Modern day living comes with its pros and unfortunately, cons.

Take technology for instance, it’s great that we’re all connected, have information at our fingertips, and can communicate with people more easily.

But, that connectedness is also causing what experts now term ‘tech-neck’ which is is often directly related to neck pain and upper back pain between the shoulders.

If you’re experiencing chronic pain in these areas, this may be some of the most important info you’ll ever read to help you find neck pain relief.

What is Tech-Neck Pain?

Does this sound like you?

You carry a smartphone around everywhere and spend hours answering text messages, browsing the internet and exploring the latest apps?

Or it could be your tablet. Do you sit on the couch in the evening looking down at the screen while you explore your favorite blogs and search for info?

Or maybe you work all day at the computer and you’re constantly looking down at the monitor or keyboard.

All of these situations are the habits referred to as ‘tech-neck.’

Now picture this.

A 10-12 pound (4-5 kg) bowling ball balancing on the end of a pivot point, held up by nothing more than a few strands of muscle.

That’s exactly what’s happening.

Consistently bending and tilting the neck forward to text on your smartphone, or hunching over to scroll through your tablet is exerting 60 pounds (27 kg) of force on the neck and upper spine!

Suddenly, you’re wondering how to get neck pain relief or upper back pain relief  because you’ve got pain, headaches, sleep issues and irritability.

Unchecked Neck Pain Can Move Down Your Spine

Neck Pain Relief

As you can see in the image above, your neck muscles go all the way across the shoulders, down behind the shoulder blades and all the way down to the mid back.

When you develop tech-neck, it begins to affect your entire posture. Before too long, the pain in the neck has creeped down into your back muscles.

That’s the nature of the muscles in the body, if continuously put under stress and left unchecked, the problem only gets worse, moving down the spine and into other areas of the body as it tries to compensate for the imbalance your technology habits are causing.

3 Effective Types of Neck Pain Treatment

1. To Feel Better, Start Looking Up

The most obvious solution is to kick the tech habits. But let’s face it, none of us are likely to do that.

However, you can try to reduce your time looking down.

Hold your smartphone or tablet at eye level. Make sure you look up regularly. Counteract your bad posture with other activities. And most importantly, take a break from technology from time to time. Switch it all off, lie down, take a bath and relax.

2. Microcurrent Point Stimulation (MPS) therapy

Another effective home remedy to keep your body in balance is MPS therapy.

As pain starts building up, your nervous system becomes overactive. Imagine your muscle fibers constantly pulling on your spine and sending messages to the brain on high alert because something just isn’t right. Over time, this creates an imbalance that leads to a growing host of pain and even other types of ailments.

MPS therapy, such as the Dolphin Neurostim, counteracts these effects by keeping your nervous system in balance and relaxing muscles for powerful, instant neck pain relief.

It does this through the delivery of a small microcurrent that stimulates acupuncture points and brings your body’s nervous system back into balance to stimulate your own natural healing mechanisms.

MPS treatment can be done at home using the FDA-approved Dolphin Neurostim device, or you can seek out the help of an MPS practitioner in your area.

3. Take up a regular stretching routine.

Stretching can also be very effective but there’s something very important to keep in mind here.

It often feels like you need to stretch the sore muscles at the back of the neck, but don’t forget the counteractive muscles – the ones at the front of the neck, the chest, and the upper abdominal area – these are often the muscles that need more stretching.

Stretches such as a cobra stretch/ back arch. Lying over the end of the bed on your back and allowing your neck to gently fall back into a stretch. Standing in a doorway with your arm against the frame and twisting your body so it stretches your chest muscles. Make sure you incorporate these on a daily basis.

The best advice overall, is to make sure you do something. Don’t let your tech-neck develop into a chronic pain problem. Use these easy techniques to keep it at bay so you can keep enjoying life to the fullest!