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Okay, so you’re looking for a muscle relaxer for a “crick in the neck.” Well, if we may use the analogy that your house is on fire, your #1 priority is not to call your insurance company for a payout. It is to get out of the house and then put the fire out. The same thing goes with a muscle relaxer for a crick in the neck. The #1 priority is to get out of pain first. That sharp, grabbing pain has got to settle down.
For this, there is any number of gels, creams or sprays where menthol is the active ingredient. Basically, it’s a topical substance that goes cool & tingling to help take the bite away as a muscle relaxer for a crick in the neck. Yes, you can also massage the muscles which will help them relax and slowly let that crick in the neck pain ease. Things like acupuncture, physiotherapy, chiropractic and osteopathy go a really long way too. Now, this can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
So you eventually get things to settle down … but now what? Because a crick in the neck is an effect - NOT THE CAUSE of the actual problem. And if you want to make sure that this does not become an ongoing problem for you where it keeps getting worse and worse and where you need to keep using a muscle relaxer for a crick in the neck, then you may want to consider something different that solves the underlying cause of the problem.
Looking at the cause for a crick in the neck
The first thing to know about muscles is that they only EVER do what they are told to do by the nerves in your neck. If your nerves tell your muscles to relax, they will relax. But if they tell your muscles to tighten, they will tighten. So if you always have tight muscles in your neck and are always looking for muscle relaxers, you need to step back and ask yourself, “Why?”
The one exception is if you suffer a muscle sprain. A sprain is any tearing of the muscle fibres that can occur with direct trauma or receptive strain. Often when people get a crick in the neck, they haven’t actually experienced an injury. It usually just happened when turning their head in the morning, and then wham! they’re looking for a muscle relaxer for a fierce crick in the neck.
These far more common cases occur when your muscles are under constant tension, and then all it takes is for you to put your head at the wrong angle at the wrong time, and the fibres tear. The curious thing is that all it may take are for a few of the fibres to tear, and your nerve system which continuously monitors the health of your neck goes into full lockdown mode.
You have the sharp pain at the base of your neck that grabs you when you turn your head. You have restricted movement, especially if you try to rotate your head. It feels like you just want to stretch it, but it causes more pain when you do. Now, here is the #1 mistake that people make at this point: they think that their problem is that they need the muscle relaxer, and that will fix the crick in their neck.
Yes, that will help the pain to settle down, but what they don’t realise is that they don’t actually do anything that fixes the underlying nerve condition that leads to muscle tension and strain in the first place. Yes, put the fire out! But while you are doing that, it is equally important to get to the root of the problem so that it does not come back!
Neck Health, Atlas Treatment, Muscle Relaxers and a Crick in the Neck
One of the most important things that you can do to help improve the health of your neck, relax your muscles and solve the problem of a crick in the neck is to look at the alignment of the top of your spine, known as the atlas and the axis. The atlas and axis are the top two bones in your neck that support the weight of your skull. As a physical challenge, pick up a small weight (even a large water bottle) and hold it close to your body. Now, extend your arm out in from of you. It will feel like that weight just got heavier even though it is still the exact same mass.
The same thing happens with the alignment of your atlas and axis, which support the weight of your skull (4Kg). If you have a problem in your neck, which causes your head to stick too far forwards, it produces additional strain through the muscles in your neck (2x the weight per 2.5cm that you stick your head forward). So just think about what that means when you consider your posture on your phone, on your computer, in your car, watching TV, or even sleeping at night with your head lying on a pillow.
If your neck is sticking too far forwards, that may well be the underlying reason WHY your muscles were at tension, why there is irritation to the nerves, which causes your muscles to tighten … and then (again) if you move at just the wrong angle, that whole system tweaks and you suddenly have a crick in the neck.
So when it comes to treatment, the solution is to find the underlying cause of the issue with an allied health practitioner known as an Atlas or Upper Cervical Care doctor. An upper cervical doctor is a specific type of chiropractor that is VERY different from general spinal manipulation: namely no twisting or cracking the neck.
The way that upper cervical care works are by making a precise diagnosis for the exact location, direction and degree of misalignment in your neck involving your atlas or your axis that a specifically trained chiropractor is able to make a precise correction, which restores the motion and alignment through your neck, which in turn allows your muscles to relax and enables your body to heal itself naturally without drugs, surgery or any invasive treatment procedures. Even if you’ve tried general chiropractic, osteopathy or physiotherapy, upper cervical care is notably different and often is able to help people with chronic muscle tension and cricks in the neck find the relief that they are looking for.
If you would like more information on upper cervical care and how we may be able to help you, contact us at 07 3188 9329 or click the Contact Us link on this page to schedule a complimentary 15-minute over the phone consultation with one of our upper cervical practitioners to find out if care is right for you.
Atlas Health Australia - “Hope, healing and wellbeing from above-down, inside-out.”
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