Methods for dealing with neck pain

You've been working long hours at your desk, sewing machine or workbench and now your neck burns or refuses to budge when you try to turn your head. Follow these methods for dealing with neck pain to find some relief.

When a deadline looms, the relatives are coming for dinner, or the kids scream, our neck muscles soak up tension like those superabsorbent paper towels, and the next thing we know we're in pain.

It doesn't help that we also strain those neck muscles by hunching over our desks all day. The result: Up to 50 percent of us suffer from neck pain every year. Tension and poor posture aren't the only causes, of course, some neck pain is the result of:

• neurological abnormalities
• whiplash
• worn joints,
• herniated discs between the neck vertebrae

The good news is that the most common neck pain, the kind that is caused by stress and bad posture, usually gets better in several days. As for other kinds of neck pain, new treatments can help.

In a Flemish study, 79 percent of patients with neck pain recovered by using:

• anti-inflammatories
• muscle relaxants
• heat
• exercise

• Neck pain may be, well, a pain in the neck, but it's remarkably easy to treat. No one wants to be a prisoner to pain or passive in the efforts to squelch it
• Fortunately, you can do a lot on your own to drive away neck pain
• A seven-year international study on neck pain has found that your best options can be the simplest ones, like exercise
• Surgery is rarely needed for neck pain. However, it is sometimes done to address a compressed nerve root or compressed portion of the spinal cord, or to replace a disc

In any case, if a couple days of rest and gentle stretching exercises don't relieve your neck pain, visit your doctor to see if there's a more serious underlying cause.