C.or cervical pain: according to estimates it is a disorder they suffer from on average fifteen million Italians. In fact, often the lifestyle is based: stress, excessive sedentary lifestyle and incorrect postures kept for a long time, they end up having a direct impact on health, triggering problems of various kinds, including, in fact, tension in the neck and shoulders. The good news? When caused by poor posture and unhealthy habits, neck pain can be kept under control by simply following small tricks in everyday life.
Neck pain: what is it and how does it manifest itself?
«The term cervicalgia indicates the pain in the neck area – explains the professor Valerio Sansone, head of the Clinicalized Orthopedics Operating Unit at the IRCCS Galeazzi-Sant’Ambrogio Hospital – however, this is an improper definition because the pain is often wider, it does not concern only the neck but it also involves the shoulder muscles and it can extend up to the dorsal rachis ».
THE symptoms in fact they can radiate to the arms, with tingling in the hands, but also in the head: it is not by chance that one of the most common disorders associated with neck pain is muscle-tension headache.
«The headache of cervical origin is usually characterized by a pain that starts from the rachis and that goes up towards the nape of the neck and the region eye of one side of the head, it is therefore unilateral. When the patient changes the position of the head, the pain can increase or decrease, therefore it is defined pain of mechanical origin, because it is linked to movement “- specifies Dr. Michela Galizzi, OMT physiotherapist, coordinator of the rehabilitation of Raf First Clinic points and official physiotherapist of the Swiss special forces.
Vertigo and neck pain
“Dizziness can be a symptom, although not among the most frequent, of neck pain – specifies Dr. Galizzi – Those typical of the cervical they are associated with pain and stiffness of the movement: in general one has the sensation that the body rotates by itself in space. They are frequent, for example, after a flick but it is important to always evaluate the origin because dizziness can also be triggered by very different causes ».
Vertigo: how to intervene?
«In general, i treatments on the upper cervical partor on the upper vertebrae which are the ones that can give the sensation of vertigo – explains the expert – we intervene with manual therapies, or specific manipulations and exercises proposed by the physiotherapist. They can even be enough two or three sessions to solve the problem”.
Neck pain: incorrect postures at the base
So what are the most common causes of neck pain?
“The certain fact, also confirmed by the experience of the lockdown – replies Professor Sansone – is that the most frequent cause of neck pain is the prolonged maintenance of incorrect postures: being at home, in fact, people have tended to maintain incorrect positions for a long time, later complaining of problems of this type. Not surprising: the musculoskeletal system it is not made to maintain the same position for a long time but to alternate movement and rest so as to have time to recover ».
Neck pain and cervical arthrosis
“Even the classic flick which causes the distortion of the cervical tract, can give rise to the disorder – continues the expert – as well as direct trauma due to falls. Another frequent cause is le degenerative changes such as cervical osteoarthritis which can affect on different levels. The most classic form is the one that concerns the small joints of the back of the vertebrae that can undergo degeneration, giving rise to pain, stiffness but also formation of excess bone which can irritate the surrounding nervous structures ».
Female doctor is examining her neck
Cervical: the causes not to be overlooked
In rarer cases, however, neck pain can also be triggered by causes that we tend to underestimate or to ignore.
“For example a dental problem of malocclusion – Professor Sansone explains – the two dental arches do not face each other correctly and there is an alteration of chewing which has the temporomandibular joint as its fulcrum: this can generate tension in the cervical muscles. Sometimes even vision problems they can give rise to the disturbance, especially when one is in front of a monitor for a long time: not seeing well, one has a tendency to get too close to the screen or to keep the neck in an asymmetrical position which then gives rise to spasms and contractures ».
When it becomes chronic
In addition to being annoying, if the problem continues over time, it can become chronic. So how can we intervene in these cases?
“If the disorder is generated by incorrect posture and manifests itself with muscle spasms and tension, the solution that works is the Physiotherapyin particular the postural re-education – explains Professor Sansone – It is about teaching the patient to move correctly and in particular to move the neck correctly. When there is one chronic neck painin fact, it means that some have been created muscle dysfunction: that is some muscle groups have become stronger while their antagonists weaker and the consequence is a difficulty in performing a movement correctly. Then it is necessary to re-balance these muscle groups so that the movement returns to being harmonious and homogeneous ».
Neck pain and prevention
Feeling Tired and Stressed. Frustrated Young Woman Suffering From Neck Pain Massaging her Neck di lei While Sitting at Her Working Place in Home Office
As we said at the beginning, however, the prevention plays a vital role. They may in fact be enough small strategies to limit the risk of having to deal with muscle tension in the shoulders or cervical headache.
“Neck pain is very common today because it is extremely linked to our lifestyle – continues Dr. Galizzi – we are often seated, we keep bad postural habits and above all we do little sport. To prevent neck pain, however, physical activity, even mild, is essential because it allows to maintain a good muscle tone and a correct vascularization of the tissues. There is no need to focus on who knows what sport, for those who are sedentary walking can also help because it is an activity that it involves the whole column in a harmonious way“.
Beware of the smartphone
To limit the risks, then, we should pay attention to those too postures that we are now used to taking on a daily basis but which have negative effects.
«Looking at the smartphone is the most typical – explains Dr. Galizzi – Just think that holding it in front of us, looking straight at the screen, our head exerts a weight of 5 kg on the cervical spine. If instead we tilt our heads to look at the cell phonethat position maintained for a long time causes that up to 27 kg are loaded on the cervical spine, depending on the angle. Basically, the more the head is moved forward, the more it puts weight on the cervical spine. These numbers should make us think: if we consider how often we are bent over the cell phone during the day, we can get an idea of how much we overload the cervical spine. With the consequences we know ».
In front of the pc
Finally, it often happens to complain of pain in the neck and tension in the shoulders after a day spent in front of the screen Of computer.
«The main problem is the positions held for a long time – concludes the expert – Even staying for a long time in what can be considered a correct position, is not good. Because of this the ideal is to always try to move, take breaks to get up. In fact, today there are workstations that provide a table with variable height that can also be raised to allow you to work standing up. A useful tip? We we cannot see ourselves from the outside but if we ask someone to take a picture of us while we are at the computer, we may have the opportunity to understand what position we tend to maintain over time so as to be able to correct it ».
In the gallery above, then, 10 tips from the experts to prevent and manage neck pain.
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