The Statistics Regarding Neck Pain
Neck pain affects 45% of today's workers, so it is something we all deal with at one point or another. While back pain certainly causes more lost work time than neck pain, the condition of neck pain is serious in nature and should be treated if it persists.
At any point in time, the prevalence of Neck pain is about 12% for the adult female population and 9% for the adult male population. Neck pain is about ½ the prevalence of Low Back Pain. Approximately 45% of the working population will have one attack of a stiff neck, and most of those affected will not miss much work with Neck Pain as they do with Back pain.
As a result of the increased flexibility of the neck there is decreased stability and protection. Therefore there are many delicate structures that can become irritated resulting in Neck Pain.
Very often neck pain can refer to the shoulder and shoulder pain can refer to the neck. The most common causes of neck pain and shoulder pain are injuries to the soft tissues including the muscles, tendons and ligaments. This can occur from whiplash. Arthritis in the spine can cause local neck pain and can also irritate the nerves in the neck referring pain to the shoulder. Finally, conditions involving the spinal cord, heart and lungs can cause neck pain and shoulder pain.
Your Chiropractor will take you through a thorough examination to determine what structure(s) is(are) causing you Neck Pain. The structures to be looked at include the; carotid arteries, vertebral arteries, spinal cord ( nerves) , facet joints, supporting ligaments, capsules, muscles and the discs.
