Although it might seem somewhat trivial to people who don't understand, neck pain is one of the most debilitating forms of pain out there. After all, when your neck hurts, you can't even turn your head from one side to the other, let alone live a full and fulfilling life.
If your neck hurts, quite literally every aspect of your life is going to be impacted in a negative way.
Sure, you could spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on expensive medical treatments from chiropractors and physiotherapists, or you could go the route that many other people choose, prescription painkillers.
That said, another option that you have at your disposal, which should be much safer and more cost-effective, is CBD. CBD does reportedly have some benefits that may be able to help you relieve some of that nagging neck pain.
Today, we want to take a closer look at what causes neck pain, how to relieve it, and how CBD may be able to provide you with some much-needed relief.
If you’re looking for CBD products for neck pain, you can’t go wrong with our CBD topicals. Try our CBD Cream with Menthol to help you soothe tight muscles and our CBD Salve to help recover your neck muscles after strenuous activity.
Key Takeaways
- Neck and shoulder pain can have a very wide variety of causes.
- Using CBD for neck pain is quickly becoming a popular alternative.
- CBD is thought to be an anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antioxidant.
- One of the best ways to use CBD for neck and shoulder pain is topically.
Neck Pain is More Widespread Than Ever in Modern Society
In today's society, where everybody sits at their desks and probably doesn't exercise all that much, neck pain is extremely widespread. In fact, instances of neck pain are on the rise across the world.
It is thought that anywhere between 16% and 75% of populations from countries around the world experience some kind of neck pain. For instance, in the USA alone, between 10% and 20% of people experience some form of neck pain.
Seeing as a full one-fifth of the USA alone experiences some degree of neck pain, finding the right kind of relief is essential, and this without turning to super dangerous prescription drugs or extremely costly massage, chiropractor, or physiotherapy sessions.
If you are looking for what should be an effective way of relieving neck pain, then CBD could be the right option for you. Although more research is needed on this front, some strong indications are that CBD can help relieve the neck pain you are experiencing.
What Causes Neck Pain?
Before we start talking about how CBD may be able to help your neck pain, let's first take a look at the most common causes of neck pain.
Poor Work Posture
A lot of people nowadays work from their desks, which means that you need to sit properly, or else you will end up in pain.
If you don't sit in an ergonomically proper position, which means that the top of your head is aligned with your neck and spine, with your elbows bent at a 90 degree angle and your forearms perpendicular to the ground, and your knees bent at a 90 degree angle with your feet flat on the ground, it can result in pain from the top of your neck all the way down to the bottom of your feet.
In fact, poor posture when sitting down is one of the leading causes of neck and back pain. This is why ergonomically friendly desk chairs are so popular.
Sports Related Injuries
Sports related injuries are often to blame for neck pain. This is especially the case if the same kind of injury is repeated over and over again. If you have injured your neck many times, your cervical spine could degenerate, resulting in neck pain.
When it comes to sports related injuries, most neck pain is caused by degenerative changes in the neck. A sports related injury could also include things like whiplash from being hit too hard, or even simple muscle strains.
Playing physical sports may also result in ligament sprains and disc injuries, all of which are going to cause severe neck pain.
Muscle Tension & Strain
There are of course many things that can cause your muscles to strain and be pulled. As you get older, your muscles get a little less flexible, making them easier to pull and injure. You could pull a muscle in your neck simply from moving your head too fast or from getting up the wrong way.
Sport is another leading cause of strained and pulled muscles. Moreover, if you're somebody who sits at a desk all day long, doesn't stretch, and doesn't exercise, then you might just have a lot of built-up muscle tension, or in other words, very tight, stiff, and inflexible muscles, which will result in neck pain.
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a common occurrence in older people, and it causes your bones to weaken. Osteoporosis can cause fractures or breaks in any of your bones, and yes, the spine is one of the most effective parts of your body here.
Of course, if your spine is weakened, then it is very likely that you are going to have some neck pain.
Spondylosis
Here we have a condition that is characterized by the narrowing of the space that your spinal cord and the nerve roots require to run through from your spine to the rest of the body. When this space tightens, it can push on your spine and the nerves, therefore resulting in some fairly severe neck pain.
Meningitis
Meningitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the spine and brain, which can lead to back, spinal, and neck pain, and even chronic neck pain that can be extremely long lasting and hard to treat.
Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is yet another extremely serious condition that can be life threatening in some cases. One of the symptoms of fibromyalgia is that it lowers the amount of blood flow to the muscles, which can then contribute to neck pain.
If the muscles in your neck, shoulders, and back don't get enough blood and oxygen, they're not going to be able to function properly, and this can lead to neck pain.
Prior injury
Prior injuries of all sorts can lead to neck pain. Some injuries just never heal properly, and this can lead to chronic neck pain that will impact you for the rest of your life.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune and inflammatory condition that causes your immune system to attack healthy cells in your body, which results in painful swelling and inflammation of the affected parts.
Although this condition usually affects the joints, it can also affect muscles. Of course, this will then lead to neck pain. For some of those affected are now turning to CBD for arthritis in seniors, and anyone experiencing inflammatory conditions.
Ways to Treat Neck Pain
There are quite a few different ways to treat neck pain, although the method of choice will depend on the underlying condition and cause of the neck pain.
Let's take a look at the most popular ways to treat neck pain out there at this time.
An easy way to treat neck pain, if it is caused by poor posture, is to practice good posture. Therefore, we recommend doing some intense research on what good posture is all about and what it means to sit in an ergonomically proper position.
On that note, never cradle a telephone or cell phone between your shoulder and neck, especially not for prolonged periods of time. If your neck pain is caused by poor posture, this may be all you need to do.
If you find that your neck often hurts after you sleep, you might want to try changing your position when you sleep. For instance, there are special neck pillows that you can use to help produce a more comfortable position when you sleep.
If you find that your muscles get sore from sitting or standing in the same position for a prolonged period of time, then don't sit or stand in the same position for too long. If your muscles aren't too strong, they may just get fatigued from sitting in the same position for a long time.
One of the simplest ways to relieve neck pain, especially if caused by some kind of strain or tension, is to do a lot of stretching. Stretching will help to loosen your muscles, make them more flexible, and be less susceptible to injury.
If a sports injury is causing your neck pain, then the obvious solution is to first stop playing that sport, and second, to then seek treatment for that sports related injury. When it comes to sports related injuries, you will often require some kind of treatment, such as physiotherapy, in order for the pain to go away.
Taking over-the-counter pain relievers, or in more severe cases, prescription painkillers are always an option.
Another option at your disposal here is to use hot and cold therapy. If you apply ice to an injured or strained area, it should help to relieve inflammation. After the first couple of days, you will then want to use heating pads or hot compresses, which will help to relieve pain and inflammation by loosening up the muscles.
Going to a physiotherapist, massage therapist, or chiropractor is another option that you have at your disposal.
With all of that being said, another commonly used method or alternative to traditional medicine that may be able to help you relieve some of that neck pain is of course CBD.
CBD for Neck Pain
One of the methods to help treat your neck pain that you may want to turn to is CBD. Although more research is required on this front, indications point to the fact that CBD has a strong potential to help relieve neck pain caused by various conditions, mainly by relieving inflammation.
What needs to be said is that CBD is thought to be a relatively safe alternative to traditional medications, especially powerful prescription opioids. At the same time, CBD is also relatively cost-effective, so it will not break your bank.
Moreover, unlike dangerous prescription painkillers that have a myriad of side effects, CBD generally doesn't have any overly serious side effects that you have to worry about, not to mention the fact that it really shouldn't be physically or mentally addictive either.
Let's move on and take a closer look at exactly how CBD may be able to help relieve neck pain.
Does CBD Help Inflammation?
Although there is still more research required on this front, there are some studies that show that CBD may be able to help reduce inflammation due to it being both an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant.
Although we aren't going to get into the exact science of it now, it is thought that CBD can help with neck pain and inflammation in general, by affecting the way in which the cannabinoid receptors in your brain and body function.
Ways CBD Treats Neck Pain
There are a few different ways in which CBD is thought to help treat or relieve neck pain. Once again, the research here is still somewhat inconclusive, but some strong indications exist.
Let's take a quick look at exactly how CBD may be able to help relieve some of that neck pain.
CBD is thought to be an anti-inflammatory. This means that it may be able to help relieve painful swelling and inflammation in your muscles and other parts of your body. Exactly how this works is not really known, although it is thought to be related to how your cannabinoid receptors function and activate when you consume CBD.
There are various processes in the human brain and body that can lead to inflammation or help reduce inflammation, and many of these processes are thought to be affected by CBD.
CBD is also thought to be an antioxidant, which means that it may have the potential to reduce or relieve systematic inflammation that is caused by oxidative stress, mainly related to some autoimmune conditions.
Although the research on this front is very limited, it is thought that CBD may be able to function as an analgesic, or in simplest terms, as a basic painkiller.
The research on this front is very limited as well. However, it is also thought that CBD works as a neuroprotective agent, which means that it might be able to slow down the progression of various neurological disorders that can result in muscle and joint pain.
At the very least, CBD may be able to calm you down and help relieve some anxious thoughts that you are experiencing due to suffering from chronic pain.
CBD Oil vs. Topical for Neck Pain
Although there are many reasons why you might consume CBD orally when it comes to neck and shoulder pain, it is thought that applying it topically, or in other words, directly to the skin, is the better method. In case you are worried, most CBD products should not contain THC or be psychoactive.
The reason for this is that CBD is oil soluble, which means that your skin can easily absorb it. Moreover, your skin is the largest organ in your body, as well as the most absorbent.
Therefore, applying CBD topically directly to the affected area is thought to be the best way to relieve neck and muscle pain with this awesome cannabinoid. Take a look here to figure out how much CBD to take for your neck pain.
Where to Buy Pain Relief CBD Online
If you are having trouble finding a good place to buy CBD online, or you don’t know how to buy CBD the right way, check out this guide. That said, one of the best places to buy CBD pain relief products online is Evn.
Here we have an awesome selection of Evn Topical CBD pain relief products for you to check out. They come in many different forms, complete with various levels or amounts of CBD, and they won’t break your bank either.
To relax tight muscles and nourish your skin, try our CBD Cream with Menthol. If you’re feeling a bit tight after a workout or bad posture, then use our CBD Salve to help recover your neck muscles.