Stiff Neck Body Aches Fatigue

What Are The Symptoms Of Back And Neck Pain

Symptoms associated with back pain may include:

• Dull, burning, or sharp pain in your back. The pain can be confined to a single spot or cover a large area

• Leg numbness or tingling above or below your knee

• Stiffness or achiness that occurs anywhere along your spine

• Sharp, shooting pain that radiates from your low back to your buttocks, down the back of your thigh, and into your calf and toes

• Consistent ache in the middle or lower part of your back, especially after standing or sitting for an extended period

Loss of bladder and bowel control, with weakness in both legs, are symptoms of a serious condition that requires immediate medical attention.

Symptoms associated with neck pain can be:

• Arm numbness or tingling

• Sharp shooting pains or a dull aches in your neck

Pain that occurs suddenly in your back or neck, due to an injury, is considered to be acute pain. Acute pain comes on quickly and may leave sooner than chronic back or neck pain. This type of pain should not last more than 6 weeks.

Pain that may come on quickly or slowly and lingers for weeks, 3 months or greater, is considered to be chronic pain. Chronic pain is less common than acute pain.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Bacteria called R. rickettsii cause it, and a tick bite is usually how you get it. Most of the symptoms are flu-like — fever, chills, headache, nausea, insomnia, and muscle aches. A rash that doesn’t itch can show up on your wrists and ankles after a few days, then spread. Antibiotics treat it, and the sooner you take them, the better. If not treated, it can lead to inflammation in your lungs, heart, and brain, then kidney failure.

What May Cause Headache And Fatigue

Fatigue and headache are shared symptoms of many conditions. Not all of these conditions are considered serious. However, some may require lifestyle changes or ongoing treatment.

As you consider the reasons why you may be experiencing headache and fatigue, make sure to think about your lifestyle, including your sleeping patterns, diet, and any medications youre currently taking.

Here are 16 conditions and other factors that could cause both headache and fatigue:

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Why Does My Body Ache Causes & Treatment

Body aches are an uncomfortable but common symptom of a variety of medical ailments. If youre experiencing body aches, your muscles may feel weak, sore, tired, or hard to move.

For most, body aches are easily treatablea few days of rest and hydration can provide relief from any discomfort. For some, body aches, particularly those that last a long time, can indicate a serious underlying medical condition that may require treatment.

What Is The Treatment For Sore Throat And Headache

Usually, you can treat sore throat and headache with at-home remedies. If you have strep throat, your provider will prescribe antibiotics to get rid of it. Take all the medicine, even though youll start to feel better within a day or two.

At-home treatments for sore throat and headache include:

• Fluids, especially water, tea with honey, soup or broth.
• Throat lozenges or ice cubes.
• Warm saltwater gargle.
• Cool compress on your head.
• Plenty of rest.

If your child has a headache and sore throat, remember:

• Choose the right medication: Dont give aspirin to young children. It may cause a life-threatening condition called Reyes syndrome. Make sure to choose pain relievers made for infants and children.
• Avoid hard candies: Lozenges or other hard candies can be a choking hazard for young children.
• Dont give honey to babies: Avoid giving honey to infants under a year old. Babies dont have defenses against infant botulism.

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Why Does My Neck Pain Cause Headaches

Neck pain and headaches are often mentioned at the same time, as a stiff neck can cause a headache.

In fact, many neck problems can irritate, strain, or compress the nerves in the neck, which could trigger a headache.

Often, neck pain is caused by poor posture, neck strain, or injury.

In other cases, it could be caused by medical conditions, including a pinched nerve or herniated cervical disk.

There are several factors that can contribute to neck pain, including injuries, strains, and certain medical conditions.

Some common causes of neck pain include:

• stiff neck muscles

A herniated cervical disc occurs when one of the soft discs between one of the seven vertebrae in your neck becomes damaged and bulges out of your spinal column. If this presses on a nerve, you can feel pain in your neck and head.

A pinched nerve occurs when a nerve in your neck is irritated or compressed. With so many sensory nerve fibers in the spinal cord in your neck, a pinched nerve here can result in a number of symptoms, including:

• headache caused by moving your neck

Other symptoms can include shoulder pain along with muscle weakness and numbness or tingling sensations.

Some types of headaches can contribute to neck pain, which may be caused by issues with certain muscles or nerves.

The source of a tension headache is often traced back to a buildup of:

Some types of headaches could be caused by certain neck problems, including injury, inflammation, and chronic neck tension.

Dr K Daniel Riew On Technology

You see it everywhere. In homes and offices, while walking down the street, riding the bus, or standing in line. Tech neck, the act of stressing muscles while using phones, tablets, and computers, resulting in neck and shoulder pain, stiffness, and soreness, is a problem thats getting worse.

Last year, Americans spent a daily average of 5 hours and 53 minutes with digital media, including 3 hours, 17 minutes a day on non-voice activities on mobile devices a jump of more than an hour since 2013, according to eMarketer.

The result? Headaches, neck spasms, and creaky shoulder joints, caused by holding ones neck still for long periods, says K. Daniel Riew, M.D., director of cervical spine surgery and co-director of spine surgery in the department of orthopedic surgery at the NewYork-Presbyterian Och Spine Hospital. Here, Dr. Riew breaks down the causes and symptoms of tech neck and offers ways to correctly and safely align the body while using mobile phones, computers, and other digital media devices.

Health Matters: What causes tech neck?Dr. Riew: When youre working on a computer or looking down at your phone, the muscles in the back of the neck have to contract to hold your head up. The more you look down, the more the muscles have to work to keep your head up. These muscles can get overly tired and sore from looking down at our smartphones, working on computers, or looking down at our tablets all day. Thats what we call tech neck.

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Body Aches Or Pains Fatigue Joint Aches And Stiff Neck

Last Editorial Review: 6/15/2020

There are a few different medical conditions that are strongly associated with:

• Body Aches Or Pains

While the symptoms above can be considered a guide to help associate symptoms common among the conditions below, this is not a substitute for a diagnosis from a health care provider. There are many other medical conditions that also can be associated with your symptoms. Below are the top condition matches for your symptom combination from MedicineNet:

When You Ache All Over

Muscle pain that affects a small part of your body is usually caused by overuse — sore arms from lifting boxes all day, for example. Or it could be a minor injury, like a bruised shoulder after a fall. But when you ache all over your body, itâs more likely caused by an infection, illness, or medicine youâve taken.

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Symptoms Of Glandular Fever

Glandular fever is caused by the Epstein-Barr virus . Symptoms are thought to take about one to two months to develop after infection with the virus.

The most common symptoms of the condition include:

• a high temperature
• a sore throat this is usually severe, but in an older adult, or very young child, the infection may be present without a sore throat
• swollen glands in your neck and possibly in other parts of your body, such as under your armpits

Glandular fever can also cause:

• a general sense of feeling unwell
• loss of appetite
• pain around or behind your eyes
• swollen tonsils and adenoids , which may affect your breathing
• the inside of your throat to become very red and there may be a whitish coating
• small red or purple spots on the roof of your mouth
• swelling or puffiness around your eyes
• a tender or swollen tummy

Some of these symptoms may develop a few days before the main symptoms mentioned above.

While the symptoms of glandular fever can be unpleasant, most of them should pass within two to three weeks. Fatigue, however, can occasionally last several months.

What Is A Headache With A Sore Throat

Most people get headaches many times during their lives. A headache causes pain in your head or face. The pain may be throbbing, sharp or dull.

A sore throat is pain or irritation in your throat. It might feel scratchy, painful or dry. It often hurts more when you swallow.

Sometimes, you have both a headache and sore throat. Most often, an infection causes those symptoms to happen together.

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Insomnia Makes It Worse

It’s easy to understand how living in agony can disrupt a good night’s sleep. When we hurt, it can be so distracting that settling in for sleep becomes difficult. What’s a little more difficult to understand is how lack of sleep can make painful problems even worse. Some studies indicate that poor sleep causes you to feel pain more intensely. The reasons for this haven’t been determined. But if it’s so, then a good night’s sleep could help ease your pain — and easing your pain could help you get better sleep as well.

What Causes Back And Neck Pain

Even with today’s technology, the exact cause of back and neck pain is difficult to determine. In most cases, back and neck pain may have many different causes, including any of the following:

• Overuse, strenuous activity, or improper use, such as repetitive or heavy lifting

• Trauma, injury, or fractures

• Degeneration of vertebrae, often caused by stresses on the muscles and ligaments that support your spine, or the effects of aging

• Abnormal growth, such as a tumor or bone spur

• Obesity, which places increased weight on your spine, and pressure on your discs

• Poor muscle tone

• Joint problems, such as arthritis

• Protruding or herniated disk and pinched nerve

• Osteoporosis and compression fractures

• Congenital abnormalities of your vertebrae and bones

• Abdominal problems, such as an aortic aneurysm

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Remedies And Treatments For Neck Stiffness

At-home remedies will usually help with the majority of early-stage neck stiffness:

• Apply an ice pack to numb the area and soothe inflamed muscles.
• Take an over-the-counter painkiller, like Tylenol, Advil, or Aleve.
• After a day or two, apply a heating pad or warm compress.

During the next few days, take these precautions:

• Be aware of your movements. Try not to jerk your head quickly or twist your neck. This can cause inflammation.
• Try gentle stretches, moving the head back and forth, then up and down.
• Ask a friend or partner to massage the sore area.
• Wear a neck collar for a few hours to rest stiff neck muscles.
• Sleep without a pillow, or use one that’s specifically designed to support the neck.

It’s possible to prevent a stiff neck. The majority of neck pain is a combination of bad posture, injury, or general wear and tear as you age. If you experience neck stiffness often, try making some simple adjustments:

Watch Your Posture

Shoulders should be in a straight line over your hips. Ears should be in line with your shoulders.

Adjust Desk Furniture

Your computer should be level with your eyes. Consider raising or lowering your desk monitor or laptop. When you sit, adjust your chair to ensure the knees fall slightly below the hips.

Use Headphones or Speakerphones

If you hold your phone between your ears and shoulder, or look down to text, you’re putting the neck in an awkward position that could cause muscle strain. Wear headphones or use your speakerphone instead.

What Are The Complications Of Neck And Back Pain

• Loss or productivity: Back pain is the most common reason for disability in working adults.

• Nerve damage: If your back pain is from a herniated disc, pressure on the spinal nerves may cause a variety of problems, such as weakness, numbness, or severe shooting pain that travels from the back to the leg.

• Depression: Back or neck pain can disrupt all aspects of a persons life: work, physical exercise, social activities, and sleep. The anxiety and stress caused by the change in mobility and pain can lead to depression.

• Weight gain: Loss of mobility and inability to exercise can lead to weight gain and the loss of muscle strength.

It is a good idea to see a health care provider if you have numbness or tingling, or if your pain is severe and does not improve with medication and rest. If you have difficulty urinating, weakness, pain, or numbness in your legs, fever, or unintentional weight loss, you should call your health care provider right away.

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What Kinds Of Surgery Are Used For Neck Pain

There are two common types of cervical spine surgeries performed to relieve neck pain:

• Removing the tissue that is pressing against a nerve structure.

• Stabilization: Limiting the motion between vertebrae. , involves the surgeon using plates, screws, bones and other materials to limit motion between the vertebrae in order to stabilize the spine.

There are different types of decompression procedures, including:

• Discectomy: The surgeon removes all or part of a damaged disc.

• Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion :Often thought of as the gold standard in cervical spine surgery, involves removing a damaged disc to relieve nerve root or spinal cord pressure. Your surgeon will insert a graft to fuse together the bones above and below the disc.

• Cervical disc replacement: Also known as artificial disc replacement or total disc arthroplasty, this procedure involves removing the damaged cervical disc along with any bone spurs and replacing it with a metal or polymer prosthetic.

When Should I Call My Health Care Provider

See your health care provider if you have:

• Loss of bladder or bowel control, with weakness in both legs. These symptoms require immediate attention

• Severe back or neck pain that does not decrease with medication and rest

• Pain after an injury or a fall

• Weakness, numbness, or tingling in your legs or arms

• Back and neck problems range from minor aches to severe, disabling pain

• Often, the reasons for your pain cannot be identified.

• See a health care provider if you have numbness or tingling, severe pain that does not improve with medication and rest, difficulty urinating, weakness, pain, or numbness in your legs, fever, unintentional weight loss, or pain after a fall.

• Often, back and neck pain will improve over time. Consult with your health care provider if your pain is not decreasing.

• Use prevention strategies to keep yourself healthy and injury-free.

For severe, disabling, or chronic back pain, consider an individualized rehabilitation program.

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Cervical Collar And/or Cervical Pillow

If youve sustained a neck injury, a cervical collar is used to provide support and limit motion while you are healing. It also helps keep your cervical spine in proper alignment. Cervical pillows are designed to place the right amount of curvature in your neck during sleep. They help decrease pressure on the nerves in your neck to help you sleep better much needed when living with pain!

How Are Back And Neck Pain Managed

Acute back pain usually gets better without special treatment. Using acetaminophen or ibuprofen will decrease pain and help you rest. Surgery and special exercises are generally not used with acute pain.

For severe, disabling, or chronic back and neck pain, rehabilitation programs can be designed to meet your needs. The type of program will depend on the type and severity of your pain, injury, or disease. Active involvement of the patient and family is vital to the success of rehabilitation programs.

The goal of back and neck rehabilitation is to help you manage disabling pain, return to your highest level of functioning and independence possible, while improving your overall quality of life. The focus of rehabilitation is on relieving pain and improving mobility .

To help reach these goals, back and neck rehabilitation programs may include the following:

• Exercise programs to improve range of motion, increase muscle strength, improve flexibility and mobility, and increase endurance

• Help with obtaining assistive devices that promote independence

• Patient and family education and counseling

• Pain management techniques

• Gait and movement retraining

• Stress management

• Ergonomic assessments and work-related injury prevention programs

• Vocational counseling

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