What to do in a situation when the neck is jammed? What to do in this case and why such a misfortune could happen? If you are looking for answers to these questions, then this article will be very useful to you, since it contains a lot of information on this topic.
Symptoms of the cervical lumbago
If suddenly a sharp intense pain occurred in the cervical spine , accompanied by severe muscle spasm, after which the neck cannot be turned, this means that a person has a cervical cross. In some cases, the patient hears a distinct strong crunch in the neck, which scares him even more.
The mobility of the neck is so limited that a person absolutely cannot move it to the right or left, and he has to turn around with his whole body, holding his head absolutely motionless. Most often, this condition occurs after an intense sharp movement and is completely unexpected for the patient. Sometimes lumbago can also be accompanied by fever.
There aren’t so many people in the world who have never got a wedged neck. Such a nuisance can happen both in a child and in an adult, a completely healthy person.
What causes a neck lumbago
Let's see why the neck is jammed. There may be several reasons:
- trauma to the cervical spine;
- muscle trauma;
- osteochondrosis;
- intervertebral hernia;
- a cold (due to a draft).
The latter reason is very common in people of different ages, including children. Therefore, if the child's neck is jammed, parents do not need to panic and immediately assume the worst. Perhaps the baby just slipped through. True, you should still consult a doctor, since it is unsafe to diagnose yourself, because a child could get sick because he was injured during the game and did not pay attention to it.
Jammed neck: to which doctor to go?
If you do not know where to turn with your problem, then visit a local GP in the district clinic to start. Tell him as much as possible about the symptoms that bother you. The doctor will examine you and if you suspect something serious, he will give a referral to a neurologist, traumatologist or rheumatologist.
In mild cases, the district doctor himself will prescribe medication, physiotherapy, tests, etc. Sometimes the patient needs a sick leave due to disability.
Stuck neck: what to do? General recommendations
If there is a cervical backache, the first thing to do is to provide rest to a painful part of the body. No need to try through strength to do any gymnastic exercises in the hope of regaining mobility of the neck. Firstly, it does not help, and secondly, the condition can significantly worsen.
In order to reduce pain, you can take a modern non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. We list the most effective drugs in the next paragraph of our article. It is best to wrap the neck with a warm wool scarf. If you are sure that you have been blown away, then you can also put a warm heating pad on the scarf.
Prior to making an accurate diagnosis, it is not recommended to take any significant measures, for example, an independent massage of the collar zone. In the olden days, the cross was treated by putting a heavily heated brick on a person’s back or ironing it through a fabric. In no case should this be done, since deterioration can be provoked.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - first aid for lumbago
When the neck is jammed, the causes and diagnosis may not be established immediately. Meanwhile, enduring wild pain can be completely unbearable, and it’s not worth it. Indeed, in our time in the pharmacy network you can buy excellent modern anti-inflammatory pills, gels, ointments. They will relieve pain, swelling, reduce inflammation and muscle spasm. Such drugs include tablets such as:
- Nise
- Movalis
- Diclofenac
- Ketorol
- Naproxen
- Nimesil
- Meloxicam
- "Piroxicam" and others.
If the neck is jammed, the ointment from the pharmacy can also provide almost instant help. With spasm of the cervical muscles, you can use such external drugs as:
- Ibuprofen
- Fastumgel
- "Final gel":
- Voltarengel;
- Bystrumgel;
- "Indomethocin ointment";
- Viprosal, etc.
If there is nothing listed at hand, then you can take inside such an old, tried and tested over the years, as "Aspirin". Already he is found in almost every home medicine cabinet. Before taking any medicine, be sure to read the contraindications! This recommendation is especially necessary to pay attention to women whose neck is stuck during pregnancy or during lactation, since many medications at this time can not be strictly used for oral administration, and the choice of ointments should be approached with great caution.
Modern diagnostics
We were lucky to some extent, because modern medicine has truly fantastic capabilities in the diagnosis of diseases. Your neck is jammed, what to do - you do not know. Are you afraid that the doctor will not be able to understand what is the cause of such severe pain in the neck and its immobility? Do not worry: in difficult cases, the doctor may refer you to an x-ray. And if the cervical backache was caused by changes in the intervertebral discs, for example, due to osteochondrosis, then radiography will show this .
The most advanced diagnostic methods include MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computed tomography). Both of these procedures are completely harmless and help to detect changes in tissues that can not be detected by a conventional x-ray.
Cold in the neck caused by a cold
If you blew, you suddenly felt severe pain, and your neck got jammed, what should I do? Do not worry. This, of course, is very painful, but not fatal. You can recover literally in a couple of days. The pain occurs in the small muscles that are located in the back of the neck. Due to colds, they are inflamed, swollen, and their spasm just does not allow the neck to move.
In this case, treatment with the drugs indicated above is sufficient. You can also use heat, but you can’t warm the neck very much, as this can lead to even more muscle edema. The same can be said about massage. But with various folk remedies (compresses, rubbing, etc.) with lumbago caused by the common cold, it is not forbidden to use.
In order to fix the neck, a special neck collar can be used to ensure maximum neck immobility. A similar device can be purchased at the pharmacy. If the condition does not improve after a few days, then this most likely means that the problem is much more serious. And without medical advice and help can not do.
Osteochondrosis
If the neck is jammed, the causes can also be covered in osteochondrosis. Usually this disease occurs in older people, but recently, young people (up to 35 years old), and sometimes even children, are increasingly suffering from osteochondrosis. This disease is characterized by dystrophic changes in the intervertebral discs and cartilage tissue between them. Treatment should be carried out by a neurologist. Only he knows exactly how to help if his neck is jammed, than to treat such patients so that the disease goes away as quickly as possible.
In addition to medical treatment, a patient may be prescribed physiotherapy, physiotherapy, reflexology, massage, and may also require the help of a chiropractor. In very rare cases, the doctor may recommend surgery, but this happens only when no conservative methods have yielded results.
Intervertebral hernia
One of the most dangerous diseases of the spine is an intervertebral hernia. Why is it recommended for lumbago in any part of the back not to be treated independently, but to consult a doctor immediately? Yes, because there is a risk of a patient having a hernia in the spine. Treatment then takes a long, and often radically solve the problem, only a complex operation can.
You need to know that with a cervical backache, which is caused by the presence of an intervertebral hernia, pain can be given to the shoulder joint and to the hands. Also often weakening of sensitivity in the fingers, numbness in them, a feeling of "goosebumps", dizziness, headaches, jumps in blood pressure, tinnitus.
Folk remedies
Strong medications are not always required if the neck is jammed. Folk remedies can also effectively help in the fight against such a nuisance. Of course, they need to be treated only if you are absolutely sure that the lumbago is not caused by something serious (trauma, hernia, etc.). The following recipes are provided for your reference:
- Alcohol compresses from tinctures of a golden mustache and Indian onion. Gauze, a napkin or cotton wool is wetted in an alcohol infusion and applied to the neck. From above everything is covered with cellophane and a warm scarf or scarf.
- The so-called "dry heat" helps well. A bag is placed in a problem place, in which warm sand, salt, buckwheat or rice is poured. Please note that the bag should be just warm, not hot.
- The cabbage leaf is soaped with household soap, sprinkled with soda (food), and covered with another leaf. This "sandwich" is placed on the neck and wrapped in a woolen scarf. All this needs to be done at night.
- Turn three lemons with garlic (150 g) in a meat grinder (make sure that there are no seeds). Put the garlic-lemon mixture in a two-liter jar and pour boiling water over everything. In the morning, take the drug half a cup before breakfast (each time the jar needs to be shaken). It helps with osteochondrosis.
- A curd is applied on a woolen scarf with an even layer, on which vinegar (not essence) is then dripped. A curd compress is applied to the sore neck at night.
Backache Prevention
We have found out in sufficient detail what to do if the neck is jammed, than to treat this ailment. Now let's talk about how to prevent this disaster, that is, about the prevention of backache.
- Avoid drafts! Everyone knows this, but many, often young, people often forget about this rule. Especially you need to be careful in the hot summer season: do not sit and do not stand under the air conditioning blowing icy air. The same goes for fans. In the cold season, before going outside, you need to wrap your neck with a scarf or scarf so that it does not blow out under the collar of outer clothing.
- It is necessary from a young age to protect the spine, try to avoid unnecessary stress on it. Before doing sports, you should always warm up - this will protect you from injuries.
- Avoid long stays in an uncomfortable position. This is a common problem for office clerks. Continuous sitting at the computer, especially when the monitor is not installed correctly, can cause neck problems.
- Need to monitor posture. The correct position of the spinal column unloads it, gives a uniform load on the vertebrae and muscles.
- Lack of exercise has a very negative effect on our health. At the same time, regular exercises in health gymnastics are able to maintain it at the proper level for many years.
- Proper nutrition helps to avoid salt deposits in the joints and, as a rule, serves as an excellent prevention of osteochondrosis.