Surprisingly, not on the list. It just goes to show how BAD these 3 things really are.
It’s your friendly Springfield, Illinois chiropractor here laying down the law, Randy Orton style, about what NOT to do to your neck. We’re often telling our patients the exercises and stretches to do to get neck pain relief, but we don’t always emphasize the things that they are unknowingly doing to themselves that’s making their pain worse.
Honorable mentions:
That’s a real commitment.
Being seduced by a vampire happens to all of us at some point or another, hopefully this article will act as a warning.
Without further ado…the Top 3 Things We Can Do To Our Neck
#3) Sleeping On Our Stomach
Imagine if we slept with our neck sharply turned to one side and our spine out of neutral alignment for 6-9 hours, EVERY night. Of course we’d wake up with a stiff neck feeling like we’d just been seduced by Angela Bassett (see Honorable Mentions). Sleeping on our back or sides are much better alternatives and offer a better chance of keeping our spine in neutral alignment.
“But Doc, I’ve been sleeping that way for years. How am I supposed to change now?”
It’s called breaking a bad habit Susan, what’s more important not having to exert the energy to break a habit or living pain free?
For the other Susans out there: If stomach sleeping is the only thing that brings joy, use a very thin pillow or no pillow at all and place another pillow under the knees to restore alignment. And then stop complaining because you made this bed, now sleep in it on your stomach.
#2) Smoking
Neck pain is the only negative effect of smoking.
Is that not right?
Smoking can cause Degenerative Disc Disease in the cervical spine. Nicotine constricts blood vessels in the spine preventing the discs from receiving oxygen-rich blood. It also diminishes the development of new disc cells.
Obviously smoking is one of the more difficult habits to kick, and there are countless benefits from quitting smoking, but degenerative disc disease is irreversible and has a snowball effect of pain and dysfunction throughout the body.
And the #1 worst thing we can to our necks is…
#1) Looking Down
Ay yai yai
Continuously angling our neck forward, whether it be while driving or hunched over our laptops or scrolling through our phones, places a tremendous amount of pressure on our neck. Looking down to swipe left may seem insignificant – though knowing what you want is half the battle so cut yourself some slack – but habitual poor posture adds up over time, stretching out our neck muscles and leading to muscle soreness, spasms, chronic neck pain, arthritis, and premature degeneration. Check out these 7 Stretches that can revive sore necks no matter their shape or size. Swipe left on neck pain and right on heartache!
Stare down enough and increase the likelihood of developing Tech Neck or Text Neck. Check out these amazing tips about what can be done to fight tech neck and prevent it from happening altogether.
When it comes to text neck, it’s best to be proactive. In this day in age it’s so easy to develop and can have sweeping neurological effects. If neck pain becomes sudden or sharp, gets worse, or lasts for more than a day or two, get in touch with us here at the Springfield Wellness Center and we will figure out exactly what’s going on and give you steps to live a pain free life. Or you can set up a time to speak with one of our doctors here.
Our patients speaking to their neck pain before they seek our expert care