Six of the ten wealthiest corporations on earth are pharmaceutical companies, and without doubt, drug companies make massive profits from sufferers of neck pain and associated headaches. With the proportion of prescription and over-the-counter medication for headaches directly or indirectly associated with neck and back pain being toward the very top of the profitable products list, a huge slice of these profits are being made each year for conditions that are often avoidable and require no medication.



The cervical spine descends vertically from the base of the brain stem, so with the position and staggering complexity taken in conjunction with the complexity of the skeletal structure itself along with the complexity of the muscular system in the same region, we can quickly appreciate why there is such a susceptibility to pain and suffering.

The bony protrusions, called processes extending from each vertebra are, in the case of the cervical spine, relatively lesser in mass than the rest of the vertebral column, making the region also more susceptible than the others. That being the case, it is not difficult to accept why proponents of capital punishment target this part of the anatomy.

When adequate spinal maintenance is absent, function and mobility can be lost, however the reverse is also true in that the spine is so incredibly impressive in its ability to recover if put under the right circumstances.

Stress, one of the other modern day common occurrences in many cultures, also contributes significantly to the need for many sufferers to rely upon medication. By combining the negative effects of 1) chronic muscle fibre shortening, 2) a high incidence of residual muscular fibrosis, 3) nerve, and 4) spinal compression and associated degeneration, stress can add significantly to the likelihood of sufferers becoming dependent upon medication.

When a sufferer contemplates the relative consequences and origins of these four factors, and genuinely investigates an effective and time-efficient strategy to combat and reverse the factors, the dependency upon medication, in its various forms, reduces dramatically. Invariably, these four factors coincide with cervical spine immobility.

An inability to achieve a chin-to-sternum movement [anterior cervical flexion], or any significant raising of the chin [cervical extension], without an associated increase in pain, is also commonplace. This loss of cervical mobility, over time, so often accompanies cervical spinal degeneration, and can often be reversed under a suitable, time-efficient, proven regime. Restoration of elasticity in the muscle fibres involved in the movement and support of the neck and skull, when done on a regular basis, is foundational to the reversal of the 4 factors previously listed. More often than not, mid-to-longer term medication dependent neck pain sufferers mostly experience a reduction of lateral rotation mobility. In other words, their capacity to turn the head more than a minor degree has become impaired, and in order to view objects that are behind them, generally there is a need to rotate the torso rather than the neck.

By adopting an efficient and proven strategy, sufferers should generally achieve encouraging and relieving results within the first one to two months, however it is important to note that any program that requires more than between five and ten minutes/day, even done without the need for specialised equipment and done at appropriate times within the privacy of home or at a suitable workstation, is probably doomed to fail.