7 Ways to Treat A Stiff Neck – Starting with the Fastest

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Today, your rude awakening wasn’t the alarm clock.

It was your neck. 

If you have some or all of these symptoms, you have a stiff neck:

  • headache
  • tense muscles or muscle spasms
  • pain and difficulty or inability to turn the head
  • general neck soreness

Let’s look at seven ways to treat it, starting with the fastest. 

1. Take Over-the-Counter Pain Medicine 

If you don’t have any time, taking a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen or aspirin can lessen the pain by reducing inflammation. 

2. Try Self-Massage 

Step one: Find the sore, tense area with whichever hand is closest. You may be able to feel a raised lump. 

Step two: Press into the knot with one or more fingers. You can get creative and use a prop like a plastic lip balm or tennis ball instead of your fingers.

You may feel pain, but it should feel like the productive pain of a massage rather than sharp pain.

Step three: Turn your head slightly toward the side opposite the knot, then slowly bend it down toward a position parallel with your armpit. 

Step four: Repeat steps two and three about 20 times, then gently stretch your upper back as you usually do when getting out of bed. 

You can do this again throughout the day as needed. 

3. Try Hot Therapy 

Heat therapy can reduce pain by relaxing sore and tightened muscles. 

An easy way to apply heat is to dip a towel in warm or hot water, ring it out, then wrap it around your neck for as long as it’s warm. 

4. Try Cold Therapy

Cold therapy can reduce pain from pulled and tense muscles by lessening inflammation.  

To make a cold pack, put something frozen or cold such as a small wet towel, bag of ice, or reusable plastic freezer pack, in a sealed plastic bag. 

You may want to wrap a shirt or towel around the bag so that it doesn’t feel too cold against your skin. 

Next, hold the pack against the sore area of your neck long enough to feel it get very cold or even numb (but not painful). 

Heat or cold therapy alone can relieve pain, but the two can be even more effective when used together.

5. Get A Professional Massage

A massage therapist has the training to work the tension out and improve circulation in your sore neck.

6. Avoid Strenuous Physical Activity

Sometimes less is more. 

Sit out from your regular exercise routine or sports participation, and cancel your appointment to help move furniture.

Resting your sore neck is the priority.

7. Visit A Pain Specialist

It’s time to visit a pain specialist when your pain and stiffness don’t improve after more than a day or two of self-treatment. 

Pain specialists can identify whether a more serious underlying condition than tension or a pulled muscle is causing pain and discomfort in your neck. 

Pain Relief in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Outlying Areas

At Texas Pain Physicians, our team of pain specialists is here to help you find relief from the pain and stiffness. 

With 16 locations in major Texas cities, chances are we are nearby you. 

Feel free to call us at (972) 636-5727 or book an appointment online.

Knee Joint Gel Injections: Get Relief from Arthritis Knee Pain for Months or More!

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Missing out on life because of painful knees is frustrating. 

Getting months of pain relief after a few out-patient injections can be reinvigorating. 

How cushioning in knee joints breaks down.

Normal, healthy knees contain a gel-like substance called hyaluronan. 

Hyaluronan acts as a lubricant for cartilage, the tissue covering the ends of bones, providing joint cushioning or shock absorption. 

But in joints affected by osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and gout (a complex form of inflammatory arthritis), the chemicals that make up hyaluronic acid break down, and levels of hyaluronic acid decrease.

With less and less lubricant, the cartilage wears out, and knee bones rub together, causing stiffness, inflammation, and pain. 

Knee Joint Gel Injections 

Your pain physician can replace that gel-like substance in your knee joint.

It’s that simple.

The Procedure

Depending on the state of your knee joint, your doctor or pain specialist will either administer a single injection once or one injection weekly for three to five weeks. 

During the procedure, if the joint space in your knee is swollen with excess fluid, the doctor will first inject a local anesthetic to numb the area, then inject another needle for draining the fluid. 

She may use ultrasound or X-Ray to guide a needle into the joint and then inject the hyaluronic acid. 

How Quickly Does Relief Come? 

You may feel pain relief immediately or require several or more injections. 

And unlike steroid injections, the procedure can be repeated as many times as needed. 

You can return to regular activity within 24 hours of the injection. 

Most patients experience decreased pain and stiffness and improved range of motion soon after the injection. 

How long does it last?

Though individual responses vary, people can experience relief for months or even a year or more. 

In addition to pain relief, these injections can slow the progress of osteoarthritis, which causes the breakdown of cartilage. 

Who Is A Good Candidate?

Pain specialists typically recommend hyaluronic acid injection after experiencing little or no relief from conventional treatments, such as:

  • physical therapy
  • non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication
  • corticosteroid injections
  • ice or cold therapy

Also, some people cannot take more corticosteroids due to the health risks associated with repeated use or can’t tolerate NSAIDs due to disease and drug interactions. 

Knee Pain Relief at Texas Pain Physicians (TPP)

To learn more about how a pain management doctor can help you overcome your knee pain issues, visit the pain specialists at TPP. 

We help people like you every day. 

Get the discussion started by calling (972) 636-5727 or schedule an appointment online.

7 Treatment Options for A Pinched Nerve in Your Lower Back

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In your lower back, a pinched nerve, also known as a compressed nerve, can cause intense pain and discomfort.

You may experience the following symptoms in your lower back, hips, buttocks, legs, ankles, and feet:

  • stabbing and shooting pain
  • numbness 
  • muscle weakness 
  • muscle spasms
  • loss of reflex

General practitioners and pain specialists typically recommend these four simple, non-invasive treatments before anything else:

1. Medicine

  • non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
  • Naproxen sodium (Aleve)
  • muscle relaxers

2. Physical Therapy

Physical therapy with a certified therapist can help heal and lessen the pain of a pinched nerve by improving your coordination, balance, and strength.

3. DIY Treatments 

Heat and cold therapy: ice packs, hot and cold compresses

Sleep adjustment: sleeping with a pillow under your back or between your legs to help ease pressure on nerves

Ergonomic adjustments: Keeping your legs elevated and placing pillows under your legs during the day to take the pressure off your spine

4. Lifestyle Changes

  • increased activity through exercise (aerobics, yoga, pilates, tai chi, weight training, etc.)
  • dieting

Exercising and dieting to lessen inflammation and lose weight can help heal and alleviate the pain from pinched nerves and lower the risk of suffering another pinched nerve.

 

YOU MAY ALSO BE COMFORTABLE TRYING NON-TRADITIONAL TREATMENTS AND MANAGEMENT:

5. Non-Traditional Therapies

Massage: Massage therapy can relieve pain from a pinched nerve caused by tight muscles, tendons, and ligaments (not by pressure from a herniated disc or other spine problem). 

Acupuncture: Acupuncture practitioners and some patients report that that practice decreases inflammation in the body, decreasing pain.

Chiropractic: Chiropractic realignment may relieve pressure on the spinal nerves, which can, in turn, reduce the pain and heal a pinched nerve.

 

BUT SOMETIMES, THE PAIN IS SEVERE AND LONG-LASTING, AND PAIN SPECIALISTS WILL RECOMMEND MORE AGGRESSIVE TREATMENTS: 

6. Out-Patient Drug Treatment and Prescription Drugs

Oral corticosteroids such as prednisone, methylprednisone, and dexamethasone can reduce pain by suppressing the body’s inflammatory response. 

Corticosteroid nerve block injections in the lower back can stop or reduce the pain for weeks or months (find out more about this and other pain treatments here).

The drawback is that these steroid medications reduce the body’s ability to fight infection.

Doctors may prescribe these oral drugs instead:

  • prescription opioids (one to two weeks to avoid dependence)
  • muscle relaxers
  • anticonvulsants
  • tricyclic antidepressants

 

AS A LAST RESORT WHEN OTHER TREATMENTS HAVE FAILED, SPECIALISTS WILL RECOMMEND A SURGICAL PROCEDURE: 

7. Surgery 

Herniated discs are a common cause of pinched nerves. In some cases, a discectomy is the best option.

The procedure involves a surgeon removing all or part of the disk pressing on the nerve root.

But this surgery may also involve removing or fusing vertebrae, which raises the risk significantly.

Treatment at Texas Pain Physicians 

If you’re experiencing pain and discomfort in your lower back and legs, we can help. 

At TPP, we have specialists across many medical disciplines who will find the treatment plan that suits you. 

Please call us at (972) 636-5727 to find out more or make an appointment. You can also book an appointment online.

Need Fast, Non-Surgical Relief for Lower Back Pain? An Epidural Injection May Be the Answer.

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Doctors and pain specialists generally recommend natural, non-surgical, and non-opioid treatments for pain.

Physical therapy, massage, over-the-counter medicines, and hot and cold therapy are a few of the most common first-line treatments. 

Fast-Acting Pain Relief for Weeks or Months

However, your doctor or pain specialist may recommend an epidural injection or nerve block when you have nerve-related pain in your lower back and legs.

Epidural injections for back pain are a powerful, non-invasive treatment that can provide pain relief for several months.

How They Work

Epidural injections can:  

  • Provide local pain relief.  
  • Block pain signals sent from the surrounding nerves.  
  • Temporarily cut off all sensory and motor neurons from below the injection site.  
  • Reduce swelling and inflammation.  

An injection contains either an anesthetic, a corticosteroid, or both. 

The anesthetic stops the nerves around the injection site from sending pain signals, and the corticosteroid reduces the swelling and inflammation.

When targeting herniated discs and swelling, epidurals may take 24 to 48 hours to start working.

Conditions epidural injections can help heal and provide pain relief for include:

  • pinched nerve
  • pain radiating from the spine
  • degenerative disc disease
  • herniated or bulging disc
  • recovery from back surgery
  • spondylolisthesis  
  • spinal stenosis
  • Sciatica

Conditions they don’t help to heal and provide pain relief for include:

  • general back pain (non-nerve related pain)
  • pain from bone spurs
  • pain from cancerous or non-cancerous growths
  • pain from pulled muscles 

Epidural injections may temporarily relieve pain from bone spurs or growths, which irritate the surrounding tissue and nerves.

However, this temporary relief will only delay other treatments or interventions (such as surgery).

Why Get One?

Epidural injections can be a temporary pain fix when you need to “buy time” for your back to heal from an injury.

They can also provide pain relief from a chronic pain condition as you go through physical therapy or other treatments with delayed benefits.

Though you will have to visit your pain physician and endure a little pain from the injection, it may save you weeks or months of popping pain meds.

And with an epidural injection, there’s no risk of addiction (unlike even short-term opioid prescriptions).

Back Pain Treatment in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Irving

Texas Pain Physicians is a leading patient-centered pain practice in Dallas, Houston, Irving, San Antonio, and the surrounding areas. 

Our pain specialists partner with you to help you achieve long-lasting pain relief. 

Please give us a call today at (972) 636-5727 or book an appointment online.