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When we think of neck pain, it's human nature to focus on the singular event or habit that is to blame. Inevitably there are more factors at play than how the desk is set up or that neck injury years ago. It's also human nature to assume there is a singular treatment that will solve the issue, when there are usually multiple approaches warranted.

When initially attending for appointments especially when neck pain has been impacting quality of sleep and general quality of life, the tendency can be to simply want the pain to be fixed and go away. Almost everyone wants this. This mentality is also entirely natural and why an appointment may have been sought. Why else would I be there?

However, we need to be wary of deriving our impressions of broken and fixed from short social media clips. These clips don't explore in detail how that person got to where they're at and neither do they explore the long-term outcome of the short treatment. Remember these short clips are marketing, either for you to buy from them or for you to watch more of their content, so they make money. 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with marketing, it's important, so long as what is being sold is the solution that it's claiming to be. Is that particular treatment or medication actually a legitimate solution or merely a short term reset of a problem that is not being addressed. 

Further to the idea of fixed and broken, this can be linked to a very mechanical understanding of health. Much like a car or bike; there's a problem that needs fixed, fix that part and we're done, thank you very much. The body isn't simply a machine, it's more complicated than that. Let's approach it from the perspective of the body and mind adapting to the environment. 

Let's approach treatment from these perspectives too. Pain experienced by many people, especially if it lasts more than 4 weeks, or is a major episode of a recurring problem, is one that is likely to need this more comprehensive approach.

Two final thoughts before some useful tips; 

1. neck pain can often cause headaches and migraines. If your neck pain, headache or migraine is sudden severe and different to what you have experienced in the past you should first seek careful assessment via your GP or ourselves with an eye to further medical testing needed. Experiences that are recurrent and relatively consistent and especially if you have already sought medical assessment without any significant findings then it is likely an appointment with ourselves will be of benefit.

2. Neck pain can cause arm pain - we see such presentations very often and can usually help. Pain can come from nerve irritation in the neck, from the shoulder and from muscle fatigue all of which can send pain into the arm. So long as treatment is improving symptoms within 3-visits then we know we're on the right path. For more complicated presentations we may recommend further tests.

Useful tips, Things to consider:

1.Many people's lives are governed by increasingly sedentary routine. Regular, gentle movement is likely to help a lot. Especially if it's fun and sociable.

2.Quality and quantity of sleep is important. At some stages of life this can be particularly difficult to achieve. Parents of young kids and older populations alike typically struggle to get enough quality sleep.

3.Ergonomics is concerned with how people interact with their work or leisure environment and tools. Common practices such as using a laptop straight on a desk for extended periods inherently means increased mechanical load on the neck, compared to if the monitor were raised and the keyboard were separate and at easy reach. Similarly, consistently sitting at one end of the sofa leaning to one side can be a factor in leisure time.

4.Balance of movement is important to consider such as someone that predominantly exercises doing push movements (bench press or push ups) and neglects pull movements (suspension trainer row or pull up) will influence muscle balance and posture that impacts the neck.

Implementing or exploring some of these basic changes can make a real difference to daily pain experiences. They may also give greater insight into other factors that could be explored. We're creatures of habit though, so don't change too much at once. Good treatment will help to press the reset button and guide towards running a better programme.