Neck pain is a common complaint usually due to neck muscles strained from poor posture or trauma injuries. However osteoarthritis is also a common cause for people from middle to older ages. Whereas for younger ages apparently are very much related to the long term stress.
Most of the people have chosen to live with their neck pain probably they thought that just pain and hope it will get better one day or had tried some therapies without significant result. It is quite common to see patients in my clinic that have neck pain more than 6 months or can be years! On top of that, neck pain is not the only complaint they have usually but also having other existing health problems mentioned below. After some acupuncture treatments, we realized not only the neck pain getting better, but other symptoms as mentioned below also absent at the same time. Therefore, if you have one or more of the following conditions, I strongly suggest you to try acupuncture therapy because it will help not only relieve the pain but can improve all these conditions at the same time.
1. Migraine or regular headache
Muscles around the neck, shoulder and upper back stay at the tension condition for long term causing the contraction of blood vessels which leads to insufficient oxygen supply to the brain.
2. Unexplained pain/ numbness in arm or hand
It is called cervical radiculopathy, commonly called a "pinched nerve" occurs when a nerve in the neck is compressed. Cervical radiculopathy is often caused by osteoarthritis or a sudden injury that results in a herniated disk.
3. Irregular heart beat/ Shortness of breath/ Anxiety/ Insomnia
According to Tradition Chinese Medicine, diseases or pain are due to blockage of energy flow in the body within the channel pathways which look like motorways. Neck pain is caused by blockage of energy flow in the upper part of our body where brain, heart, lungs and diaphragm are located. Imagine the energy supposedly to circulate in the clockwise direction within our boy from head to foot, then flow from foot to head, but when the pathways are stuck at the neck areas, it will create traffic jam around the neck, shoulder and upper back areas, more and more energy are gathering there and hard to move forward. As a result, these traffic jam conditions will be transformed into symptoms such as rapid or irregular heartbeat, shallow breathing, and tight chest due to energy stagnation locally. After a while, if you complain such symptoms to your GP, you might be diagnosed to have anxiety and long term of anxiety will lead to insomnia. Most of the patients put the blame to “stress” when they have anxiety but there are also patients have no idea what causing the anxiety, I agree stress can cause neck muscles stiffness but don’t overlook that neck problems can actually lead to stress too as I explained above, simply because the stiff muscles in your neck blocking the energy flow.
4. Feeling object stuck in your throat
This is not so common but it happens to some people having the choking sensation when they swallow foods or always need to clear their throat. They been to specialist and couldn’t find what is wrong? I have treated their neck and have good result.