Six of the ten wealthiest corporations on earth are pharmaceutical companies, and without doubt, drug companies make massive profits from sufferers of neck pain and associated headaches. With the proportion of prescription and over-the-counter medication for headaches directly or indirectly associated with neck and back pain being toward the very top of the profitable products list, a huge slice of these profits are being made each year for conditions that are often avoidable and require no medication.
When we consider the spine’s phenomenal complexity, taken together with that of the muscular system in the same region, we can quickly appreciate why there is such a susceptibility within the region For pain and suffering as the cervical spine descends from the base of the brain stem.
The bony protrusions, called processes extending from each vertebra are, in the case of the cervical spine, relatively lesser in mass than the rest of the vertebral column, making the region also more susceptible than the others. That being the case, it is not difficult to accept why proponents of capital punishment target this part of the anatomy.
Although the spine is so incredibly impressive in its function and mobility when adequately maintained, the reverse is also true when the necessary maintenance is absent or inadequate.
Stress, one of the other modern day common occurrences in many cultures, also contributes significantly to the need for many sufferers to rely upon medication. By combining the negative effects of 1) chronic muscle fibre shortening, 2) a high incidence of residual muscular fibrosis, 3) nerve, and 4) spinal compression and associated degeneration, stress can add significantly to the likelihood of sufferers becoming dependent upon medication.
When a sufferer contemplates the relative consequences and origins of these four factors, and genuinely investigates an effective and time-efficient strategy to combat and reverse the factors, the dependency upon medication, in its various forms, reduces dramatically. Invariably, these four factors coincide with cervical spine immobility.
More often than not, mid-to-longer term medication-dependent neck pain sufferers experience a reduction of lateral rotation mobility. In other words, their capacity to turn the head more than a minor degree has become impaired, and in order to view objects that are behind them, generally there is a need to rotate the torso rather than the neck. An inability to achieve a chin-to-sternum movement [anterior cervical flexion], or any significant raising of the chin [cervical extension], without an associated increase in pain, is also commonplace. This loss of cervical mobility, over time, so often accompanies varying degrees of cervical spinal degeneration. This can often be reversed under a suitable, time-efficient, proven regime. Restoration of elasticity in the muscle fibres involved in the movement and support of the neck and skull, when done on a regular basis, is foundational to the reversal of the 4 factors previously listed.
Typically, a program that requires between five to ten minutes per day, done without the need for specialised equipment and done at appropriate times within the privacy of home or a suitable workstation is all that is required, will achieve encouraging and relieving results generally within the first one to two months.