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Painful Neck
Causes of a Painful NeckInjury to the cervical region is a common explanation for chronic neck pain. The neck is indeed prone to injury, due to its design and function. The head is a heavy weight which can create the ideal scenario for injury during significant trauma. The best example of this type of traumatic injury is whiplash. Most neck injuries are very painful and some might require expert medical care. Spinal cord injuries in the cervical region are particularly problematic and can result in total paralysis from the neck down.Degenerative conditions can also be responsible for neck pain. Disc and bone problems are common in the neck. The actual vertebral bones and cervical discs are thinner and smaller in the cervical area than anywhere else in the spine. It is for this reason that degenerative changes, such as bone spur formation and disc degeneration, are so noticeable in the neck. The neck is also an area of tremendous spinal movement, ever flexing and bending. This makes the degenerative processes occur even faster than a spinal area such as the thoracic region, which experiences far less vertebral movement. Painful Neck MythsJust because the neck is relatively easy to injure does not mean that chronic pain is imminent. Most neck injuries respond well to appropriate medical treatment. The body is designed to heal and the anatomical location of the neck places it in an area which heals very fast.Degeneration is often rampant in the neck, but that does not mean that any symptoms actually come from the degenerative processes. Disc, joint and vertebral degeneration are completely normal and universal parts of getting older. Most degenerative changes in the cervical spine are harmless and completely asymptomatic. This is not to say that some patients are not suffering from actual pain inducing degenerative changes. It is simply making a factual statement on the exaggerated diagnosis of back pain scapegoat conditions used to explain otherwise idiopathic pain syndromes in the cervical spine. Psychosomatic Painful NeckPsychological back pain often strikes in the cervical region. Neck and upper back pain is commonly the direct result of ischemia directed at the region by the subconscious mind. Alternating and combination pain syndromes in the neck and other spinal areas are often a good indicator of a psychosomatic causation. Painful symptoms which defy the expected clinical pattern for the diagnosed condition also normally point to a psychosomatic cause. Patients who have demonstrated a history of other psychosomatic pain syndromes must realize that their chronic neck pain might be yet another example of the psychogenic process at work. Patients with a "back pain personality" often do not recognize just how susceptible they are to psychologically induced physical pain conditions.Recommendation on a Painful NeckMy main back problems were in my lower back. However, throughout my entire 18 year experience with chronic lumbar back pain, I also suffered from recurrent bouts of neck and upper back pain. These acute attacks usually came at times when my lower back felt better. My doctors blamed the cervical pain on either overexertion, martial arts injury or some affective response to the lower back pain. It was often said that the cervical spine was reacting to treatment in my lower back, which was a sign that the lumbar treatments were working. This never sounded right to me, even at the time... but as the years passed and the lower back continued to worsen, I knew it was simply a complete lie.After much time and study, I learned the truth about my own neck pain. The symptoms were psychosomatic, same as all the other pain conditions I had acquired during my life. The lower back was the primary suffering zone and the cervical discomfort was a classic case of back pain substitute symptoms. In my interviews with thousands of patients, I have discovered that this is a very common pain scenario indeed. Most patients with chronic unresolved back pain have at least one secondary pain zone which occasionally flares up. If you are experiencing severe chronic neck pain, you must do whatever possible to achieve an accurate diagnosis. If your original diagnosis was correct, then your pain would have responded well to treatment and you would already be cured. If this is not the case, you must consider the chance that you too have been misdiagnosed. This is the primary cause of all long term pain syndromes. Learning the facts about your pain is the first step in finding a cure. Embracing an incorrect diagnosis will not do anything to cure you and will only perpetuate your agony indefinitely.
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