What’s The Best Treatment For Neck Pain?

Introduction To The Best Treatment For Neck Pain

In this blog we will take a brief loom at the 3 main causes of neck pain. Then we will list 8 of the very best ways to treat neck pain. Based on my 25 years of intensive clinical experience treating really stubborn neck pain cases on a daily basis.

Neck pain is an extremely common complaint in Western society and has been identified by the World Health Organisation as a significant global health issue. Neck pain causes less disability than issues like lower back pain because it’s easier to keep moving. Nonetheless, neck pain is a serious health condition because it prevents us from leading a normal, healthy life. So naturally, the question is, what is the best way to treat neck pain? 

Research now widely acknowledges that the mainstream medical approach to neck pain is flawed. Unsurprisingly, given that pharmaceuticals are not able to resolve mechanical issues and invasive surgery is exceptionally unsafe. There are definitely moments when taking pills and perhaps even keyhole surgery are appropriate. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, neck pain requires other forms of treatment.

Before you can really understand the best treatment for neck pain, understanding the underlying cause of most neck pain is vital.

Stress And Neck Pain

By far, the most common cause of neck pain is the kind of postural changes caused by chronic stress or trauma. Some cases of neck pain come from surprisingly low levels of stress that exert persistent strain on the tissues over time. If you are really busy and overstimulated and work extremely hard, it may be that you hold a lot of tension in your neck while you’re doing things. Over time, this adds up. 

In more extreme cases, neck pain can be caused by major traumatic events that leave you in a state of permanent contraction or fight-or-flight. When we hold tension in our bodies over time, eventually, it damages the tissues, and the neck is a major focal point for this tap. 

Neck Pain, Injuries And Whiplash

The second most common cause of neck pain is injuries and whiplash. The joints and soft tissues in the neck are incredibly delicate pieces of equipment. This is why humans are so prone to whiplash, which damages the small joints in the neck.

One of the issues that we face as a species is that we have very large skulls that balance on our delicate neck tissues. This constant weight bearing means that often our injuries don’t heal properly in the neck.

Many neck pain and headache sufferers ultimately find that the pain they’ve had was caused by an old injury that has simply never healed. 

Lifestyle And Neck Pain

The third most common factor that causes neck pain is general sedentary lifestyle choices and demands.

We evolved for a life that was much more active than the lives we now lead. Our ancestors found their own water and hunted their own food to survive; we mostly sit in a chair to survive, which we call work. This lack of movement in our bodies is a significant contributor to neck pain and pain throughout the whole body. 

When you sit all day, the joints and soft tissues deep inside your neck don’t receive the type of stimulation they evolved to receive, which causes tightening and stiffening. In addition, we tend to develop muscle imbalances, which can contribute significantly to the ‘locking’ of the neck structures over time. Essentially, a sedentary life has a similar impact to injuries: it causes loss of movement.

The Best Treatment For Neck Pain – Overview

Once you’ve understood the causes of regular neck pain, the question becomes more about what we need to do. So, what’s the best treatment for neck pain?

If you have stress that you’re holding your neck, you’ve injured your neck, or your lifestyle is impacting your neck, the tissues of the spine and around the spine start to change. Muscles become tight. joints become stiff, inflammation builds up and you can even develop forms of scar tissue within the fascia and the muscle.

So, the best treatment for neck pain tends to be the treatment that resolves these tissue changes. At a deeper level, though, the best treatment for neck pain is the treatment or change that targets the underlying cause. If you have stress-related neck pain, you may need to seek some kind of therapeutic support for whatever is causing you stress or anxiety or to heal any old traumas that you might be carrying with you through life.

If an injury has caused your neck pain, you may need to consider not only healing the tissues but also making sure that you don’t reinjure your neck. Some of us engage in high-impact activities that repeatedly injure the neck and for a percentage of neck pain sufferers looking for the best treatment, that simply has to change.

If a sedentary lifestyle causes your neck pain, naturally, the best treatment for that is movement. You might need to look at ways to increase the amount of movement you do throughout your life. In many ways, these really are the best treatments because they honour a deep causal layer of the pain that you are suffering with. Yet, even though making these changes in the long term is vital, many people find it is also vital to receive treatment for the changes in their neck. In the same way, many people find that getting a feeling is just as important as giving up sugar when their teeth hurt. For these people, what are the best treatments for neck pain?

HPL laser 

HPL laser uses deep infrared light projected through a laser diode to penetrate very deep into the tissues. Research has shown that these types of photons trigger the release of a substance known as ATP. If your cells were batteries, ATP wouldn’t be the lithium; it’s the cell’s power source.

This means that when you receive HPL laser treatment for neck pain, those tissues get a significant metabolic boost. It’s a lot like having a steroid shot in your neck because steroids increase metabolism. The increased blood flow that comes from this metabolic boost kicks the body into healing mode, and many people seeking treatment for neck pain find extremely rapid relief from HPL laser stop. 

Muscle Release 

Myofascial release, one of the primary causes of neck pain, is the muscle trigger points in those painful areas. Deep inside muscles that have been under strain for a long time. We have all experienced having shoulders rubbed or a massage and feeling those deep painful points inside muscle. Releasing these deep trigger points is, for some people, the only treatment that will work for their neck. Full stop. While science still has a great deal to learn about trigger points. One thing we know for sure is that releasing them is an excellent treatment for that. If trigger points cause your neck pain this will be the best treatment for neck pain.

Acupuncture & Dry Needling

Acupuncture and dry needling have been used for neck pain for a very, very long time. The reason? Acupuncture and dry needling are among the very best treatments for neck pain is they are able to release tension from the muscles deep inside the neck in a way that few other treatments can stop

if you’re particular case of neck pain needs to release deep muscle tension. There are very few treatments that can match acupuncture and dry needling. It really is one of the best treatments for neck pain.

Shockwave Therapy

 Shockwave therapy uses intense sound waves to break up scar tissue inside the body’s soft tissues. For people who have had neck pain for a long time, this is often found to be one of the best treatments for neck pain. When our muscles get injured, hold tension, and for a very long time, they can become fibres. Shockwave therapy breaks down those fibres so the muscle can repair itself and restore healthy tension and elasticity. There are two kinds of shockwave therapy. Standard radial shock wave therapy and focus shockwave therapy. We generally find that focus shockwave therapy is the best of the two for the treatment of neck pain. If you have scar tissue in your neck, shockwave therapy is the best treatment for neck pain.

Fascia Release 

Fascia is the body’s fibrous connective tissue and it’s extremely prone to developing sticky adhesions. A surprising fact about fascia is that it has ten times the number of pain receptors that muscle tissue does. So, fascia is a potentially significant cause of neck pain. And releasing contracture is one of the best treatments for neck pain.

Numerous techniques can be used to release fascia. Some involve massage tools; others involve very deep stretching. While many of these techniques are not enjoyable, they are among the very best treatments for neck pain.

Spinal Manipulation

Manipulation is absolutely among the very best treatments for neck pain. Chiropractic is now the world’s third-largest registered healthcare profession for good reason. Many people find that the locking of their spinal joints ultimately causes their neck pain. So, if you need those spinal joints mobilised, nothing other than spinal manipulation can achieve that for you.

Research has shown that spinal joints commonly cause neck pain and headaches. Joint mobility is vital for a significant percentage of neck pain sufferers. Spinal manipulation restores joint mobility.

Psychological Interventions

Psychological interventions are one of the most profound ways to approach neck pain in the long term, especially if you find that there is limited success with physical treatments. 

EMDR therapy is one of the best treatments for people who have chronic neck pain, primarily if it is known to have come from stress, anxiety or trauma. EMDR helps the brain process traumatic life events in a way that ‘diffuses’ the intensity of traumatic and stressful past events.

Brainwave entrainment is another excellent treatment for neck pain that relates to what experts call psycho-social issues. Brainwave Entrainment adjusts uses light To alter brainwaves and shift the brain out of fight-or-flight mode. When we leave fight-or-flight mode, the muscles in the neck relax, which means that this can be a very effective way to approach neck pain treatment. 

Best Neck Pain Treatment Summary 

One problem with pain management and seeking the best treatment for neck pain is that experts don’t often agree on the solutions. Neck pain sufferers have found it incredibly frustrating to go from one practitioner to another and find no one agrees on what causes their neck pain or what the best way to treat it is.

The truth about this is that there is no single best treatment for neck pain and that our bodies all respond differently to different types of care.

The patient who responds exceptionally well to acupuncture may find that spinal manipulation simply doesn’t work for them. The patient who finds that trigger point release is the best treatment for their neck pain may find that Brainwave Entrainment has no positive effect at all. 

All of this means that finding the best treatment for neck pain can be a bit like trying to find the best food. Nobody agrees on what the best food is. Some people like pizza, while others prefer Thai food. And although some foods are healthier than others, there are no right answers. 

If you seek the best treatment for neck pain, you may need to be patient, persistent, and open-minded about finding the correct solutions. If you find that one treatment doesn’t work for you, that’s okay. You can just move on and try another one. There are so many options. 

In an ideal world, you will be able to find a clinic like ours where the practitioners will help you try different options and find the combination of treatments that proved to be the best treatment for your particular neck. Failing that, the best thing you can do is explore the list of treatments in this blog, and perhaps even others

and find out not which is the best treatment for neck pain. But the best neck pain treatment for you.

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