What a Pain in the Neck - The Dreaded Stiff Neck

To start, before we can tell if we truly have a "stiff neck", We need to know exactly what it is. A stiff neck is a neck that feels tight or sore and has some loss of one normal motion. We often can get a stiff neck from being in one position too long or straining the neck in some fashion. Most often someone may sleep in an awkward position or work in a certain position for an extended period of time that can cause pressure on a nerve.

Nerves in the neck spine supply our muscles. If we have pressure on those nerves the muscles may get irritated, inflammed or inbalances. This in turn can cause neck pain and/or neck stiffness.

Someone who has an improper posture that is out of alignment will be the most common person to have recurrent or chronic stiff neck. Add to this, the fact that if the person has an occupation where they continually put strain on the neck or someone with a pillow they are sleeping on that does not have good support. Also sleeping on your stomach can cause major neck stiffness or pain. Why is sleeping on your stomach a problem? To breathe we have to turn our head 90 degrees to the left or to the right. As we age, this is not only difficult but not good for extended periods of time when you are sleeping.

Our posture gives us insight into what our spine may look like. So if your sleeping posture is horrible for 6-8 hours every night, your body starts getting trained to shift to an unhealthy, abnormal posture or spinal alignment. And once out of alignment we will more easily get the symptoms of neck pain and stiffness.

To correct neck alignment and reduce bad posture the best things to do are as follows:

1. Always be aware of your posture- if you are always in one position, move around. If you are constantly walking with your head down- look up more. If you have an uncomfortable work station- set it up to be more ergonomically efficient.
2. Use a good neck pillow and avoid sleeping on your stomach. I recommend the cervical traction neck pillow by arc4life.
3. See a chiropractor or a physical therapist. Both professionals can give you good postural exercises. Doctors of chiropractic can also adjust or manipulate the spine to help restore neck alignment.

All of the above listed solutions are usually quick and easy to do and will pay off in the long run. Good neck posture and spinal alignment will reduce the incidence of having a stiff neck.If you or someone you know is suffering from severe neck pain or neck stiffness currently or has chronic neck issues I would also recommend using heat to loosen the muscles. Biofreeze is a great natural neck pain relief gel which helps tremendously.

Dr Matt Bellinger is a Chiropractor in Connecticut. He has written many articles on how to easily and naturaly relieve pain, and has helped hundred of patients in his clinic end their neck and back pain. He recommends specific pain relief and posture improving products at http://www.arc4life.com

Neck and Shoulder Muscle Pain
Do you have neck and shoulder muscle pain? There can be a few reason for this. One is your job. Does your job cause you to extend your body in ways that you would not normally do so? If so you will need to learn to stretch before, during, and after work. Also if this is the case there is a good chance that massage therapy will help you and could be...

How to Relieve Neck Pain With Air Neck Traction
Are you suffering from neck and shoulder pain? You are not alone. Millions of people are suffering from neck pain due to bad posture, car accident and degenerative changes of the disc. Neck pain is almost as common as back pain in the United States. The number of neck pain sufferers is staggering and appears to be rising. Between 38 and 50 pe...

Correlation between Chronic Headaches and Neck Pain
There are many people who suffer with both headaches and neck pain, but they often do not realize that the two are connected. Perhaps one of the top causes of neck pain and headaches is practicing poor posture techniques. You most likely do not even realize that you are not using proper posture, which makes it easy for bad posture habits to start...

Simple Tips to Ease Neck Pain
The single most common reason for neck pain is poor posture, plain and simple. Sitting for prolonged periods hunched over a computer, for example, can do it, as can poor sleeping posture. Many people respond to stress by tensing up their neck muscles, which over time, can lead to neck pain as well as headaches. All of the above can cause painful co...

A Good Pillow is Not Just for Neck Pain Sufferers Anymore
Since we spend about one third of our life sleeping, a good pillow is not just for neck pain sufferers. Everyone can benefit from sleeping on a well designed pillow.Some symptoms of poor neck and upper back alignment from the wrong pillow may include snoring, headaches, insomnia, numbness in the arms and hands and neck pain or stiffness.The right n...

Neck Related Elbow Pain - Role of Wrist Extensor Muscles
Neck pain - elbow pain - extensor carpi radialis longus Commonly neck pain is due to C5, C6 cervical nerve root irritation. This can produce pain and spasm in the extensor carpi radialis longus muscle which crosses the elbow and therefore pain in the elbow can also be felt by the patient.Extensor carpi radialis longus receives C5 and C6 nerve ro...

Cervical Spondylosis - Now 100% Guaranteed Cure For Neck Pain
CERVICAL SPONDYLOSIS - AUXILIARY TREATMENT - YOGAThere is a strong tendency for the symptoms of cervical spondylosis to subside spontaneously, though they may persist for several months and the structural changes are clearly permanent.Treatment is thus aimed at assisting natural resolution of temporarily inflamed or edematous soft tissues.In mild c...