Whether you've experienced chronic neck pain for years or just started noticing pain in your neck, an important step to finding relief is to evaluate your daily habits. Quite often, unconscious habits and lifestyle practices can cause neck pain.
Many people's lifestyles involve 40–hour workweeks that consist primarily of hunching over a computer. While working at a desk doesn't have to compromise your health, poor posture while doing so is extremely common. The spine is bent out of its correct position when sitting hunched forward. This means the neck has to support the head without the help of the rest of the spine.
In addition to exhibiting poor posture in desk jobs, many people look down at their phones for hours on end throughout the day. Strain can build in the neck after hours of looking down at a mobile device, causing lasting damage.
After sitting hunched over a desk all day, many of us like to relax in front of the TV. But a sedentary lifestyle is one of the most common causes of neck pain.
It can feel counterintuitive to forgo a restful evening when you're already in pain. However, stiffness in the body can grow worse when we do more sitting than moving.
If you sleep on your stomach, you are likely contributing to your worsening neck pain. Sleeping on the stomach causes strain to the spine and neck, whereas sleeping on your back or side allows the spine to stay in a neutral position.
Well–intentioned habits like exercising can have unintended negative consequences. Lifting weights improperly can cause unhealthy and uneven muscle strain.
Even if you aren't lifting weights in the gym, carrying heavy grocery bags improperly can have the same effect and cause neck pain.
Over the next few days, pay attention to your posture, how often you stand up, and your sleeping position. Create reminders to check your posture and take a standing break whenever possible. Investing in a standing desk can allow you to stay productive while also reducing those sedentary hours and keeping your posture healthy. As for sleeping, if you can't get comfortable without sleeping on your stomach, it may be time for a new pillow or even a new mattress.
In addition to these small changes, integrating 30 minutes of physical activity into your everyday routine can help reduce stiffness and promote overall health. These simple habits and choices can greatly reduce your neck pain and improve your overall health.
While addressing these habits is likely to improve how your neck feels, it's common to experience some degree of neck pain still. Doctors may present treatment options like ongoing pain medication or invasive surgery for people who continue to experience neck pain despite healthy lifestyle choices. Understandably, many people are unsatisfied with these options.
Fortunately, Chronic Care of Richmond offers natural healing therapies to address chronic neck pain that work with the body’s natural healing tendencies. Without invasive surgery or undesirable side effects that come with pain medication, Chronic Care of Richmond follows FDA–approved protocols to help relieve chronic pain.
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