Managing Neck Inflammation: Simple Tips for Executive Mums on Pain Relief and Healing (Part 1)

In the busy world of modern motherhood, the daily juggle of executive responsibilities and the household demands can often take a toll on your neck, resulting in pain and inflammation. In this 2 part blog lets discuss the causes of neck inflammation, how long it takes to subside and some simple tips to manage your neck pain and inflammation.

For executive mums neck can often stem from injuries, or underlying conditions such as disc bulge, stenosis, spinal degeneration, etc or simple overuse from endless meetings to work travels with poor posture to a sudden strain from lifting a child on the fly. When the body's tissues are injured, the body's defences rush to the scene in the form of white blood cells, which can cause redness, heat, swelling, pain, and loss of function. Thought these cardinal signs of inflammation are a critical part of the immune response, but it's the pain and swelling that starts to affect us negatively when it continues for longer duration than needed.

It's vital to recognise potential triggers for neck inflammation. This could range from poor posture from hours of being hunched over a desk or laptop to an injury to inflammatory diseases such as arthritis.

One of the most pressing questions is whether neck pain and inflammation can resolve itself. The answer depends on how long you have had the pain and inflammation and also the cause of the neck pain. The more chronic the condition the longer it can take to resolve. It is very vital to support your body's healing process in the meantime. If you want to learn more about how to reduce your inflammation and neck pain you can find the details HERE.

Watch this video to learn more on "How can you reduce Inflammation in your body naturally?"

Here are some simple tips to help you to relieve your neck pain and inflammation:

Movement and regular breaks:

Try and avoid static positions of the neck such as looking at a computer screen for long periods of time. Movement will help to avoid stresses from building up on the structures of the cervical spine such as the disc, ligaments, muscles etc in the neck. You can find some simple desk based exercises that can be done under 2 to 3 minutes HERE.

Ergonomic setup:

Be mindful of the posture of your cervical spine. For this keep the top of your computer or laptop screen 5 to 10 degree below your horizontal gaze. This keep your cervical spine in a neutral position and avoids neck pain in the long run. It is a posture where the joints, muscles and ligaments of your neck are in a neutral zone which is their ‘happier’ position. This can also be done as a postural correction exercise, known as a chin nod, where you look at a point in front of you and bring your gaze down by 5 to 10 degree (as shown in the picture below).