If you’ve been experiencing neck pain, especially after a good night’s sleep, it turns out that you might need to change your pillows and learn a few new exercises.
According to a new study, people suffering from chronic neck pain should seek out a health professional trained to teach both exercises and the appropriate use of a neck support pillow. “Either strategy alone will not give the desired clinical benefit,” states Dr. Hugh A. Smythe of the University of Toronto.
Dr. Smythe and colleagues recruited 151 men and women with chronic neck pain to participate in a study. The participants were divided into four groups: a control group that received massages and was given hot or cold packs; a group given the control treatment plus exercise; a group given a neck support pillow to sleep with plus the control treatment; and a group given all three treatments at once.
Neck exercises involved performing isometric movements of the head, neck, and shoulders under the trained supervision of a physiotherapist. After 12 weeks, those participants using the neck support pillow and the exercises together reported that their neck pain had noticeably improved. The other three groups reported no improvement.
The researchers noted that little information has thus far been available about which treatments are most effective in reducing neck pain. This is a concern because neck pain that starts out as a mild condition, yet does not get better on its own, can turn into a chronic condition after two months.
This study may also be part of new trend to recognize pain as something that must be looked at closely and treated agressively. Health care consumers “Have often had low expectations for pain treatment, but that is changing as a large portion of our population, the baby boom generation, moves into the years where chronic pain from such sources as arthritis and low-back pain is so very common,” explains James N. Campbel, MD, professor of neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Blaustein Pain Treatment Center of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
”Having terrible pain is not good for people. It influences all aspects of life: mood, concentration, motor performance, sleep, social relations. New evidence indicates that pain affects the immune system such that cancer cells appear to grow faster when there is pain. Being a stoic and putting up with severe pain is not necessarily good for patients.”
If you are experiencing neck or back pain, there are treatments available. Talk to your doctor — he/she may be able to help you find one that works for you.
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Tags: Arthritis, exercise, Natural Pain Relief
