Top 8 Ways to Ease Neck Pain

Neck pain can be incredibly debilitating, and it can be challenging to find relief. Fortunately, there are a variety of ways to ease neck pain that can be implemented from the comfort of your home.

If you’re experiencing chronic neck pain and are unsure of how to ease your pain, this article is for you. This article answers your crucial questions and covers essential tips for easing neck pain, including simple at-home treatments and unique adjustments you may not have previously considered.

1. Heat and Ice

Applying heat and ice to the affected area can be an effective way to ease neck pain. The heat helps to increase circulation and relax the muscles, while cold packs help to reduce swelling and inflammation.

Ensure that you follow proper protocol when applying heat and ice to your neck. When you notice your neck is stiff and in pain, apply ice intermittently for the first 48 to 72 hours. After this period, apply heat intermittently to the affected area by taking a warm shower or using a heating pad or compress. Remove your heating pad or ice from your neck before you sleep to prevent damage to your skin.

2. Workplace Ergonomics

Many people experience severe neck pain due to uncomfortable sitting positions or other tasks at work that encourage poor posture and neck strain. Ergonomic furniture and equipment help keep your body in better alignment and relieve chronic neck pain.

Investing in ergonomic chairs, desks, keyboards, and other workplace equipment to keep your body in proper posture and alignment. Ergonomic furniture is designed to help you achieve a posture through the following:

• Allowing your monitor to be eye level, reducing the movement necessary as you work.
• Encourages better posture and is designed to help comfortably sit up straight.
• Minimize tilting or twisting your neck during work.

3. Medications

Over-the-counter medications are often helpful in easing your neck pain. Pain relievers like Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen can reduce inflammation causing excessive pain in your neck. However, these medications are not long-term solutions and might not have the results you’re looking to find. When over-the-counter pain relievers don’t seem to help, it’s best to reach out to a trusted pain specialist to devise a comprehensive action plan.

4. Exercise More

Exercise can be one of the best ways to ease neck pain at home or with a physical therapist. Exercise is essential to improving your blood flow and reducing inflammation resulting in your stiff neck.

Low-impact exercises, including walking or swimming, can help to strengthen the neck and surrounding muscles, allowing them to support the head, neck, and spine.

5. Try Neck Stretches

Stretching is a vital part of relieving the pain in your neck and minimizing the chance that it will reoccur. However, it’s essential to avoid stretching with sudden, harsh movements and to keep your stretches slow and gentle to avoid more injury.

While you should consult a pain specialist to see what stretches work best for you, some at-home stretches that you can complete to begin testing their effectiveness include the following:

• Roll your shoulders backward slowly, then gently roll them forward in a circle.
• Press your shoulder blades together and tightly squeeze for a few seconds before releasing the tension. Repeat this action a few times.
• Turn your head slowly from side to side, stopping when the pain gets uncomfortable.

6. Find a Qualified Massage Therapist

Getting a massage is another excellent way to ease neck pain. A massage will help improve the circulation in your neck and relax your muscles, gently eliminating the pain you’re feeling. A qualified massage therapist will know how to ease neck pain and work with you to loosen the tension causing chronic pain.

7. Start Prioritizing Your Sleep Hygiene

While it might sound simple, prioritizing your sleep hygiene is one of the best–and simplest–ways to ease neck pain.

Sleep hygiene fosters a comfortable and concurrent sleep environment to reduce pain and help you wake up rested and refreshed. This lifestyle change is crucial to treating any chronic pain you might be experiencing. To improve your sleep hygiene, consider the following suggestions:

• Go to bed and wake up simultaneously every day, ensuring you get the right amount of sleep to feel refreshed.
• Avoid doing work or stressful activities in bed.
• Have a calming bedtime routine to prepare you for restful sleep.
• Don’t use your screens for an hour before bedtime, or implement blue-blocking glasses.
• Ensure your room is comfortable and that conditions like temperature are conducive to sleep.
• Consider white noise machines if silence or other sounds interfere with your sleep.

8. Turn to a Qualified Pain Specialist

Ultimately, the best option for reducing your neck pain is to turn to the help of a qualified pain specialist. Anyone wondering how to ease neck strain/pain will benefit from expert, specialized treatment addressing their chronic neck pain. Pain specialists can offer various treatment options, including physical therapy, medications, and electrotherapy.

Additionally, a pain specialist can help you determine avenues toward eliminating your neck pain if more severe action is required. Seeking professional help when you cannot manage your neck pain is vital to ensure no deeper issue is present.

What is the Fastest Way to Relieve Neck Pain?

Relieving your neck pain can be done in minutes with specific neck stretches and hot/cold therapy solutions. However, completely relieving neck pain and preventing it in the future is most likely when you seek a pain specialist.

How Can I Relieve Neck Pain at Home?

There are many things you can do to relieve neck pain at home, including some of the tips in this article. Consider specific exercises, stretches, hot/cold treatments, and posture adjustments.

When Should I See a Doctor About Neck Pain?

It’s best to seek a doctor for neck pain if you find that self-care treatments and the tips presented in this article are ineffective.

Is there a Doctor that Specializes in Neck Pain?

Yes! There are numerous pain specialists that can specifically target your chronic neck pain, such as the team of doctors at Carolinas Pain Center.

How Do You Fix Chronic Neck Pain?

Chronic neck pain can be fixed through various at-home methods, physical therapy, and pain specialist treatments. Ultimately, a qualified pain specialist will have the best information to help you navigate chronic pain.

Will Neck Pain Ever Go Away?

Yes–with the right treatments, you can ease your chronic neck pain and prevent it from worsening in the future.

The Best Pain Specialists in the Charlotte, Denver, and Huntersville area

Seeking professional help to ease your chronic neck pain is vital to boosting your comfort and getting back to doing what you love. Individuals seeking advanced treatment solutions in Charlotte, Denver, or Huntersville will find everything they need from Carolinas Pain Center.

Carolinas pain center is a group of providers in North Carolina and a team of pain specialists that know how to treat your chronic pain. Our experts will help you achieve relief and manage your pain. Contact the experts, schedule an appointment at Carolinas Pain Center today, and start easing your neck pain.

If you have low back pain, you may be wondering what the best way to relieve lower back pain is. If you are someone who gets low back pain often, you may already have a few ideas, but sometimes you need to know how to relieve lower back pain fast — like if you have to get to work after waking up with some pain in your back. 

While you may not be able to get rid of the pain at home completely, you can take steps to reduce and manage it before you can get in to see a specialist.

Here we will dive into some of the most common low back pain questions and some tips for relieving this pain so you can get back to your day as quickly as possible.

How to Relieve Lower Back Pain Fast

Unfortunately, there is no instant cure for back pain. This is not because back pain is necessarily hard to cure but because there can be many causes for your back pain. Identifying what has caused your pain is typically the best way to solve this issue, but in the meantime, you’ll want to get your body moving and do some stretching to help relieve the pain. You may also opt for over-the-counter pain relievers if your pain is especially bad.

Tips to Relieve Lower Back Pain

Here are some tips to help you relieve lower back pain.

Move Around

Our bodies are not meant to be sedentary. Unfortunately, however, in the world we live in today, most of us have sedentary jobs or spend a lot of time sitting down when we get home from work. While you may not be able to change how much you sit for your work, you can control how much you move around in your personal life.

Moving is typically one of the best things for back pain because it helps engage your core muscles and helps reduce inflammation by circulating blood. We’re not saying you need to run a marathon when your back hurts, but a nice 30-minute brisk walk can do wonders!

Hot and Cold Therapy

Both hot and cold packs can help relieve low back pain. Hot pads relax the muscles, while cold packs help reduce swelling. Depending on the cause of your pain, hot or cold packs can provide incredible relief.

Work on Posture

Slouching puts a lot of pressure on your low back. This is especially true for women with larger chests because more weight is out of alignment and straining your lower back. So, if you feel your back starting to hurt, place extra emphasis on maintaining good posture throughout the day.

Stretch and Strengthen

Strength and flexibility are the keys to a healthy back. Stretching can help improve flexibility and lessen the likelihood of tight muscles causing back pain. Strengthening, on the other hand, is essential to maintaining a healthy back. Working on your core and hip muscles helps to stabilize your back and prevent it from twisting in uncomfortable ways. If you are looking for ways to do strengthening and stretching at the same time, yoga and tai chi are great options.

Check Your Sleep Habits

Sleep can dramatically affect how your back feels when you wake up. But, the position you sleep in is not the only important sleeping habit to keep an eye on. Our bodies need enough rest each day to perform at their best. So, if you have found yourself staying up late watching that new show that came out on Netflix or waking up constantly in the middle of the night for a snack, these are also habits that you’ll need to address to ensure you are getting good quality sleep.

Pain Relievers

Over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers can help reduce acute pain. Anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen can also help combat the inflammation that typically comes with low back pain. Keep in mind that OTC pain relievers are not meant to be taken for long periods, and if your pain is not subsiding, you should contact a back pain specialist.

Is It Better to Sit or Lay down with Lower Back Pain?

For most lower back pain issues, lying down is better than sitting. Sitting can put more pressure on your spinal column than lying down. So in most cases, lying down will be better for your back pain.

However, as Harvard Health notes, sitting may feel better than lying down if your low back pain is due to spinal stenosis. This is because stenosis is arthritis in the back that feels better when your back rounds rather than arches. This rounding of the back happens when we sit and gives the arthritic bones more space to spread out.

How Do I Know If My Back Pain Is Serious?

A few criteria suggest that you should seek back pain treatment. These are:

• Pain lasting longer than a week
• Numbness or tingling in your arms or legs
• Pain spreading to your arms or legs
• Pain caused by an injury or trauma
• The onset of gastrointestinal issues, weight loss, or fever
• Worsening pain when sitting or lying down

Is Walking Good for Lower Back Pain?

In most cases, walking is one of the best ways to help relieve low back pain. There are some conditions where it is best to lie down and rest, but walking can effectively reduce inflammation and strengthen the muscles around your back. This can then, in turn, prevent future back pain from coming up because your core muscles are stronger and better able to keep your back from twisting or bending in ways it should not.

How Should I Sleep to Relieve Back Pain?

The best way to sleep is lying on your back with a pillow under your knees. This promotes the most natural alignment of your back and helps prevent unwanted twisting at night.

If you cannot sleep on your back, you can sleep on your side with a pillow between your knees. If you have a waist smaller than your hips, place a small pillow under your waist to help keep your back more aligned. This is especially helpful if you have a harder bed that does not accommodate a curvier figure. The important thing to note when deciding how to sleep is that you aim for the most natural position for your back.

How Long Does Lower Back Pain Last

The length of your back pain will depend on the severity of the back pain and what caused it. For example, if a herniated disk causes your low back pain, it can take months to heal.

On the other hand, if your low back pain is due to sleeping in a slightly odd position the previous night, some stretching and movement can get you feeling better immediately.

What If My Lower Back Pain Doesn’t Go Away?

If your back pain does not go away after trying these tips, it may be time to contact a specialist. Back pain doctors can help you determine the cause of your pain and find the best solutions. There are many treatments available at healthcare practices like the Carolinas Pain Center, so even if some of the treatments above don’t seem to impact your symptoms, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. It is often possible to reduce or even eliminate the experience of lower back pain with the right course of treatment, and we are committed to helping you reach your goals.

Conclusion

Whether you are an expert when it comes to low back pain or you are experiencing it for the first time, there are plenty of things that you can do at home to help relieve your symptoms. 

However, if your pain persists for over a week or worsens at any time, you should contact a specialist. If you are in the Charlotte, NC, area, Carolina’s Pain Center can help you. 

Make an appointment today to begin your lower back pain treatment.