Balance Rehab: Neck Pain & Stress

Balance Rehab: Neck Pain & Stress

N E W S L E T T E R

Is Stress Causing Your Neck Pain?

See Inside • Is Stress Causing Your Neck Pain? • Staff Spotlight • How Physical Therapy Can Help Neck Pain • Healthy Recipe • Power Snack

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N E W S L E T T E R

Is Stress Causing Your Neck Pain?

Causes of Stress-Related Neck Pain While stress alone can trigger neck pain, a few factors can make it worse. Office environments tend to create neck pain problems — as they confine people to chairs, bad posture and little mobility. Driving often, too, can make your chances of stress-related neck pain higher. The U.S. National Library of Medicine suggests contacting a professional if you’re experiencing neck pain. Even if it’s caused by stress, untreated neck pain might later reveal muscle spasms, arthritis, bulging discs or even narrowed spinal nerve openings.

Does your neck hurt? You might be suffering from stress-related pain — also called a tension headache. During anxiety, muscles tense up. As muscle tension tightens, the back, shoulders and neck are affected. The more pressure they cause, the more discomfort you get. Let’s take a closer look at stress-related neck pain. Is My Neck Pain Caused by Stress? Pain worsened by keeping your head in one place — like when you’re driving, or using a computer — is neck pain. While neck pain has a slew of symptoms, its major symptoms, reported by Mayo Clinic, are: • Muscle tightness and spasms • Headaches • Decreased ability to move the head Stress-induced neck pain isn’t rare. It also isn’t psychological. Many experts think stress-induced neck pain is caused by physical factors — low, but constant, trapezius muscle activity. If your neck pain starts at the base of your shoulders, traveling upward, it may be stress related.

Sources https://www.spine-health.com/blog/how-relieve-neck-pain-caused-stress https://www.everydayhealth.com/neck-pain/neck-pain-reduce-stress.aspx https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0027055/ https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000802.htm

https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/most-neck-pain-improves-with-self-care-time/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/neck-pain/symptoms-causes/syc-20375581

Are you letting neck pain hold you back? Call 603.890.8844 to schedule your appointment today!

How Physical Therapy Can Help Neck Pain Neck pain, fortunately, can be alleviated with physical therapy. Because neck pain is often caused by activity, different activity can cure it. Sometimes, this “activity” means “no activity.” Before you contact a professional, try reducing your neck movements. Sometimes, simply letting your neck muscles relax is enough. If you don’t see relief within two weeks, contact a professional. Physical therapists can target your pain’s source by examining your symptoms. Then, they can offer exercises that stretch, flex and relax your neckmuscles. In time, your neck will becomemore resilient — giving you the comfort you deserve. Where after-care treatment is considered, custom-tailored neck exercises will assure your neck stays loose, limber and healthy. If you’re dealing with neck pain, you’re not alone. Call our office today, and schedule an assessment. Even if your neck pain is caused by stress, it still needs attention. We’ll work side by side with your goals, creating the proactive, effective programs you need to achieve mobility once more.

CHOPPED SALAD WITH RICE WINE VINEGAR, LIME & GINGER DRESSING Healthy Recipe by Noreen Gallo MSRD, LD

Ingredients • 2-3 cups chopped red cabbage • 1 head chopped romaine lettuce • 2-3 chopped peppers, red and yellow look very pretty with the red cabbage • 1/4 cup chopped scallions • 1/2-3/4 cup, shredded carrots • 1/4 cup frozen peas, 1/4 cup frozen corn

Dressing: • 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar • 1/8 cup olive oil • 2-3 tbl sesame oil (depending on how strong you like it) • 1-2 tbl minced fresh ginger • 1 tbl honey • juice of 1/2 fresh lime • 2 tbl soy sauce (I used gluten-free)

Are you letting neck pain hold you back? Call Balance Rehab at 603.890.8844 to schedule your appointment today!

Instructions Toss the above ingredients together. Whisk dressing ingredients together and mix into salad. The ingredients can be modified to your families tastes but the basic dressing ingredients are what make the salad special. Chicken would be a tasty addition to this salad to make it a complete meal.

Staff Spotlight CATHY SCHILLING, PT A graduate of Northeastern University Boston Bouve College with a degree in Physical Therapy since 1980, Cathy Schilling has spent her professional career developing a specialty in orthopedics. With extensive coursework and practice in treatment of the musculoskeletal system, she enjoys helping people with injuries, pain, and disabilities return to their optimum level of functionality and independence. Cathy excels at head and neck pain treatments (including TMJ dysfunction), sprain and strain treatments, joint replacement rehabilitation and is also certified in the Graston Technique. Cathy has made Goffstown her home since 1987, and she and her husband raised three boys who were active in all that Goffstown sports had to offer. Currently, Cathy enjoys walking, hiking, biking, and painting with watercolors. She especially favors a walk into the village, photographing the bridge during Pumpkin Regatta and memorializing the scene with her brushes.

Call Balance Rehab at 603.890.8844 , or visit our website at balance-rehab.com to schedule your appointment today!

Does it sometimes feel like you are always hungry? Do your kids come home from school/practice and start endlessly grazing from snack to snack? One solution to this never-ending hunger and snacking is to POWER UP your snacks by following this simple snack formula POWER SNACK: HOW TO TAKE YOUR SNACK TO THE NEXT LEVEL Snacking on carbohydrates, such as crackers, pretzels, chips, cereal, cookies, brownies and even fruit alone can lead to endless hunger. Our bodies are designed to burn carbs first and fast and eating them alone can lead to seemingly endless grazing. The solution is to POWER UP a snack with PROTEIN and or HEALTHY FAT. If I had a penny for every person that told me apples (carbohydrates) made them hungry I would be one rich dietitian! Don’t get me wrong, apples are super healthy but they are carbohydrates and we burn them quickly. The simple act of smearing peanut butter (protein/ fat) on the apple will keep you full longer. SNACK EQUATION CARBOHYDRATES: Cereal, whole grain crackers, bread, bagels or rice cakes, pasta, rice, fruit, veggies, muffins, pretzels, dried fruit. PROTEIN: Milk, chocolate milk, cheese, peanut butter, almond butter, nuts, seeds, meat/deli meat, all natural beef jerky, cottage cheese, humus, beans, eggs and greek yogurt CARBOHYDRATE +PROTEIN or FAT = POWER SNACK

FAT: Avocados, guacamole, nuts, seeds, peanut butter, almond butter, full fat dairy items, meat and eggs. (Many protein foods also contain fat and overlap the groups)

HEALTHY SNACKING IS NOT JUST FOR KIDS

Selecting foods from the different food groups will POWER UP the snack and keep you and your kids full longer! Research indicates that 20-25% of our daily intake comes from snack.

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR SNACK!

Patient Success Spotlight Mindy R.

“ Balance Rehab is my go to place for healing life’s unexpected injuries and pains! When life throws me a curve ball, they are the first ones I call. The highly skilled staff quickly accessed my injuryandcompassionatelyguidedmeduringthehealingprocess.Eachvisit,myPhysical Therapist, Cathy Schilling, reassessed how healing was coming along and gave me an individualized exercise program based on that progress. Their exceptionally knowledgeable and genuinely caring staff is beyond compare. They are my “secret weapon“ to achieving my goals. Don’t hesitate to call, they will get you back to doing the things you love to do. I highly recommend Balance Rehab! ” - Mindy R.