Neck Pain and Disk Degeneration

Neck pain is among the most common body aches that many people complain about. This is because the neck area holds delicate structures such as the muscles, vertebrae, and nerves.

Neck Pain can be caused by  mechanical factors such as strains or sprains in ligament, muscles and bones around the neck area are among its most common causes and often starts in the neck and spreads to the shoulder and/or base of the skull.

Aside from mechanical causes of neck pain, there are other factors that can contribute to its development that include:
Poor posture (such as prolonged staring or bending forward position)
High physical workload
Smoking
Stress
Obesity and overweight
Sleep problems

Aside from pain other symptoms of non-specific neck pain include:
Stiff neck
Grating sound when turning or bending the neck
Limited movement of the neck
Painful neck which can spread to the arms and even into the fingers.
Sensation of ‘pins and needles’ in the arm which is due to irritation of the spinal cord

Soft Tissue Adhesions

Adhesions develop when two bodily structures come across and connect to each other while normally they are not attached. The causes of adhesion development include surgery, trauma, radiations, abdominal or pelvic infections and sometimes congenital bands. The injured or traumatic sites involve healing process which may also cause sticking of adjusted structures with healing chemicals along with the healing of normal tissues.
How do adhesions develop? During healing process after surgery, trauma or radiation injuries fibrin deposits on to the injured tissues. This deposited fibrin causes the nearby tissues or organs to adhere to each other. Some of the conditions that involve adhesions include:
Adhesive capsulitis: In this condition adhesions develop between the joint surfaces, leading to pain and hampered movements of the joint, e.g. shoulder joint capsulitis.
Abdominal and pelvic adhesions: In this case, adhesions develop between the internal organs like intestines and reproductive organs, leading to chronic pain, obstruction or reproductive problems in females.
Pericardial adhesions: These adhesions develop after heart surgery and bind adjacent structures like heart and sternum to each other, causing pain and risks for second surgery.
Peritendinous adhesions: These adhesions affect tendons and their sheaths, leading to compromised movements of the digits.
Peridural adhesions: Such adhesions refer to the adhesions affecting the spaces surrounding the spinal cord. After spinal surgery, bands develop in the peridural spaces leading to tethering and chronic spinal pain.

Trauma

Trauma may end up with scars, adhesions, repetitive strain, acute or chronic pain, inflammation, soft tissue injury and broken bones. Sometimes, excessive bleeding leads to shock and then death. Scars, adhesions and chronic pain may last long to affect the quality of life. 

Repetitive strain: Repetitive strain refers to pain or stress in a part of the body due to multiple or repetitive tasks.

 Scar: Scar is a fibrous tissue that results from natural healing process after injury. The process of scarring replaces normal skin with a kind of protein called “collagen” and connective tissue. All injuries to the body result in scarring except minor or superficial bruises or cuts. Scars may be hypertrophic, atrophic and in the form of stretch marks. Keloid is a serious type of hypertrophic scar.
Inflammation: Inflammation is a protective response of the body to eliminate the initial injury and to discard the damaged parts. It presents as pain, swelling, redness, heat and loss of function of the affected part of the body. Inflammation is of two types: acute and chronic. Acute inflammation may end up with resolution, fibrosis, abscess formation and chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation leads to chronic ulcers and tissue destruction.
Soft tissue injury: It refers to the injury to soft tissues like muscles, tendons and ligaments. Such injuries usually result from sprain, strain or overuse of a part of the body and result in pain swelling and reduced function.