7 Ways To Alleviate Neck Pain And Tension

Everyone can experience neck pain, whether you like it or not. Neck pain can occur from stress or any physical tension you put on your neck, such as overuse or poor posture. While having neck pain and pressure can genuinely be painful and uncomfortable, you need to look for ways to alleviate the pain.

With that, listed below are the ways on how you can alleviate neck pain and tension:

 

1.   Neck Massager

If you’re a person who loves to get massages as it helps you to relax and be calm during your stressful days at work, you might benefit from using a neck massager that wraps around your neck to massage the back of your neck.

What’s great about having a neck massager is that you can freely bring it with you wherever you may go. It’s travel-friendly so you wouldn’t have to worry about long flights when your neck usually goes sore and painful. With a neck massager, you can simply pull it out of your bag and allow yourself to have a pain-free neck all day long.

 

2.   Massage Therapy

If you’re not a fan of using a neck massager to ease away the tension on your neck, you could benefit from massage therapy.

As you’re more inclined to have a person massage your neck as you genuinely believe in the power of healing hands, you can book a neck massage at your favorite massage place near your area. A masseuse should be able to work on your head, neck, and shoulders and allow you to feel more relaxed and calmer after an hour of massage.

Suppose you don’t want to spend money on massage therapy as you think they’re expensive. In that case, you can look for neck massages online that you can do to yourself, which allows you to alleviate the pain without asking for help from other people. Not only can you make yourself feel better all the time, but you can also allow other people to feel better when they have neck pain.

 

3.   Neck Exercises

One of the best ways to alleviate your neck pain is by doing neck exercises during the day.

You can easily practice different gentle neck exercises as you sit upright or stay up on your feet. When practicing neck exercises, just ensure that you do them as gently as possible. If you’re feeling an uncomfortable tension on your neck as you move your head, you should try to keep your movements to a minimum or try to do different exercises.

When it comes to practicing neck exercises, you shouldn’t just do them when you feel neck pain. It’ll be fantastic if you get to add them to your daily routine so that you can allow your neck to have the proper stretching it needs and avoid developing pain.

 

4.   Sleep On Your Side Or Back

If you’re an ultimate stomach sleeper, you might want to resort to sleeping on your side or back to have a better body alignment.

When you sleep on your stomach, you’re not allowing your spine to be aligned to your head as it’ll not lay flat, or you’d be looking sideways to allow yourself to breathe. While it can be a comfortable position to sleep in, you’re not doing your neck any favors.

The best sleeping position you could go for is by your side or back. When sleeping in these positions, you promote proper sleeping posture to align your whole spine with your head. It’ll be helpful if you use an ergonomic pillow to relieve yourself from neck pain.

As you sleep on your side, you should use a knee pillow and place them just right in between your knees to achieve an optimal sleeping position. In that way, your body can continue to be aligned, relieving tension on your neck.

 

5.   Apply Ice and Heat

Another way to help alleviate your neck pain and tension is by utilizing the power of extreme temperatures. As you experience neck pain, you should apply ice on your neck for a few days to relieve neck inflammation. Doctors recommend that you use an ice bag on your neck for 20 minutes a day.

After a few days of applying an ice bag to your neck, you can now apply heat using a heating pad or hot compress to allow your neck muscles to relax and be at ease.

Applying ice and heat to your neck can be a lengthy process, but it’ll be worth it once you’re able to move your neck freely again.

 

6.   Practice Good Posture

As you’re practicing different ways to alleviate the pain and tension in your neck, it’ll be great practice to observe proper posture to allow your neck to heal from the pain entirely.

You can practice good posture by sitting up straight all the time and adjusting your computer’s monitor to your eye level so that you wouldn’t have to move your head down when you need to look at other things on your screen. It’ll also be helpful if you could avoid looking down as you’re putting every strain on your neck as you pick something up from the floor or when you use your phones.

As much as possible, you should keep proper posture all the time by keeping your spine and head aligned.

 

7.   Use Over-The-Counter Pain Relievers

Over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers are medications that you can take, which will take away the pain from your neck.

Taking OTC can provide instant relief for your neck pains, and you can continue to move your neck around like you usually would. However, taking OTC should be your last resort as it’ll harm your body when you rely on using OTC too much.

When you consume too much OTC, your body becomes dependent on the medication or immune to it, forcing you to take a higher dosage. While an OTC can be helpful, it can damage your kidneys when you consume too much. That’s why you should only consume OTC on a limited basis and with a doctor’s recommendation.

 

Conclusion

Having neck pain is, indeed, an uncomfortable position to be in. While neck pain can come from different sources, you should always look for ways to alleviate the pain and tension to continue to live your everyday routine.

There are plenty of natural ways you can alleviate the pain. However, if the pain is intense or accompanied by other symptoms, you should consult your doctor for proper assessment of your condition and treatment.

 

 

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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