Complementary therapies for neck pain

Complementary therapies for neck pain - May have escaped, but the neck is an amazing thing. At the top, which has a cage-hard rock - the cervical vertebrae, which contains and protects the top of the spinal cord, which connects the brain to the rest of your body.  

Nevertheless, the neck is completely mobile, allowing you to turn the corner and nods. Then there are the blood vessels, the esophagus, trachea, thyroid, and (among other structures). And, of course, day after day, neck worn around the equivalent of a bowling ball - 11 pounds skull and its contents. It is no wonder, then, that sometimes the neck becomes painful.

Business Neck Pain  

For many people with neck pain, it is much more than a "pain in the neck." It is the leading cause of doctor visits and disability. The improvement may be slow. In many cases, there is no single treatment uniformly successful. (Long term) Chronic neck pain is a painful condition for millions of people worldwide.

Many causes pain

Neck pain is not a disease. It is a symptom, and a number of conditions that can cause. Some of the most common causes are:

       *  muscle strain or spasms
       *  discopatía
       *  arthritis
       *  a wound

In many cases, however, the precise reason for neck pain can not be identified. Add to this the fact that the treatments do not always work well, and work fast, and can be a very frustrating problem.

That is why the results of a new study are so encouraging - and potentially important.

Complementary therapies for neck pain 
Research published in the latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine compared two alternative approaches to the treatment of chronic neck pain with the results of standard care. The researchers randomly divided the patients with neck pain into three treatment groups:

    *  "The usual treatment." This includes treatments commonly recommended by doctors in primary care, such as medication and referral to a physiotherapist.

    *  Acupuncture. These patients received usual care, more than 12 acupuncture sessions over five months.

    *  Alexander Technique. The usual care group received 20 training sessions over one by one toward the Alexander technique, a self-care approach that emphasizes "self-observation and subtle behavior change" of to monitor response to pain and improve how daily activities are performed life.

Of course, there are warnings 
Before declaring victory over neck pain, it is worth mentioning some important limitations of this research. They understand:

     *  More than half of patients with neck pain originally considered for the study were excluded. The most common reasons for exclusion were the presence of only a slight pain, neck pain causes "serious" (such as rheumatoid arthritis), or previous surgery

     *  Differences in the degree of improvement between the three groups was rather modest. For example, with respect to symptoms initially, there was a 32% improvement in pain score with acupuncture, 31% with the Alexander technique, and 23% for usual care.

     *  These study subjects were highly motivated to enroll in a clinical trial that requires a good amount of time and commitment.

     *  These treatments require not only a large time commitment, but outside of clinical trials can be expensive.

     *  We do not know whether the benefits go beyond a year.

What the results for people suffering from neck pain mean? 
Even with the encouraging results of this study, we need better treatments for neck pain and why they work. For example, observed improvements in acupuncture and Alexander Technique groups could be due to the placebo effect. Many chronic pain significantly improve with lots of personal contact between patients and professionals and an expectation of improvement, which are both key acupuncture and Alexander technique throughout. 

If only these two features - unlike the actual interventions - could explain the findings of this study, which means that we must find ways to exploit this effect so that more people can benefit. Finally, future research may yet prove better results with a combination of acupuncture, Alexander Technique lessons, and other non-pharmacological approaches.

Given the amount of stress we put on our necks is neck pain may never be completely eliminated. Therefore, we must be open to any new approach is safer and better than what we already have.
By: Robert Shmerling, M.D.