Your body tends to breakdown over time. Not taking care of yourself along with previous injuries, stress, and harmful daily activities will speed the breakdown process.
In the neck, the first stage of deterioration is a loss of the neck curve as well as other misalignments of the neck bones. This will cause some changes in the muscles and ligaments in this part of the body or vice versa. At this point the discs and bone are still normal.
As you progress in the breakdown process (stage 2) we then start to see joint and bone changes along with more severe muscle, ligament, and tendon changes. By the way, in stage I neck pain may be occasional, but then at this stage it will be happening more often and becoming chronic.
At stage 3 we now start to see major neck degeneration and loss of bone mass. You may even have the beginnings of neck fusion. Your health problems at this phase of degeneration will be severe and chronic.
The last stage of neck degeneration or arthritis is stage 4. Here we will have severe breakdown with actual fusion and collapsing of the neck vertebrae. Misalignments will now become permanent as well as the health problems.
At stage 1 and 2 we can still repair a lot of the problems or symptoms, but as we move into stage 3 or 4 they become very difficult, if not impossible, to change. That being said, do whatever you can do to keep your spine healthy or it can cause permanent health problems.
Additional Reading Resources:
- Dissecting Spinal Degeneration in the Cervical Spine
- How to Limit Degeneration in Your Neck and Other Joints
- Neck Exercises for A Healthy Neck
- Get Pain Relief Now in the Neck: No Surgery, No Medications
- Learn How To Eliminate The Pain Associated With Arthritis In As Little As 3 To 5 Days
In my experience as a physical therapist, most headaches and neck pain are due to the shoulder blades sitting too low on the trunk. I know this may sound odd but, to put it simply, there are muscles attaching from the shoulder blade directly to the first four neck vertebrae and skull. When the shoulders sit too low, these muscles then pull on the neck bones and skull causing neck pain and headaches.
Here’s a quick, simple test to see if this is a contributing cause of your headaches. If you’re having right-sided neck pain or headaches, raise your right hand and place it flat on top of your head for 20 seconds. Make sure your head doesn’t side-bend or rotate to achieve this. If your pain diminished after this test, then your scapula may be sitting too low causing your discomfort. This is easily correctable. This is also the culprit in diagnoses such as thoracic outlet syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome. I’ve just written a book about fixing neck pain and headaches using an approach based on this mechanical connection to the shoulder and neck. It has been very effective over the last few years and I think is worth a try if you haven’t found the answers you are seeking.
I’ve also posted this and another test on YouTube, if you’re interested.