If you're planning thyroid surgery, you may experience neck pain and stiffness after the procedure.

I asked Dr. Eric Wisotzky, Associate Director of Cancer Rehabilitation at the National Rehabilitation Hospital what causes it and what you can do to alleviate it. Here's what he said:

Dr. Wisotzky says that several factors can cause neck pain and stiffness after thyroid surgery. The first, he says, is the position of your neck during the surgery. "The neck is often fully extended during thyroid surgery." He informs me that the pain may be due to compression of a nerve in your head, called the greater occipital nerve.

The second factor is neck positioning after surgery, according to Wisotzky. "You may have a tendency to keep your neck in one position after surgery, which can make it feel stiff." Wisotzky suggests moving your neck and shoulders as soon as you're cleared by your surgeon to do so.

The surgical incision can cause the pain, too, Wisotzky says. He adds that "severe post-operative nausea and vomiting may also contribute."

How long does neck pain after thyroid surgery usually last? What can you expect as time goes on?

"Typically, neck pain after thyroid surgery only lasts a few days, but there are cases where it lasts for weeks, months, or even years," Wisotzky says.

And your diagnosis may have something to do with it. "Patients with thyroid cancer seem to have longer periods of post-operative pain than those with benign thyroid diseases."

Dr. Wisotzky suggests addressing the pain as soon as you can. "Early pain control after surgery is important because without it you may be increasing the risk of chronic pain." Dr. Wisotzky says going to a physical therapist to get a neck exercise program is a good idea, as is seeing a physiatrist.  And to move out of stiffness, he suggests 3 simple exercises to be done for 10 repititions, 3 times per day:

1) Move the neck in the following planes of motion: look down, look to the left, look to the right, tilt the neck to the right, and tilt the neck to the left.

2) Rotate both shoulders forward in a circular motion.

3) Slowly raise the arms overhead and slowly lower them back down.

_Source:

_{Wisotzsky, E., MD.  Associate Director of Oncology Rehabilitation, National Rehabilitation Hospital. Email Interview.  Jan 2012.}

Thyroid Surgery May Bring On Unexpected Neck Pain originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 15:06:58.

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Photo Courtesy: Pricegrabber

Reducing the cost of back wellness is relative, in my opinion.  Generally speaking, common sense is often an excellent gauge for picking out things to do to manage your neck or  back pain.  And this may mean the solutions you'll come up with are free or at least low cost.

Of course, exercise is the least expensive. After you consult a physical therapist or other in-the-know professional, you give up your time, but that's about it.

There are a number of other free or nearly free common sense options for low cost back care, as well.  Learning how to do common activities with good body mechanics comes to mind.  For example:

• Lifting heavy boxes
• Sitting with Good Posture

And for daily back wellness for which you're willing to pay a bit more (but will still likely save you money over the long haul), you might try a massage machine.

Ways to Reduce Your Back Wellness Costs originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 12:42:15.

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Photo Courtesy: Pricegrabber

If you live a frenetic life, juggling job, kids, schools, social and more, you may regularly find yourself lugging around lots of different things, large, small, heavy and light.  Has it started to bother your back?  I know it has for me (except when I'm careful about my limits).  Well now there's a solution - the PacSafe Stashsafe Hip Pack 100.

Lighten the Load You Put On Your Back originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at 19:25:34.

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Nominations are now being taken for the 2012 About.com Reader Choice Awards.  And this year you can nominate your favorite spine related blog!  It's easy - just fill out this form.  Voting begins mid-February.  Rewards include a nifty badge the winner can put on their site, and of course, bragging rights.  Best of luck!

Nominate Your Favorite Back Pain or Neck Pain Blog originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 21:38:41.

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Something's changing in the spine treatment world. I think it's a wake up call.

Last week, I blogged about new research showing strong evidence in favor of chiropractic adjustments and exercise to help relieve neck pain.   It seems getting a neck adjustment is a better way to relieve pain in the short and long term than taking pain meds.  And the same study found that doing your back exercises is on par with getting an adjustment, as far as pain relief goes.  For many people, the response to these findings is "I could have told you that."

But there's more.

For people who feel they are caught in a medical system that is constantly treating and billing but rarely delivering pain relief, your feelings are confirmed.

Research shows that while the use and costs of a number of common back treatments (medications, spinal fusions and others) has been rising steeply in the last decade or so, the patients receiving the treatment have just as much pain afterwards as they did before they went to the doctor.  In other words, the costs of back pain treatment in this country is not justified by improvement in quality of life for people on the receiving end of those treatments.

If you want to know more about this or if you're a numbers buff and you're interested in learning, for example, how much back treatments average per person in the US, check out my new article Back Pain Statistics.

Back Pain Wake Up Call originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 15:33:41.

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Photo Courtesy: Jane Sawyer

If you take over the counter medications such as Excedrin or Bufferin, you should know about the recent mix-up at the Novartis plant in Nebraska. (Novartis is the manufacturer responsible.  They make pain drugs for Endo Pharmaceuticals.)

It seems that some of the company's heavy-duty pain meds such as Opana and varieties of Percocet (these are narcotic pain relievers that may lead to addiction) may have gotten mixed up in the over the counter products also manufactured at the plant.  The FDA has issued a warning about this, along with some tips for protecting yourself.

Related:  Choose An Effective Pain Medication

Narcotic Opioid Pain Medication May Be Mixed Up With Your Over The Counter FDA Warns originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 14:23:17.

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Photo Courtesy: Michael J. Summerville

A recent study funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine suggests that getting an adjustment by a chiropractor for sub-acute neck pain (pain you've had for  more than 2 weeks but less than 3 months) is a better idea than taking pain killers.  The same study found that doing home exercises taught by a physical therapist may yield similar results as chiropractic manipulation.

Researchers from Northwestern Health Sciences University in Minneapolis divided 272 adults with non-specific neck pain into 3 equal groups.  One group received chiropractic treatment for 12 weeks, another saw a PT for home exercises and the third group took pain medicine.

The researchers measured pain levels and functioning abilities in the short (during and right after treatment) and long term (6 months and 1 year) and found spinal manipulation therapy to be superior to taking pain meds at all times.  They also found that doing the home exercises was just about as good for the patients as the adjustments.  The chiropractic patients expressed more satisfaction with their treatment than did members of the other groups.

My comment: Often risks and side effects of drugs cannot be avoided.  It's good to know there's a non-toxic alternative that has proven itself in research.

_Source:

_{Bronfort, G., et. al. "Spinal Manipulation, Medication, or Home Exercise With Advice for Acute and Subacute Neck Pain. A Randomized Trial." Annals of Internal Medicine (volume 156, pages 1-10). Jan 3 2012}

Neck Adjustments Pass the Test Of Medical Research originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 22:33:16.

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Photo : Sebastiano

Now that New Year's is around the corner, I think a short lesson on back anatomy is in order.

Hopefully, your resolutions include committing or recommitting to doing daily back exercises.  In general, the experts I interview and the research I read (not to mention my professional and personal experience) indicate that daily back exercise is, by far and away, one of the most effective means we humans have to manage back pain.  (This may vary according to your diagnosis, but is the case more times than not.)

On to the anatomy lesson.

For people with back pain, my opinion is exercise selection and program design should be made with a consideration toward the way the moving pieces of the body connect with one another. For back flexibility as well as good, supportive body posture (often a key to back pain reduction), it is important to understand the way the pelvis, in particular, affects the low back.

One of the most common posture culprits affecting muscle related low back pain is the anterior pelvic tilt.  Not everyone has this problem (in fact some people actually have the opposite, which is called posterior pelvic tilt).  Just the same, anterior pelvic tilt is one of the most common pelvic misalignments resulting in back pain.

For the 80% of people with back pain who can aptly manage by doing daily back exercises, working on your muscles is a "low hanging fruit."  In other words, if you take some time every day to stretch and strengthen the muscles of the core, your back muscles and your hip muscles, you may quickly find that your back pain has diminished.

Now let's put these two concepts together.  I've already said that an anterior pelvic tilt may lead to back pain. But can you exercise that away?  It turns out you probably can, at least to some degree.  The reason for this is that when your quadriceps muscles (muscles at the front of your thigh) get tight, they pull the pelvis into that anterior tilt.  To get started addressing your anterior pelvic tilt with exercise, try a quad stretch.

New Year's Back Anatomy Lesson originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 08:47:08.

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As a health journalist specializing in spine, I frequently hear varying opinions about pain, pain relief and the politics surrounding these important issues.

I've learned to keep my mind open about the usefulness of treatments, including ones I would likely not consider for myself.  At the same time, I've read and heard some pretty sad stories about how innocent people (apparently not drug addicts) in terrible pain have died because of mistakes made by drug companies, about compassionate doctors who, after giving the dosage of narcotic pain relievers that in their estimation would really relieve their patients' back pain, ended up in jail for it, and about people whose quality of life was forever altered for the worse after spine surgeries (disc replacement and others) they perhaps didn't even need.  Can  you add to this list?  Or do you have an opposite experience?  Leave your comment below.

My observation is there's a growing (albeit very slow in many peoples' views) awareness on the part of the medical establishment and the government of pain as a national public health crisis.  To this end, in 2011 the Institute of Medicine produced a report entitled "Relieving Pain in America:  A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research."  The report was produced in response to a request by the National Institute of Health (NIH), and  provides an assessment of the state of the science of pain medicine.  It also offers recommendations to the federal government on advancing the pain management field.  The assessment and recommendations touch on data collection, medical education, inclusiveness, and other things.

It will take a while before all recommendations are implemented, but during  the coming year (2012) you may see the following:

• Designation of a lead institute within the NIH to "move pain research forward"
• Development of a comprehensive pain management strategy for the country
• Development of a strategy that addresses barriers to care for pain patients
• Support for collaboration between primary care docs and pain specialists.

_Source:

_{IOM. Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research. National Academy of Sciences. June 2011.}

IOM Pain Blueprint Implementation Starts in 2012 originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Friday, December 30th, 2011 at 17:21:15.

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Photo Courtesy: Global Total Office

For the 3rd and last installment in "Can an Ergonomic Chair Fit into a Christmas Stocking?" series, I've reviewed the Global Goal task chair. The Goal is the only one of the 3 chairs in this series that is not rated "Big and Tall." What is "Big and Tall," you ask? This article on shopping for a big and tall chair will tell you.

Can an Ergonomic Chair Fit into a Stocking? Part 3. originally appeared on About.com Back & Neck Pain on Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 at 20:51:32.

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