5 Risk Factors For Neck Pain
Have you ever struggled with neck pain?? If you have, you are certainly not alone! Neck pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders, and it will affect between 50-70% of us at some point in our lives.
With the advancements in technology and more people working from home, we are seeing more and more reports of neck pain. This can be especially debilitating and can make it hard for you to get through the work day let alone exercise.
If you think you have suffered from neck pain or are currently having an episode, schedule a complimentary injury screen with one of our qualified physical therapists to learn how Physical Therapy can help you!
Let’s dive into some of the risk factors that have been strongly correlated with neck pain. What’s interesting about these?? Most of these are MODIFIABLE, which means you can potentially make some changes to your life in order to protect yourself from getting neck pain in the future!
There are many factors that go into neck pain, but today we are going to touch on 5 of them.
Stress
I don’t care who you are, at some point in your life, you have probably experienced stress. It is inevitable! When you are stressed out, your brain and nervous system are on overdrive. This might make you might feel irritable, restless, and tense.
Anxiety
Anxiety and stress can go hand in hand. When you have anxiety, your brain chemistry can be a little different than when you are not anxious. Anxiety causes the central nervous system to become hyper excitable. It can also prompt the release of stress hormones that will result in the body having a hard time getting into a comfortable relaxed state.
Work Related Factors
Now more than ever we are glued to our technology, whether that be our computers, phones, tablets, etc. In an age where technology is advancing at a rapid rate, our jobs and our interactions are tending to be more virtual.
With this comes more time spent looking down and placing undue stress on the joints and muscles in the neck. Have you ever heard of “text neck”? This is a hot topic right now and refers to the pain you get when you spend 3+ hours scrolling on Instagram or TikTok for example and before you know it your neck is tight and tense and all out of whack.
Inactivity
This is one of the most well-documented risk factors for not only neck pain, but pain in general. Being inactive can be detrimental to your health. Our bodies are meant to move! If not, they will undoubtedly break down and cause problems for our health. If there is 1 thing you take away from today’s blog, it is that being inactive will undoubtedly lead to disability and poor health and poor health outcomes. Physical Therapy can not only help you with your neck pain, but it can also help you get into a sustainable exercise and mobility routine to support your health.
Sleep Disturbance
Sleep disturbance tends to be an is it the chicken or the egg sort of situation, meaning a lack of sleep and poor quality of sleep can lead to neck pain and neck pain can also lead to poor quality and quantity of sleep.
Either way, optimizing sleep is incredibly important. Some ways you can do this would be to limit screen time before bed, ensure a quiet sleep environment with limited noise and light, and dedicate 7-9 hours of sleep.
If you are ready to get rid of your neck pain and learn ways to keep it at bay, schedule an evaluation or a complimentary injury screen with one of our qualified Physical Therapists at Wildflower Physical Therapy & Wellness!
Physical Therapists can offer manual therapy, dry needling, stretching and cupping services as well as guided exercise and mobility programs tailored to meet your specific needs. We are available in person to those in Indianapolis, Indiana and also offer convenient virtual visits.