Chronic Neck Pain Remedies

In the age of computers, our necks take on a lot of excess strain. Since the advent of dot com, incidence of neck pain increased sharply and has remained steady for the past three decades. There’s a lot of different ways to approach treatment - read on to learn about different chronic neck pain remedies to help figure out what the research says and what works best for you.

What causes chronic neck pain?

Chronic neck pain can be caused by a variety of factors, some of which sound pretty scary. Let’s talk about them:

Muscle tension

In my experience, this is the most common cause of neck pain. Muscle tension in the shoulder, neck, or upper back can show up as neck pain. Muscle tension can be caused by poor posture, stress, or a non-ergonomic work set up. Overuse tension, like after a heavy day of spring cleaning or weight lifting, can also contribute to muscle tension. While muscles themselves innately heal (thank you, body!) this can turn into a chronic pain pattern with repeated offenses (keep doing what caused the pain in the first place) and/or with a overactive pain response in the brain. More on that later!

Nerve Impingement

Sometimes, people feel a numbness, tingling, burning, electric shock, or “ants in the pants” feeling running from their neck down into their shoulder. This is usually due to some sort of nerve entrapment or impingement, which can be caused by bony alignment, muscle tension, or disc issues. The good news is, this doesn’t last forever. This becomes chronic in some folks, even after surgery to correct the originating source of impingement due to the overactive brain response mentioned above.

Bulging or Herniated Disc

Doctors love to blame pain on this one. So what exactly is it? Think of a jelly donut - if you squeeze the middle hard enough, the jelly comes out of that little hole they used to fill it right? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening! Your vertebrae (spine bones) press on the discs that live between them, causing some donut to push against the nerves in your neck or even the jelly to come out and push on the nerves. While yes, sometimes a bulging or herniated discs may cause pain, studies have frequently found that up to 60% of asymptomatic adults have positive results on spinal imaging. This means that many people WITHOUT symptoms have signs of a herniated or bulging disc - meaning they aren’t always contributing to pain. Additionally, herniated discs can heal with without intervention or with simple physical therapy intervention. Sometimes people even feel pain even after a surgery to correct the herniation. So why does this happen? Either it wasn’t the disc causing pain in the first place, or an overactive brain response to pain is occurring.

Spinal Stenosis

This is a narrowing of the canals that provide space for the nerves to exit the spinal cord and supply the tissues of the body. With the narrowing of the canals, there can be pain in the neck and shoulders. Again, this is not always causative of chronic pain. Read on to learn more.

What is the overactive brain response to pain that may be causing my chronic neck pain?

So glad you asked! ;) Our bodies experience two categories of pain - nociception and pain reception. Nociception is a fancy word for the signal that is sent from strained tissue to the brain for processing. Pain reception is the brain deciding to decode that message as pain.

Think of it this way - have you ever gotten a bruise and you have no idea where it came from? Tissue damage happened, the nociceptive response was sent to the brain, and the brain did NOT decide to detect a threat and did NOT send a pain response - that’s why you had no idea it happened even though real tissue damage occurred.

Chronic neck pain (or any chronic pain) occurs the opposite way. Something happens to cause the pain receptors in the brain to activate. This may not always be coming from nociception or tissue strain - This can be a traumatic event that the brain decides to interpret as a threat and sends a pain response in a certain area! In many cases of chronic neck pain, however, some sort of tissue strain occurs causing a painful response over, and over, and over again. Soon enough, the brain decides to interpret ANY signal from the neck as painful, regardless of if the tissue damage (threat) has calmed.

What are chronic neck pain remedies?

Initially, seeking assistance from a physical therapist, licensed massage therapist, or chiropractor may help with calming any sort of injury or strained tissue. If you’ve tried all of that and you STILL have chronic neck pain, consider craniosacral therapy!

How can craniosacral therapy help chronic neck pain?

Craniosacral therapy works with gentle tissue releases to improve the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid throughout the brain and spinal cord. The purpose of every session is for you to tune in to your own body’s signals (somatic awareness) so you know how to interpret them and give your body what it needs.

As a chronic neck pain remedy, the gentle fascial work and cranial releases offer relief from any remaining tissue strain while the somatic awareness piece allows you to start telling your brain that your tissues in the area are no longer a threat. While physio, massage, and chiro work with the tissue strain piece, craniosacral therapy provides a treatment from both ends of the spectrum.

Don’t get it twisted - the amount of tissue relief offered with craniosacral therapy is gentle. I feel it works best in conjunction with other modalities, and also want to emphasize that your body knows best! I’m here to help in whatever way I can!

Where can I find chronic neck pain remedies in Greenville, South Carolina?

Check out your local physical therapy, chiropractic, or massage therapy clinic. I’m partial to Jonathan Mitchell or any of the physios at Elite Integrated Therapy Centers on Grove Road. It’s where I go when I need physical therapy (as a physical therapist, I think that says a lot!). Their emphasis on evidence based practice and educating their clinicians ensures that all clinicians are up to date on current practice.

For craniosacral services, feel free to reach out to me! You have the option to book a free, 30-minute consultation call to discover if craniosacral therapy is right for you or direct book to a 60- or 90- minute craniosacral session.

I look forward to serving you to help you find relief soon.

Sending love,

Joanna (Bio)

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