The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the lives of countless people, and subsequent sedentary lifestyles often lead to neck pain and scoliosis. Find help here.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought considerable changes to the lifestyles of young adults, including a decrease in physical activity, an increase in sleep, and sitting for more hours of the day.
All of this can make any symptoms of neck pain and scoliosis much worse. It’s essential to understand how this decrease in physical activity can affect you. You’ll also need to know what steps you can take to feel better and start moving again.
Keep reading this guide to learn about neck pain and scoliosis and how a sedentary lifestyle can cause your symptoms to become worse. You’ll also learn about effective chiropractic treatments that will get you active again!
Overview of Neck Pain
Your neck consists of vertebrae, cervical discs, bones, and ligaments. Usually, neck pain is acute, meaning it only lasts for a few days or weeks. However, it can also become chronic, lasting for three months or more.
Any inflammation or injury can lead to neck pain, tenderness, or stiffness.
Common Symptoms
Symptoms of neck pain can vary in severity. Sometimes, the pain is mild and doesn’t interfere with your daily activities. Other times, the pain can be severe and significantly limit your activities. However, there are common symptoms you’ll experience, which include:
- Sharp or stabbing pain localized to one area of your neck
- Pain with movement
- Stiff neck
- Difficulty moving your neck normally
- Headaches
- Radiating numbness or pain that goes to your shoulders and arms
Causes of Neck Pain
Neck pain can occur for various reasons. Certain medical conditions can cause neck pain. Rheumatoid arthritis causes neck pain due to swelling of the joints in the neck area.
Osteoporosis weakens your bones, often leading to minor fractures. While this typically happens in your hands or knees, it can also occur in your neck. Fibromyalgia causes muscle pain all over the body and frequently causes muscle pain and tension in the neck area.
Neck Pain and a Sedentary Lifestyle
Neck pain is most commonly caused by certain activities and lifestyle behaviors such as poor posture and sitting at your desk for too long in the same position. Spending many hours hunched over puts strain on your cervical spine. This puts pressure on your nerves and muscles.
In fact, even pre-pandemic studies show that prolonged sitting at work leads to increased neck and shoulder pain overall. If you’ve changed your job since the pandemic and are sitting working long hours at home, it can lead to chronic neck pain and stiffness.
Overview of Scoliosis
When you have scoliosis, you have an abnormal curvature of the spine. Many people associate scoliosis with young children and teenagers, but adults can be diagnosed with scoliosis too.
A healthy spine has a normal curvature where the neck and lower spine curve towards the front of the body. When you have scoliosis, your spine rotates and eventually develops a side-to-side curvature.
There are two types of scoliosis in adults, which are degenerative and idiopathic. There is no known cause for idiopathic scoliosis, but sometimes it’s due to undetected scoliosis in childhood.
Causes of degenerative scoliosis include aging, wear and tear, and injuries that damage the spine. It can also be due to conditions like arthritis.
Common Symptoms of Adult Scoliosis
Common symptoms include back pain and sciatic nerve problems. The pain can often radiate into your buttocks, thighs, and hip area. Sometimes people also experience numbness, tingling, and weakness in their legs and feet.
Other symptoms of scoliosis include:
- Muscle spasms
- Uneven hips or shoulders
- Chronic back pain
- Clothes tend to hand unevenly
Scoliosis, Back Pain, and Inactivity
Living a sedentary lifestyle can make the symptoms of scoliosis much worse. Sitting for prolonged periods puts constant pressure on your back muscles, tendons, and vertebrae.
Additionally, sitting all day increases your risk of poor posture. A curved back puts significant strain on your spinal discs, and as a result, they weaken over time.
A recent study suggested that lifestyle changes during the pandemic increased back pain. These changes included a decrease in physical activity and an increase in computer use and watching TV.
Chiropractic Treatments
Chiropractic care is an effective and natural solution to improving your back and neck pain long-term. Chiropractic care is a type of complementary medicine that’s based on your body’s ability to heal itself.
Chiropractic treatment can provide relief from many different conditions that affect parts of your body, such as:
- Joints
- Muscles
- Tissues
- Cartilage
- Bones
There are huge benefits of chiropractic care that include a reduction in neck pain and back pain and a reduced need for pain medication. Chiropractic care also reduces the duration and frequency of cervicogenic headaches, which can result from problems in your vertebrae.
Chiropractic Treatments for Neck Pain
A chiropractic neck adjustment restores proper alignment to the cervical spine (neck area). Your chiropractor can do various gentle techniques to adjust your spine. These techniques include cervical mobilization. During this treatment, your chiropractor will move your neck from side to side and apply varying degrees of force.
Your chiropractor will also recommend stretches and exercises to strengthen your neck muscles.
Chiropractic Treatments for Scoliosis
You can also see an experienced chiropractor to help treat your scoliosis symptoms. Your chiropractor can do a variety of techniques, depending on the severity of your scoliosis.
Techniques include spinal decompression machines, TENS units to stimulate your muscles, and adjustments to realign your spine and relieve pressure from your nerves. Your chiropractor will decide what treatments will work best for your particular condition.
Your chiropractor can also recommend specific movements and positions to help minimize the pain you’re experiencing. You’ll also get tips on maintaining your posture and strengthening exercises that you can do at home to keep yourself moving.
See a Chiropractor to Manage Neck Pain and Scoliosis
If you have neck pain and scoliosis problems, it’s time to make a change and see a chiropractor to improve your symptoms and get active again.
For all your chiropractic care needs, you can turn to AArrow Straight Chiropractic in Hudson, New Hampshire, for help. Our doctor, Dr. Roger L. Gosselin, has over 30 years of experience helping people with conditions like neck pain, back pain, and migraines.
We treat a variety of painful conditions such as sciatica, scoliosis, low back pain, pinched nerves, whiplash injuries, and more. We provide safe and effective chiropractic care for people of any age and look forward to helping you improve your overall health and well-being.
Make sure you contact us today to schedule an appointment!
