If you have pain somewhere in the body it's common for it to travel. I'm not referring, in this case, to neck pain turning into arm pain or low back pain also causing sciatica. I'm actually talking about neck pain that starts to cause headaches, or neck pain becoming mid back pain or even pain starting out as right neck pain that is now left neck pain as well.
How can this happen? The answer is that everything is connected. You know that old rhyme: "the hip bone is connected to the leg bone, the leg bone is con-nected to the knee bone..." This is exactly what I'm eluding to. Everything in the body really is connected and play a role when one area is irritated or out of alignment.
Here's an example: a patient presents to the office with right sided neck pain but stated that her left side was the one that got injured in the past. What typically happen is that because one side hurts we favor the other side or the other side has to "pick up the slack", so to speak.
A similar thing happens with pain in one area that starts to radiate to an extremity. Let's take right side neck pain: now you're starting to have numbness and tingling into the right hand and arm.
If something isn't getting better it's probably getting worse! As inflammation keeps accumulating it will put more pressure on nerves or pressure on more nerves.
Also, when the spine stays of alignment, the discs in between each vertebrae can be a little less stable. This can lead to something much worse. Unbearable pain, loss of muscle...
On top of that, if pressure stays on a nerve that pain and degeneration can become permanent.
Additional Reading Resources:
- Neck Pain Resulting from a C5, C6, C7, or C8 radiculopathy
- Relief of Pain and Muscle Spasm with a hot or cold pack
- What to do for a pinched nerve in the neck
- What is the right pillow for sleeping?
- Which do i have, a cervical sprain or a cervical strain?
