Neck Pain Support Blog

Optimize Your Posture While You Sleep with the Right Pillow

We live in a society where we are constantly on our computers and our cell phones all. day. long. That is why forward head posture is prevalent. Forward head posture creates a lot of stress for your neck, upper back, shoulders and midback area. It can lead to neck pain, waking up with stiffness, headaches, numbness and tingling, a feeling of heaviness and limited motion in the spine.

One area where you can fix your posture is using the right pillow at night. If you sleep on a flat pillow, you are not getting the support that you need. Our natural neck spine has a C curve in it. You need a pillow at night that helps to restore this natural curve in the neck. 

Enter the arc4life traction pillow. That is the pillow that I recommend to help maintain proper posture at night. If you do not have a curve, have a little curve, or even have a reverse curve, this pillow can help. 

Anatomy of the Arc4life Traction Pillow:

If you have forward head posture, rounded shoulders,or a hunchback posture- you need a pillow like this to fix your posture. Does it happen overnight. NO. Overtime, yes a change will take place. You can also add neck traction and postural exercises. But you have to start with sleeping on a contoured pillow so that at least your neck is in the right position while you sleep. This is where posture correction can start. For some people there is an adjustment period to using a new pillow. Keep that in mind. One final thought. You need to order the right size of pillow. Some pillows are one size fits all. Not the arc4life traction pillow- it actually comes in a small, medium and large. In general, if you are under 5'ft order the small, over 6 ft order the large. If you are in between, order the medium. This is just a general recommendation. If you need further information about the right size, contact me here at Neck Pain Support and I can help. It also depends on your weight, frame and what you currently use for a pillow. 

Updated: 4/24/2020

Additional Reading:

• Tutorial Guide on how to use the Arc4life Traction Neck Pillow to fix posture
• Why the Arc4life Pillow works for  Military Neck
• I see the T in the Pillow, but not seeing the V in the Pillow
• Improve Your Posture right now
• What Kind of Pillow should I sleep on if I am a Stomach Sleeper?

Depression and Anxiety Common in Patients with Chronic Pain, Study shows

As a Chiropractor, patients would walk in typically with neck pain, back pain, headaches, herniated disc etc. They would also walk in with depression and anxiety. This was not usually "seen" in the first visit. It came out in conversation after a few visits and patients would get comfortable with speaking with me about what was going on.  Often times these patients also were suffering with chronic pain either in the neck or the back. Pain that was constantly there but just would not go away.

According to a Columbia university study that was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, adults with two or more chronic diseases had an increased risk for a mood or anxiety disorder. 

For this study, 5000 adults who were suffering with anxiety and depression were asked about their health problems. Among those participants with a mood disorder: 50% of them reported chronic pain; 33% reported respiratory diseases; 10% reported heart disease; 9% reported arthritis and 7% reported diabetes.

Often times, pain can be an attributing factor to other things occuring in the body and health professionals need to take this into account when treating patients.

Source: Health Day News, July 2017

 

 

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Neck Pain and Anatomy of the Cervical Spine

Here is a great video that shows the neck anatomy and how discs can be a neck pain factor as well.

A disc, if injured, and that can be a herniation, bulge, or degeneration; we can get a multitude of symptoms. Keeping the neck mobile and in alignment tends to help hold the discs more stable in place.

Additional Reading:

• Symptoms of a herniated disk and what you can do
• Hump in the back of my neck..what is that?
• A pillow for neck pain that works for bulging disks
• Understanding ROM in your C Spine
• A Review of the arc4life alignment pillow

 

What Can I Do For My Constant Neck Pain.

We often talk about figuring out the source of your neck pain, that will help us eliminate it.  But what if you have a permanent injury or chronic neck pain?  

Here are some great ways to deal with that neck pain:

1. Mental distraction - have you ever got busy with work or whatever and totally forgot about your pain?  We all have!  "Ok, you don't work any more, you're always home", try Meditating!  Don't think of it as something New Age or weird.  You can call it whatever you like - maybe quiet time, time to reflect, maybe just relax and go over your goals in your mind... Just get your mind focused on something else.

2. Exercise - start with thing that don't bother the neck.  Eventually, you'll notice you can do alot more and it won't seem to bother the neck.  Start out slow, use good form, and be safe.  Don't forget, exercise is so great in many ways.  It get you breathing, it makes you sweat, and produces something in the body called Endorphins.

3. Eat healthy - Here's the big ones: Drink more water and eliminate sugar.  Your body needs water for almost every reaction; and we need a healyh immune system to fight pain.  Sugar weakens the body's immune system.

4.  Improve your sleeping situation - Are you getting a good night's sleep?  Is your room for sleep only (quiet, dark,no tv...), basically very conducive to sleep.  How about your pillow?  Does it support the neck as good as possible?...

Things to think about...

Additional Reading Resources:

• When Does Neck Traction Help Our Neck Pain?
• What to do for Chronic Neck Pain
• Finally A Pillow that Helps My Poor Damaged Neck
• Keep Neck pain Away by keeping Your Neck Muscles Loosened with the Right Exercise
• Protect Your Neck While travelling

Related articles

How Much Sleep Does a Child Need to Be Productive?

Sleep tips to help you function better the next day.

"It Started Out As Neck Pain, Now I Have Arm Pain Too...!"

Simple Tips to Keep a Healthy Neck- Stay away from Neck Pain For Good

Medications For Neck Pain

All-In-One Neck Stretch

How Can What I Eat Play A Role With My Neck Pain?

Dancing with the Stars Derek Hough Having Surgery for Disc Herniation

One of my favorite shows to watch in the last few years has been Dancing with the Stars. One of its main star dancers is Derek Hough. This guys is pretty amazing when he dances. Well recently he revealed that he has been having a lot of neck pain, and he will be having neck surgery for a disc herniation in his neck spine.

The pain in his neck has been so severe that he was not able to dance with his partner Shawn johnson last week.Apparently, he will need surgey to address this disc herniation.

"It's discomfort. The pain will be up and down," he told the magazine. "The bone is just rubbing on the nerve. But you know, I'm not going to do any more damage to it and I'm going to keep going and keep going strong" stated Hough.

Dancing is no easy feat ! Especially at this level of competition. A disc herniation can result in neck pain, weakness in the upper extremity, and numbness and tingling.Range of motion can also be affected. I can only imagine that one needs to be in top physical form with Dancing with stars.

Source: Daily Mail UK Online:'I'm in agony!' Derek Hough needs surgery for neck injury... but will finish Dancing With The Stars first

Additional reading resources:

• The Different Types of Disc Problems That May Cause Neck Pain.
• The traction neck pillow helps with symptoms of disc herniation
• Neck traction devices that help with disc herniation
• No More Neck Pain ! Simple Tips To Keep A Healthy Neck
• More info on disc herniations in the neck

Neck Problems can Result From Bad TV Viewing Habits !

 Last week, it was reported that baseball player Carlos Zambros of the Chicago Cubs was suffering with neck pain. He apparently played throughout the game, but with neck pain. As a result, he was sent home and referred for cervical spine x-rays. Where was the neck pain coming from?

According to Bruce Levine of ESPN Chicago doctors found “that the discomfort was coming from a knot in his neck and is mostly muscular.”

Most people if you ask them seriously can tell you when they noticed they started experiencing Neck Pain. Same with this ball player. He attributed his neck pain to bad neck posture while watching tv. According to Zambrano, “I usually sleep with my head turned that way like when I’m watching TV. So I guess I’ll have to turn it the other way.”

Can Watching television, with your head turned a certain way, cause you so much pain, that you have to be sent to the hospital for neck x-rays. Well yes- especially if you are baseball player. Just like working on a computer for long periods of time, or working in a factory where you make widgets with your head down- watching tv with a bad neck posture can be the major source of pain. Imagine, you are sitting on your sofa, watching an hour long tv program- your head is turned one way, and your tv is on the other end. You may be using neck muscles that you are not used to using- causing discomfort, muscle spasm, tension and tightness. Now imagine you fall asleep like this- which happens with a lot of people. That can cause a major stiff neck in the morning.

Hopefully, Zambros will move his furniture around in his home so that watching television doesn’t attribute to his neck pain any more. We all know what poor sleep can do to people: tiredness, irritability, aching muscles, and neck pain. Any kind of pain can make you off of your game. I am sure this famous pitcher will figure it out.

Source:

1. Carlos Zambrano on neck injury:I sleep with my head turned that way when I’m watching TV, May 27 2011
2. WikiPedia: Carlos Zambrano

Additional Reading Resources

• Stiff Neck for Red Sox Pitcher Matsuzaka
• Neck Muscles Most Responsible For Your Stiff Neck And Trigger Points: The Levator Scapulae & Trapezius
• Kink in the Neck
• Remedy for A Stiff Neck
• Neck Posture

Meditation More Effective than Pain Medication in Pain Relief

Before you pop that next Tylenol for your neck pain, or maybe even morphine if you are really desperate, consider a new study that shows that brain activity is altered in people who meditate while exposed to pain. New evidence to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that relaxation techniques such as meditation are effective in coping with and managing various health problems, including pain.

In this study, scientists scanned the brains of 15 health volunteers naive to meditation using arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL MRI). During the scan, a heat device was placed on the right legs of subjects that warmed the area to 120 degrees Fahrenheit over 5 minutes. Most people experience this stimulus as painful.

The scans were conducted prior to meditation and after four 20 minute classes in a technique known as focused attention. In focused attention people pay attention to their breath while letting go of distracting thoughts or emotions.

Amazingly, after meditation training, pain intensity was reported to be 40% less on average, while pain unpleasantness was rated 57% lower. Every participant rated their pain lower after meditation from an 11% reduction up to a 93% reduction. Ironically, most opiate painkillers reduce pain by 25%.

What did the MRI Scans Show? The scientists reported that brain activity was reduced in the primary somatosensory cortex while increased in the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and orbiot-frontal cortex after meditation. These areas of the brain are involved in feeling the location and intensity of pain as well as creating the experience of the pain. It appears that meditation works on multiple areas of the brain responsible for multiple pathways that process the experience of pain.

Although the results of this study are limited by the small number of participants, the implications of this information is intriguing. Meditation produced dramatic pain-reducing effects after only 1 hour 20 minutes of instruction. The potential to reduce pain was greater than traditional pain medications.. This is definitely worth looking into.

Source: Brain Mechanisms Supporting the Modulation of Pain by Mindfulness Meditation

Additional Reading Resources

• Biofreeze Natural Pain Relief Gel
• Kink in the Neck?
• Treatment of a Stiff Neck Without Pain Medication
• Study Shows that Even a Small Amount of Meditation can Improve Cognitive Skills
• Meditation can Aid in Pain Relief, Study Show
• Info on Meditation Training, Relaxation, Peak Performance And Metaphysical Phenomena.

I Think I Strained My Neck?

I was playing basketball when I reacted quickly to catch a pass. I remember turning my head real fast to see the ball coming and that’s when my neck just tightened right up. It was sore for the rest of the game but I still played. I stayed in the shower for a few extra minutes letting the hot water just hit my neck which seemed to help a little.
Unfortunately, I woke up the next morning in excruciating neck pain. It was difficult to turn my head especially but I could feel pain with just about anything. What do you think this is and when will I be pain free? -Serious neck pain sufferer

This does sound exactly like a muscle strain. What most likely happened is when you reacted quickly it caused a spasm in the muscle and the muscle tightened up. This is another way of saying a pulled muscle. You will have pain because through the muscle runs a number of nerves. A strain or pulled muscle often creates inflammation which will put pressure on nerves.

Healing time for this will vary depending on how severe the neck strain was and what you are doing or not doing. Avoid strenuous neck positions and things that may aggravate it like turning too fast or things like playing sports. You may have to do this for a few days or a few weeks until the pain goes away. If the hot shower helped continue using that as well as a hot pack.

Sleeping position is extremely important also. The cervical traction pillow works great at aligning your neck and helping you to maintain a good sleeping position. With rest, heat, and a neck pillow like the cervical traction pillow you should get fast neck pain relief allowing you to get back to your normal activities.

Additional Reading Resources:

• Which Sleeping Position is Best For You?
• A Cervical Sprain or Cervical Strain in the Neck?
• Remedy for A Stiff Neck
• Horrible Pain In the Upper Back…Help
• Anatomy of the neck

How do I get Rid of this Kink In My Neck?

"I woke up this morning with a bad pain in my neck, which I think is a kink. Any time I turn to the left, it hurts. I was wondering anyways to heal this kink. How long does it take before it will go away?"

This is the topic of todays blog because I hear a question like this almost regularly. Essentially a lot of people call it a kink in the neck, what it really is, is a neck strain. It is sort of like a kink in a hose; it's knotted up and no flow of water happens.

In this case the neck muscles are bound up and vertebrae are shifted. These things put pressure on nerves and restrict messages of your nervous system. The severity of the neck kink may vary, and this may determine how much pain you have in the neck or how long you've been having neck pains.

Here are few things that you can do easily to get a kink out of your neck.

• Use a hot pack on your cervical spine and upper back area for 10 minutes. Hot Packs Specifically for neck pain, try a  9x16 hot pack (one that covers the upper back in addition to the neck)
• Do some neck exercises that involve flexion, extension, lateral flexion, rotation of the neck: Neck Exercises
• Use a supportive neck pillow at night so that you are sleeping with good neck posture to avoid a kink in the neck in the first place
• Try stretching your neck. You can simply use a neck traction device such as a trac collar for linear traction (up and down) or a more sophisticated traction unit such as the Posture Pump.Stretching out your neck muscles and ligaments can help with pain relief. It is important to do neck traction under the supervision of a health professional.
• Try chiropractic treatment. A chiropractor can look for misalignments in the neck, and help with gentle mobilization of the individual neck bones. Also, a chiropractor can do therapy in the office, such as ice/heat, electric muscle stimulation, do traction and show you neck exercises that you can do at home.

Picture Source: Comics by Brad

Updated: 4/27/2020

Additional Reading Resources

• Remedy for a Stiff Neck when you travelling
• Using a Hot and Cold Pack for maximum Relief
• Acute Neck Pain
• 6 ways to improve neck posture
• Change the shape of your pillow for easy travel

Tiger Woods suffers from bulging disc pain

Tiger Woods, one of the greatest golfers ever just cannot seem to get out of the tv spotlight. Now because of possible neck injury at the Players Championship in Florida this week.

Woods suddenly withdrew from the golf competition because of neck pain that he diagnosed as a  bulging disc in his neck.

Woods was so frustrated that he slammed his golf shoe to the floor while taking questions from three reporters.

"I've been playing through it," Woods said of pain he first felt before the Masters. "I can't play through it anymore." Stated a frustrated Woods, as he slammed his golf shoe to the floor while talking to reports. He stated that playing in the tournament did not help his pain at all.

There is speculation that his neck injury may be due to the infamous November 27 incident that rocked the golfing world and Tiger Woods World. Woods was taken to the hospital after driving his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree, the accident that set off shocking revelations of extramarital affairs that led to his five-month break from golf.

Asked at Augusta what injuries he suffered that night, Woods said, "I had a busted-up lip and a pretty sore neck, and that was it."

Woods further said that he plans to have an MRI next week. A cervical MRI is the gold standard for finding out if there is a disc herniation present. He said he was having a hard time with the pain, and that there was a tingling sensation on his right side down to his fingers. As he was driven from the golf course, Woods continually squeezed his right hand and released his fingers.

"I might have a bulging disk," he said.

Woods started the final round 10 shots out of the lead and was 2-over par through six holes. He struggled on just about every hole, finding a bunker off the first tee, coming up short on several approach shots and pushing several tee shots right.v He said pain was bothering him from the time he took the club back until he finished his swing.

"Setting up over the ball is fine, but once I start making the motion, it's downhill from there," he said.

Woods did not look natural out on the golf course. At times he stretched and rolled his neck between shots over the last three days, when he produced some good golf along with some shots that didn't remotely resemble the golf player that we know him to be.

Source: Woods withdraws, may have bulging disk in back

Picture Source: On Par

Additional Reading Resources

• The Most Common Disc Herniation in the Neck: C6
• Neck Pain resulting from a C5, C6, C7, or C8 Radiculopathy
• Understanding A Disc Problem with a Jelly Donut: Herniated Disc or Slipped Disc?
• The Right Neck Pillow for Herniated Disc in the Neck
• The Different Types of Disc Problems That May Cause Neck Pain
• Severe Neck Pain From a Herniated Disc: What are Your Treatment Options?