What is neck pain?

Neck pain is a common complaint. Neck muscles can be strained from poor posture — whether it's leaning over your computer or hunching over your workbench. Osteoarthritis also is a common cause of neck pain.

Rarely, neck pain can be a symptom of a more serious problem. Seek medical care if your neck pain is accompanied by numbness or loss of strength in your arms or hands or if you have shooting pain into your shoulder or down your arm.

Common symptoms associated with neck pain usually involves one or more of the following:

• Stiff neck. Soreness and difficulty moving the neck, especially when trying to turn the head from side to side.
• Sharp pain. This symptom can be pain localized to one spot and might feel like it's stabbing or stinging. Often, this type of pain occurs in the lower levels of the neck.
• General soreness. The pain is mostly in one spot or area on the neck, and it's described as tender or achy, not sharp.
• Radiating pain. The pain can radiate along a nerve from the neck into the shoulders and arms. The intensity can vary and this nerve pain might feel like it's burning or searing.
• Tingling, numbness, or weakness. These sensations can go beyond the neck and radiate into the shoulder, arm or finger. There could be a "pins-and-needles" sensation. Typically, pain that radiates down the arm is felt in only one arm, not both.
• Trouble with gripping or lifting objects. This can happen if tingling, numbness, or weakness in the fingers is present.
• Headaches. Sometimes an irritation in the neck can also affect muscles and nerves connected to the head. This could be a tension headache, such as from neck muscles tightening; or occipital neuralgia, where a pinched occipital nerve in the neck causes pain to radiate up into the head's sides and scalp.

If neck pain symptoms progress, it can become difficult to sleep. This type of pain may also interfere with other daily activities, such as getting dressed or going to work, or any activity that involves turning the head, such as driving. Increasing neck pain with associated weakness, numbness and tingling is a concern and the physician should be contacted promptly for further evaluation.

• Daily Life : Just getting through every day takes its toll on your body—you most likely know that from first-hand experience. Stress and emotional tension can cause muscles to tighten and contract, resulting in pain and stiffness. You can sleep wrong and wake up with a crick in your neck. You can sit too long at your desk, staring at your computer, and give yourself a stiff neck.
• Growing Older : Age-related disorders, such as osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis, and degenerative disc disease, directly affect the cervical spine.
  Degenerative disc disease (DDD) can cause the intervertebral discs to become less hydrated, and they lose their flexibility, elasticity, and shock-absorbing abilities. And over time, you may develop a bulging disc or a herniated disc. With both bulging and herniated discs, the disc material can press on nerve roots, causing neck pain that may run into the arm, tingling, and/or numbness.
  Osteoarthritis is a common joint disorder that causes progressive deterioration of cartilage. Without the cartilage, your bones rub together. The body reacts by forming bone spurs (osteophytes), a self-protection step. However, the bone spurs can press on your nerves, causing neck pain.
  Spinal stenosis causes the small nerve passageways between the vertebrae to narrow, which can compress and trap the spinal cord and/or spinal nerve roots. Stenosis may cause neck, shoulder, and arm pain and numbness when these nerves are unable to function normally.
• Injury and Accidents : That's right—whiplash. A sudden forced movement of the head or neck in any direction and the resulting "rebound" of the head or neck in the opposite direction is known as whiplash. The sudden "whipping" motion causes injury to the surrounding and supporting tissues of your neck and head. Muscles react by tightening and contracting, creating muscle fatigue that results in pain and stiffness. Severe whiplash can also involve injury to the intervertebral discs, joints, ligaments, muscles, and nerve roots. Car accidents are the most common cause of whiplash. If you've had a head injury, more than likely, your neck has been affected, too, even if you don't feel it right away. It's wise to seek medical attention immediately.
• Other Disorders : Prolonged pain and/or decreased function of your brain, spinal cord, muscles, or nerves may be an indication of something more serious. Seek medical attention immediately because occasionally, these symptoms may be the result of a spinal infection, spinal cord compression, spinal tumor, fracture, or another disorder.

Physical Therapy to Relieve Neck Pain

Your physical therapist may give you passive treatments such as:

• Deep tissue massage : This technique targets chronic muscle tension—tension in your neck that perhaps builds up through daily life stress. The therapist uses direct pressure and friction to try to release the tension in your soft tissues (ligaments, tendons, muscles).
• Hot and cold therapies : By using heat, the physical therapist seeks to get more blood to the target area because an increased blood flow brings more oxygen and nutrients to that area. Blood is also needed to remove waste byproducts created by muscle spasms, and it also helps healing. Cold therapy slows circulation, helping to reduce inflammation, muscle spasms, and pain. Your physical therapist will alternate between hot and cold therapies.
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS ): You could even use this at home, if your therapist thinks it's necessary. A machine stimulates your muscles through variable (but safe) intensities of electrical current. TENS helps reduce muscle spasms, and it may increase your body's production of endorphins, your natural painkillers. The TENS equipment your physical therapist uses is larger than the "at -ome" use machine. However, whether large or small, a TENS unit can be a helpful therapy.
• Traction : In traction, the therapist will try to stretch and mobilize your spine so that you feel less pain and can move more easily. He or she can do this manually—the hands-on approach—or by using a mechanical traction device.
• Ultrasound : By increasing blood circulation, an ultrasound helps reduce muscle spasms, cramping, swelling, stiffness, and pain. It does this by sending sound waves deep into your muscle tissues, creating a gentle heat that enhances circulation and healing.