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As people get older, back and neck pain becomes
extremely common. The condition affects not only the physical health of
these individuals but also their social and economic well-being. Back
and neck pain can disrupt work, routine and other daily activities you
engage in. In fact, the condition is one of the leading causes of
doctor’s visits and one of the most common reasons why people miss work.
However, while back and neck pain can make your life awfully
difficult, majority of cases are treatable without resorting to surgery.
There are also certain management steps you can take in order to handle
the issues that may arise as a result of back and neck pain. These
measures will not only help relieve the pain but also help you reduce
the likelihood of recurrences of this condition.
Causes
In
most instances, back and neck pain is caused by strains or other
injuries to the muscles and ligaments surrounding the spinal column.
These, in turn, may be caused by sports injuries or a sudden increase in
physical activity to which the individual is not accustomed.
Viral
infections may also cause flu like symptoms that are often accompanied
by muscular pain affecting the neck and the back. The condition is known
in medical circles as myalgia.
Another possible cause of your
back and neck pain is the degenerative change that your spine undergoes.
A person’s spinal column is made up of individual bones (vertebrae) that
are joined together by the intervertebral discs, joints and ligaments.
All these combined form the strong but flexible structure of your spine.
As
a person ages (middle age and beyond), back and neck pain occurs as a
result of the wear and tear of your intervetebral discs and other
associated components of your spine. The number one cause of these
degenerative changes is movement. Motion causes the neck (cervical) and
the lower parts (lumbar) of the spine to gradually break down.
Being
biological structures, your ligaments and joints will try to heal and
repair themselves but as a result, your spine also becomes deformed with
several bulging discs, buckling ligaments, and bone spurs. These changes
could also affect the canals through which the nerves pass through,
pinching them as a result.
Treatment
Although there is no
definitive cure, back and neck pain is a highly treatable condition. The
most common therapy used to treat back and neck pain is medications with
pain-killing or anti-inflammatory properties.
Passive physical
therapy used in conjunction with exercise (active physical therapy) is
also another option. Hot or cold compresses are applied to the area
affected in order to alleviate the pain. Other modalities may also be
used, including the application of electric impulses in order to
override the muscular spasms that so often characterize back and neck
pain.
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