Neck Pain
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Painful neck? It’s terrible, it’s annoying, and it’s pretty common.
Sometimes the pain is simply caused by a bad pillow and can disappear without treatment. Occasionally neck pain lasts for weeks or months, drastically limits your ability to move your head, and radiates into the shoulders. These could be signs of a more serious medical condition.
Common Causes of Neck Pain
Acute neck pain can result when neck muscles and ligaments are subjected to quick and unnatural movements in auto accident whiplashes or trauma during sports. Chronic neck pain is often triggered by spinal disorders and diseases.
Pinched Nerve
Surrounding soft tissues or bones create pressure that compresses a nerve. Once it becomes, pain can attack your neck, shoulders, arms and hand. This ache can be accompanied by muscle numbness and weakness.
Degenerative Disc Disease
Between the vertebrae of your spin exists discs of cartilage that pad the bones and protect them from shock. A degenerative disc disease can change the discs in your cervical spine in terms of shape and strength. When a bulging disc or a herniated disc results, it can press on a nerve root, causing pain, numbness and tingling.
Cervical Spinal Stenosis
This is described as abnormal narrowing of the spinal canal triggered by a bone spur or a herniated disc. The two can also compress a nerve root, causing pain. The narrowing of the nerve pathways in your upper spine and the compression of the spinal cord and nerve roots is a process that takes place gradually. If nerves are under pressure, symptoms such as pain in arms, hands or legs, tingling and numbness can occur. A bone spur protrusion can constrict your spinal column too, due to normal wear and tear that occurs due to the aging process.
Herniated Disc
If a spinal disc is compressed to a point of breaking, opening and spilling its inner disc fluid into the spinal canal, that’s a herniated disc. Chronic pain may occur and travel down your arm and affect your jaw and/or head. There are variations when it comes to disc herniation, such that some can cause occasional facial numbness and others increased pressure on a nerve root. Herniated discs are a major cause of chronic neck pain and pain in other body organs.
