Why my UPPER BACK hurts whole day?

"Whenever I look at my phone, read books, work in kitchen or on my laptop the neck feels stiff and upper back hurts. Any stress be it a mental or a physical one causes flare up in my pain. I can't keep having medicines everyday. I just don't wake up good, it hurts. I feel its endless and pain has become a part of my life."

Do you also feel the same when your upper back hurts? That constant pain almost convinces you to live with it and suffering becomes part of your everyday life. Even when you try managing your pain you end up in frustration because either the pain doesn't change or the relief is very temporary.

Everyone is so keen on diagnosing the problem through investigations such as X-RAYs or MRI Scans showing the blind belief on something so incomplete. Most of the problems depicted by these tests are normal after a certain age and on the other side the results can be totally negative inspite of a bad pain you are complaining off.

Do we really know what is going wrong with the body?

Are we catering to the problem in the best way possible?

Do you really think the solution to the problem does not exist?

Wait!!! This blog may have answer to your problem. Well, we have to break down the problem by looking into the root cause of upper back and neck pain.

What ! what did I just say? ROOT CAUSE...

"Neck and head sits on rest of the spine"

The upper back behaves like a root of the tree for your neck. A healthy strong root is necessary for the tree to survive better. Also mechanically the 7 bones of the neck (Vertebraes C1-C7) moves along with upto 4 bones of your upper back (T1-T4). And they  further get support from rest of the spine.

Consider spine like a group of blocks piled up on top of each other and any misbehaviour by one block can affect the other at a different location. A physiotherapist trained in manual therapy can assess and treat such problems by techniques using hands or mobility drills and exercises or a combination of all.

Scary bones can't move alone

Bones never move on their own, they need muscles to move your scary skeleton. Muscles can get tight in response to pain or your inactive lifestyle which may limit the movement and can get weak leading to poor concious control in the spine. Bad movement around spine surely creates trouble because nerves originate from spine which carry sensation of pain.

Manipulating your tight  muscles to loosen up their grip on stiff spine or self myofascial releases  done at home or exercises specific to the problem or a combination of all can be really helpful in managing pain and restoring spine health.

Deep is the real sleep

Sleep like a child. Sleeping enough is almost like system reset for the brain and the body as it consumes one third of your life duration. When people do not sleep enough, the body cannot recover from the stress given on the previous day. Moreover, sleeping in wrong posture doesn't allow muscles to rest enough and you may get pain as soon as you wakeup. Some of you might have experienced early morning flare ups in upper back and neck pain.

Pillows are nice sleeping fellows

A good pillow support is necessary to make the muscles and joints well supported. Pillow must provide support under the neck more than your head. Pillows are always about hit and trial, so how high or low the pillow should be, is a matter of personal choice.

"Block in mind is a block in the body"

Stress affects far more strongly when you do not realize it is a problem in the first place. When the mind gets blocked with disturbing thoughts consciously or subconsciously, it affects your physical health and also how you perceive pain. 

A friend in need is a friend in deed. Truly said, sometimes you need to open up about your problems rather facing alone. You need someone who won't judge any wrong doing against you, by you or around you. This confidence in someone melts you down, you share and take a step towards solution. Trust me at times this is it, your pain dissolves mentally and physically both.

This is just one example of many sufferings the body goes through due to our changing lifestyle, reduced physical activities and gadgets. I think pain is far different from how it is being approached based only on investigations. A lot more things can be picked up and treated using good clinical skills.

This is not a medical advice but generic suggestion on how you can self educate to bring some change in your daily suffering. Kindly feel free to comment here or contact on the details below in case of any doubt or help required.

Dr. Kunal Vashist, PT

MPT (Ortho), Manual Therapy

Dry Needling Practitioner

Movement Specialist (USA)

Email: kvashist.physio@gmail.com

Contact No. 9968302757

Neck Pain - Three Things To Think Beyond MEDICINE

In the world of technology, the machines are becoming advanced and addictive up to a level that nearly 70% of your active daily time goes into it. Neck pain is as common as Low back Pain since both of them mainly originates from poor lifestyle and reduced physical activities. I see number of patients suffering from Bad Neck Pain and still keen on wanting an X-RAY or MRI scan because they really wants to see what has gone wrong with them. And the kind of reports which comes out after scans keeps them scared for life.

"So many studies have shown that Xray or MRI changes are normal after a certain stage of life even in people with NO PAIN"

Most people consider X-RAY or MRI Scan reports as their diagnosis further complicated by their doctors because they almost stamp the reports to be true. And you start believing in the terms like Cervical Spondylosis, Degeneration, Reduced disc space, loss of cervical curve etc.

What else can be done in 5 min checkup time with your doctor?

You can only prove me wrong if your doctor has examined you thoroughly and tried looking for reasons beyond what investigations are pointing towards. Remember, your reports always quote in the end " This is not a diagnosis, Please correlate clinically". A thorough checkup easily needs 30 min duration to carefully examine all possible reasons which may cause you pain. Identifying the source of pain is as important as your treatment so that you are not misguided towards ineffective solutions to your neck pain.

If you are wondering what else can cause you pain other than what your investigations had so far revealed, then read further down as this can be an eye-opener article for you.

My First question to you, if you have a NECK PAIN :

HOW bad you are with your sleep?

 

DO you feel stiff and painful with your neck in the morning?

 

DO you find your pain worse on the days when you do not sleep enough?

Your sleep quality is directly linked to pain and stiffness in the neck. Good sleep is almost like a restart to your body system ( including hardware- joints and muscles / software- mind and nervous system). Sleep helps recovering from all day stress which your body and mind has gone through. Minimum 7 hours sleep is the baseline for healthy sleeping time including minimum 2 hours of deep sleep.

My second question to you to observe carefully:

Does your pain aggravates from long hours of prolonged sitting at home or work? 

Do you think your bad posture is responsible for your pain?

Is your pain better on the days when you are active with less sitting?

From years doctors have blamed your poor posture for your neck pain. Blaming your bad posture is overrated as no one can sit in good posture for long as it requires enormous strength from the muscles to keep you upright nonstop.

If you do not move enough then even an upright sitting can trouble you equally.

"Your muscles need more blood to survive better"

Keeping yourself inactive for so long makes your muscles stressful and then it doesn't matter even if you try attaining a good posture. So it is not your posture which makes you suffer with strained NECK. Blame your long hours of sitting which reduces blood flow to the muscles and makes your joints feeling stiff.

My third and the last question you need to think about: 

Do you feel your mind gets stuck with thoughts making you worry constantly about random things?

Do you find increased neck pain on the days when your mind is overworked?

Does your neck pain has started giving you emotional response like crying, tensed, irritated etc?

Stress has started bugging our daily life and it has become almost epidemic. We all try to hide our disturbing thoughts and keep them alive in our mind. Generally we all are forgetting / hiding to share as we are scared of letting people know what we think. This huge collection of disturbing thoughts gives emotional response but also a physical response which we don't believe it can. Your neck pain can be an expression of stressful thoughts running in your mind (oh! sorry stuck in mind because running is still better).

If you have a bad disturbing neck pain even more so if it is chronic; you should consider the following factors which alone or in association of your diagnosis and treatment can help you recover better:

SLEEP, PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AND STRESS

If you want to find more about your neck pain or looking for a solution to resolve your condition effectively, feel free to comment below or contact me on below mentioned details:

Regards,

Dr. Kunal Vashist, PT

MPT (ORTHO), Manual Therapy

Dry Needling Practitioner

Movement Specialist (USA)

Conservative Pain Management Specialist

Email id : kvashist.physio@gmail.com

Contact Number: 9968302757

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Know About Your MYSTERIOUS Neck Pain

Muscular aches and pains are becoming common day by day. Almost all of us face some issues with our muscles and joints as we cross our student life and enter professional life especially if work involves lot of screen time and sitting. 

During school days, kids are forced to sit long hours for studying in the classes as well as at home or tuition but they can still get away from pain as the body can take and forget muscular stress easily. Muscular health is also better at that time because your body is mobile, agile and undergo short periods of high activities like running, indoor or outdoor games etc. As a child your carefree attitude does help in keeping physical and mental stress under control. In addition the body weight is well under control which helps you moving faster. 

With time you enter professional life and then you are bound to do a sitting job in front of laptop or computer for long hours. Gradually work and family do add up some stress to life as you want to perform better in both. That carefree attitude is gone by the time you enter professional and personal maturity. When you move less, you hamper your mobility and your strength declines due to long hours of physical inactivity. Decrease in muscular strength and mobility is just the adaptation of your body towards reduced physical activities. 

Long hours of inactivity, stress and poor diet altogether increases your body weight disallowing you to remain agile the way you were during your early childhood. The collective response from your body is aches and pains gradually becoming unresolved and chronic. 

Neck pain is usually very common in these conditions and can interrupt with your healthy living. It doesn't seem like an emergency but it doesn't allow you work peacefully also. By the time you realize neck pain is a problem it is too late as your body gets well adapted to your current way of living. It is so natural for all of us to find an instant cure but I wish we had such an approach to deal with it. A prolonged neck pain is a consequence of multiple changes mentioned in initial paragraphs of the article which your body has acquired in so many years. A permanent solution is reversal of at least some of those changes which definitely doesn't happen instantly. 

You do not have neck pain because a particular spinal vertebrae or spinal joint has reduced space or degenerated or damaged. You have pain because you do not move functionally well as a whole. Medicines have a very limited role in treatment of neck pain. In fact anything which does not improve how you move or sit through out the day, might not help in long term when it comes to joint and muscles health.

The current evidence based information about neck pain management is as follows:

• X-Rays are not so informative in describing the source of neck pain.

• MRI is an investigation of choice but should be used very carefully as it can pick up issues which are irrelevant for your pain. Also the reporting can act as a nocebo, creating new area of pain which you never had or can delay your recovery as you might get relatable anxiety and fear-avoidance behavior leading to reduced activities.

• Electrotherapy like TENS, IFT or Diathermy doesn't have supporting evidence in treatment of prolonged neck pain.

• Therapeutic Ultrasound can provide deep tissue heat and micro-massaging effect in case of acute pain for some days but does not qualify as a treatment for neck pain.

• Wide use of mechanical traction device for neck pain has been stopped by many western countries because of associated consequences and negligible results.

• Manual (Hands-On) techniques like mobilization, manipulation and massages via osteopathy or chiropractic techniques have some effect in initiating recovery but only gives you short term relief.

• Postural Correction is also over-rated as you tend to force your weaker muscles in order to sit upright. And that conscious effort will last only for couple of minutes the moment you get busy with other things around you.

• Stretching is helpful in temporarily DE-Stressing the muscular tension and helps in regaining the range of movement.

• Strengthening the weaker muscles can help in sustaining the correct posture for long time as it reduces the stress on postural muscles. Strength training in full range of movement can help with improving your neck motion as well.

Feel free to connect with me and discuss a lot more in detail about various types of neck pain and their solutions.

Dr. Kunal Vashist,PT

MPT (Ortho), Manual Therapy

Dry Needling Practitioner

kvashist.physio@gmail.com / 9968302757

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