The Neck Pain Handbook

The Neck Pain Handbook discusses everything you need to know about neck pain, including its causes, how to treat it yourself, when it’s time to see a doctor, and what your doctor can do to help. Most importantly, it discusses how you can prevent neck pain, so that once your pain is gone, it stays gone.

Neck pain is increasingly common as more of us work in offices that make it unnecessary to move from our computers and desks. Major topics discussed include a discussion of why the neck is one of the most common areas to develop pain as the result of our increasingly immobile lifestyle, and how pain is rooted in the neck’s complex anatomy and function. With this information, it becomes clear why the strategies for dealing with it are recommended. These include:

*the importance of good posture while sitting, standing, walking, and sleeping;
*setting up your workplace for optimal comfort and support, to prevent injury;
*a simple and effective 10-minute exercise program for your neck, including stretches and strength training, that will help to take away the pain and keep it from coming back;
*medical options when improving posture and simple exercises don’t help;
*a discussion of the symptoms that mean a physician should be consulted; and
*the approaches that will be used if medical intervention is needed.

In addition, for the 10-20% of people with neck pain that does not respond to conservative therapy, the authors discuss in detail options such as medications, injections, and--rarely needed--surgery