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After a long day of working on your computer, you may feel your neck muscles tightening. Or you may experience an aching sensation on your neck after sitting for hours. Unfortunately, such experiences may be no stranger to you. And it can be the same for many people. Neck pain is one of the more common body aches and pains we can experience in our lifetime. In fact, one out of three people has it at least once a year.
It's so prevalent that whenever it comes up, you may treat it as nothing more than a pain in the neck (couldn't resist that one!). However, neck pain isn’t just annoying but can also become debilitating. In any case, you'll likely be on the lookout for some pain relief. If you've heard of magnesium for neck pain and are wondering if it actually works, then you’ve come to the right article.
What causes neck pain?
It's important to note that neck pain can come from different causes. Here are some of the most common ones.
1. Mental stress
First, it's important to note that neck pain can come from different causes. For instance, it can be rooted in mental stress. When you're anxious, your body tends to go into a fight-or-flight response. Faced with a tension-triggering situation, it will brace itself to run away or “stand its ground and fight." Even if the threat is more psychological than physical, the body reacts to your need to be alert. This causes your neck muscles to tighten for as long as the danger is still perceived.
2. Physical strain
Physical exertions, such as repetitive movements or strenuous activities, can also lead to neck pain. Like many things that can wear and tear, your neck muscles can also become overused, causing muscle strains. The activity trigger can be anything from a demanding workout to a regularly hunched posture from reading in bed.
3. Underlying health conditions
Degenerative conditions like osteoarthritis can also lead to neck pain. Osteoarthritis, alternately, comes from several causes, such as heredity, obesity, and overworked joints. Over time, your cartilage or flexible tissues, which act like beanbags around your bones to protect them from any surface impact, break down. As a result, the bones that it supports also begin to change and weaken, causing pain and stiffness in the joints in your hands, lower back, neck, etc.
Neck pain may also occur due to auto-immune disorders that can give rise to tumors, cysts, and enlarged lymph nodes. Other inflammatory conditions that can cause a stiff or painful neck include meningitis. In the latter, the fluids and membranes that surround the brain and spine swell up, leading to headaches, neck pain, and even fever.
4. Traumatic injury
There are also cases when immediate medical attention is needed, such as when you suffer from accidents or trauma injuries, such as a broken neck or whiplash, damaging your neck nerves, muscles, and ligaments. While some neck sprains or fractures can heal in just a few weeks, they can be serious enough to be considered emergencies.
See a doctor if the neck pain is severe, continues to persist, spreads to other parts of your body, or comes with tingling or numbness, headache, or loss of strength in arms or hands.
Regardless of the cause, studies show that magnesium can alleviate pain in many cases.
How does magnesium for neck pain work?
Some people can have it for days, while others can have it pretty bad with longer, more painful bouts. Regardless of how you experience it, one thing's for sure: you'd want to find some remedy for neck pain. So, can magnesium for neck pain be the solution you're looking for?
Magnesium is commonly used to treat heartburn and constipation. But magnesium has more benefits beyond its use as an antacid or bowel reliever. This essential molecule is so potent that it's sometimes dubbed the "master mineral," with a role in more than 300 reactions of enzymes. Enzymes are proteins in our body that speed up chemical responses in cells, such as digestion, blood sugar levels, and liver functions. Let's break down just how magnesium for neck pain can work for you.
1. It helps relieve anxiety and depression.
Magnesium may play a role in our ability to manage anxiety, a typical cause of neck pain. A systematic study showed that magnesium intake positively affected mood improvement and stress regulation. A lower supply of the mineral was associated with higher levels of anxiety. Several studies likewise show that it can reduce symptoms of depression, helping to minimize the mental triggers that cause the muscles to tense up.
2. It supports muscle health.
The essential mineral is also critical to the support of muscle function. Adequate magnesium levels in your body allow your muscles to relax soon after contraction, much like how it affects the heart. Studies show that when we work our muscles strenuously, it can alter the calcium conditions in our body. This calcium, albeit beneficial to bone health, can attach to specific proteins in the muscles, changing their shape and causing them to contract and result in pain. When you have enough magnesium in your body, it can duke it out with the calcium, binding with the same proteins so your muscles can relax.
3. It strengthens the bones.
If you're Miss Calamity Jane (or Mr.Calamity Joe for that matter), frequently tripping over things or getting into accidents, help is on the way. According to the American Bone Health organization, individuals with enough magnesium levels are more likely to have higher bone mineral density. The denser your bones are, the lower your chances of breaking a bone or displacing it in a fall. One study even shows that taking magnesium by mouth may be effective in helping older women with osteoporosis fend off bone loss.
4. It expedites the healing of fractures.
Magnesium can also help speed up and bolster the healing of fractures. Clinical trials demonstrate that magnesium increased bone building and influenced the repair of the kneecap, that little bone in front of each knee joint. Yet another study showed that the essential mineral promoted tissue renewal and reduced cartilage degeneration. Magnesium, along with calcium, plays a critical role in skeletal development and the steady cell activity of tissues. Thus, a lack of magnesium can delay bone fracture rehabilitation and lead to faster bone loss.
5. It boosts the immune system.
Magnesium deficiency is linked to various diseases, from infections to cancerous growths. In the same way that footballers need energy to grab their opponents, the body's immunity soldiers called T cells also require enough magnesium to tackle the different disease-causing organisms and cancer cells in our system. Studies show that this type of white blood cell can eliminate abnormal or infected cells but only if the body has sufficient levels of magnesium. Without the mineral, our immune systems can become compromised, unable to fight anything from flu viruses and inflammation to cancerous tumors.
Dosing up naturally on magnesium for neck pain
Magnesium deficiency can be addressed with magnesium-rich edibles and supplements in addition. Before augmenting with any dietary pills , see your doctor to check for any potential health risks.
Another way to enhance your levels of the master mineral is with vitamin D. The sunshine vitamin improves our body's ability to absorb magnesium. But this can also be tricky since you can also have vitamin D deficiency if there isn't enough of it in your diet, if you lack sun exposure, or if you have absorption issues. The problem is that there aren't that many foods containing vitamin D. And, of course, you can’t dictate the sun to always be "in season" or follow you around.
Fortunately, there's infrared light therapy to help "beam up" a healthier dose of vitamin D, which can boost your magnesium. By mimicking the sun's powerful healing capabilities, infrared light can boost vitamin D production in our bodies. Dose up the safe and natural way with HigherDOSE!
Our Full Spectrum Infrared Sauna may help increase vitamin D levels, thus optimizing magnesium absorption for neck pain. It can further blast away your aches and pains by decreasing inflammation, enhancing relaxation, and improving circulation. With HigherDOSE, you'll never have to wait for the sun to shine down on you.
