neck spine) nerve root and that pain or other symptom travels to the arm.

The symptom can travel down the arm from the neck or can sometimes feel as though it’s only in the arm or hand sometimes. The symptoms may include pain but can also be numbness and tingling, burning, even itching.

They may also use the definition of a neuropathy which refers to a more distal nerve. So versus the root of the nerve which emanates from the spinal cord, further down the line would be more distal and when pressure is here we call it a neuropathy. For example, someone may have a brachial plexus neuropathy. The brachial plexus is a web of nerves between the neck and shoulders.

But the bottom line in either case is pain or another really bothersome symptom. Sure, we can probably take a pill or potion to cover up those symptoms but one should try to address the cause so the problem doesn’t get worse or come back even worse later on down the road. Use medication if you really need to for the short term if symptoms are really awful. Of course call your doctor’s office so they can advise you.

My recommendation is to use the Arc4life Cervical Traction Neck Pillow at night. Some gentle cervical traction with the Trac-Collar or Posture Pump may be advised as well. Your Chiropractor or Physical Therapist can steer you in the right direction for this kind of home therapy.

Additional Reading Resources

• Arc4life Cervical Traction Neck Pillow
• Military Neck? Doing Neck Traction at Home
• OVer the Door Neck Traction, Posture Pump 1000, Trac Collar and More Traction Units for Neck Pain Relief
• The Causes of Severe Neck Pain Resulting from a Cervical Radiculopathy
• I Need a Really Firm Neck Pillow