Is your neck stiff?
Neck pain or a stiff neck is characterised by stiffness or pain when turning or moving the head or neck. Neck stiffness is a common problem which usually gets better after a few days or weeks.
The neck contains muscles, tendons, ligaments, and the cervical spine. These work together to support the head and allow it to move in many directions. A stiff neck may become painful when a person tries to move their neck or head.
A stiff neck often occurs when one of the muscles becomes strained or tense. Common causes of neck pain or stiffness are:
- Sleeping awkwardly.
- Sitting or slouching for long periods, such as at a desk.
- Looking down at an object (such as a mobile phone) repeatedly.
- Experiencing a fall.
- Sustaining a sports injury.
- Having tense neck muscles due to stress or pressure.
A stiff neck is one of the conditions that will benefit from stretching. While keeping the back straight and shoulders still, gradually turn the head to the left as far as it can naturally go without increasing pain. Once the head has reached its rotation limit, hold the stretch for 5 seconds before bringing it back to neutral position.
A stiff neck, along with stiff shoulders it is one of the most common triggers for booking a massage. The reason is that massaging in the neck muscles may alleviate the tension and improve the blood flow to your neck.
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So massage is safe for pregnant women, but is it effective?
Last week we established that massage is safe for pregnant women. A scientific review of studies of pregnancy in massage fond that pregnant women who received massage had
- decreased depression
- decreased anxiety
- decreased leg and back pain
- reduced cortisol levels
- reduced excessive fetal activity
- lower rate of prematurity (a baby being born before its 37 weeks old)
- experienced less pain
- required less medication
- had shorter labours (on average 3 hours shorter)
Guess what science has discovered about back pain …
According to the UK's Office for National Statistics the UK economy loses almost 31 million work days per year which costs the UK economy £14 billion to bad backs, neck & other muscle problems. A bad back is of the most common causes of absence and 80% of p will suffer with people will experience back pain at some point in their lives. At Vitality Therapy we find back pain is something we treat on a regular basis. I know a lot of my clients and potential clients are interested in what the latest scientific research is on how effective massage is for treating back pain, becuase they don't want to waste their time and money if massage isn't going to help them. Until now scientific studies of the effectiveness of massage were conducted in controlled research situations. However in a recent study, a physician sent patients to a massage therapist. The massage therapist designed and provided a series of 10 massage -- at no cost to the patient -- in a clinical treatment environment. This clinical treatment environment mimicks the experience of people who choose to seek massage in the real world. More than 50 percent of those who participated in the study experienced clinically meaningful improvements in their low back pain. The reasearches concluded that the study gives primary care providers (i.e. GPs) the confidence to tell patients with chronic low back pain to try massage, if the patients can afford to do so. References http://www.nhsemployers.org/news/2015/04/bad-backs-cost-the-uk-31-million-days-of-work Elder WG, Munk N, et al, 2017, Real Wold Massage Therapy Produces Meaningful Effectiveness Signal for Primary Care Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: Results of a Repeated Measures Cohort Study, Journal of Pain Medicine, 18(7):1394-1405
