Causes and treatment of pain and crunch in the neck

The neck is an important “component” of the human body, which consists not only of the spine, but also of ligaments, nerves and large arteries. However, a crunch in the neck when turning the head or a slight crunch in the neck during physical activity can occur in people who do not have health problems.

The cause of the crunch may be a disease such as cervical osteochondrosis. In this case, the intervertebral discs lose their natural elasticity while simultaneously deforming the vertebrae. In the article we will answer the question, what are the causes of a crunch in the neck and how to get rid of this ailment.

Why does a crunch in the neck occur?

If your neck does not hurt, but a crunching sound constantly occurs when you move your head, the reasons may be due to the anatomical features of the body structure. A crunch in the neck is normal if it is caused by the following reasons:

Infancy: In infants, a crunch in the neck occurs due to insufficient fluid in the joints - this problem resolves itself later.
Hypermobility of the intervertebral joints: common in thin people and is an anatomical feature that does not require treatment.
Dissociation of the muscles responsible for flexion and extension of the neck: characteristic of athletes and self-correcting after warming up.

The neck of a healthy person may not hurt, but make such a crunching sound. And, apart from possible psychological discomfort, it does not cause any harm. But if you have a cracking neck and other unpleasant symptoms, this is a cause for concern.

How to deal with natural crunching

Although natural crunching does not affect the functioning of the cervical vertebrae, it can cause some discomfort. Therefore, patients who have not been diagnosed with any pathologies still ask doctors to help them get rid of the sound of head movements. Usually a whole range of health-improving activities is recommended:

change in diet. You should limit the amount of high-fat foods in your daily menu. The diet will improve the condition of the blood vessels that supply the spinal column and will normalize body weight;

correction of drinking regime. To cleanse the vertebral structures of deposited salts, accumulated waste and toxins, it is necessary to drink at least 2 liters of clean water daily;

massage. Therapeutic procedures help accelerate blood circulation, normalize microcirculation, and prevent the formation of carbon dioxide bubbles. Classic, vacuum, and acupressure massage will help eliminate crepitus and strengthen the muscle corset.

Massage of the neck and collar area.

You should engage in therapeutic exercises and physical education, swimming, and yoga to prevent weakening of the muscles that stabilize the vertebrae. If the cause of the crunching is a sedentary lifestyle, then daily exercise for 10-15 minutes will help eliminate it.

Neck exercises.

A course of vitamins will help replenish the reserves of biologically active substances necessary for the optimal functioning of the entire musculoskeletal system. Doctors recommend taking a tablet of Alphabet, Centrum, Vitrum, Selmevit, Complivit every day at breakfast. These preparations contain many microelements, fat- and water-soluble vitamins that strengthen the cervical vertebrae and intervertebral discs.

Symptoms of pathology

A number of pathologies can express themselves by the appearance of a crunch in the neck, and at first the person does not even experience discomfort. As a rule, see a neurologist

Neck pain

If your neck hurts, a crunch is an alarming sign of pathological conditions that can occur against the background of chronic diseases. Doctors pay attention to the nature of the pain (pulsating or aching), its location (on one or both sides of the neck, in the cervical region or in the back of the head), frequency (constant or periodic pain). Often the neck hurts and crunches in the front or back when moving. Pain limits a person's capabilities and causes a lot of inconvenience.

Radicular syndrome

This is compression of the spinal nerves, which causes various neurological disorders in the body. Radicular syndrome develops against the background of pathological conditions, when the neck constantly hurts and crunches. Other signs of radicular syndrome are:

numbness and tingling of the skin;
disturbances of touch;
pale skin;
increased sweating;
tinnitus;
violations of tendon reflexes.

Headache

Often the neck hurts and crunches against the background of serious pathologies, which is why headaches occur. Its symptoms and causes can be very diverse:

Tension: a characteristic symptom is pain that encircles the head like a hoop.
Angiodilation: pain in this case is the result of a violation of cerebral circulation and pulsates in the back of the head or temple, sometimes radiating to the ear.
Angiospasm: pain appears as a result of compression of small capillaries and vessels, it is accompanied by a feeling of lightheadedness, nausea, tinnitus and dizziness.
Violations of the veins: in this case, the headache is described by patients as heaviness of the head, appearing in the morning after sleep. Pain and crunching in the neck, accompanied by the above symptoms, may be signs of serious illnesses that require treatment.

On a note

Let's consider the question of whether it is possible to crack your neck. It is quite delicate, since it requires detailed consideration by a specialist from the point of view of the diagnosis. With a hernia, for example, sharp turns of the head can lead to even greater protrusion of the vertebra. With vertebral artery syndrome, the patient may lose consciousness by turning his head sharply - and fainting is absolutely not good for health, even if it does not require emergency measures to return the victim to consciousness.

On the other hand, careful movements are the same gymnastics that physical therapy specialists recommend repeating at any given opportunity. It’s smarter not to ask whether cracking your neck is harmful, but to ask how often and how exactly to do exercises if your neck is cracking.

The doctor will answer all your questions, unless you are too lazy to go to the clinic and undergo the prescribed examinations. Which, by the way, is in your own interests: living with a stiff neck and poorly functioning internal organs is not much fun.

Diagnosis of pathologies

If the neck makes a crunching sound and hurts with every movement, this is not enough to make a final diagnosis. Such a complex symptom requires detailed study, so the doctor must prescribe the following types of medical diagnostic examinations:

X-ray examination
: allows you to obtain comprehensive information about the condition of bone structures.
Electromyography: necessary to determine the condition of the muscles and nerves responsible for their functioning.
MRI
: best shows the condition of soft tissues.
Echoencephalography: an effective method for studying brain tissue.
ECG
: gives general information about the state of the cardiovascular system, which may be the cause of pain and crunching.

It is worth remembering that when your neck hurts, the crunch cannot be deciphered independently as a symptom of a certain disease. Even a qualified doctor will not do this without modern medical examinations.

Verdict: not harmful

For any joint, crunching is completely normal. Almost every vertebra consists of four joints, and the cervical spine is also the most mobile part. In general, the recommendation is this: move your neck as you please, as long as the crunch is not accompanied by pain or other unpleasant sensations. There is nothing wrong with the crunch itself, but it is always worth remembering that the neck is a very delicate unit of the musculoskeletal system, so too intense and sudden movements threaten injury, regardless of whether you hear the crunch or not.

Each of us at least cracked our neck. When we feel tension in our spine, we begin to do this. There is a safe method for cracking your neck. Let's look at all the nuances so that you don't harm yourself with the next crunch.

Treatment

Treatment of the disease, which causes the neck to crack and hurt, is selected by the doctor and is generally based on a single scheme.

Use of medications

The doctor decides which drugs to use in the treatment of pain and crunch in the neck, depending on the specifics of the disease:

analgesics: prescribed for pain syndrome that causes osteochondrosis and other diseases;
anti-inflammatory drugs: necessary to relieve the inflammatory process that causes swelling;
muscle relaxants: used to relieve tension in muscles and joints;
chondoprotectors: strengthen cartilage tissue and improve the condition of the cervical spine;
corticosteroid drugs: prescribed last, since hormonal therapy is used only when urgently needed, the duration of use should be short.

Also, if your neck hurts and there is a crunch in the vertebrae, the doctor may prescribe vitamins and antioxidants. Self-medication in this case is strictly contraindicated, since improper treatment can only aggravate the situation.

Exercise therapy

Therapeutic exercise is a set of physical exercises that have a beneficial effect on the condition of important structures of the body. When the neck crunches and hurts, only the attending physician can prescribe exercise therapy, and a specialist in the field of physical therapy can select the appropriate exercises. Then the exercises will not harm you and will give the expected effect. The most important condition for successful treatment when the neck hurts and there is a crunch is regular exercise.

Physiotherapy

Electrophoresis, magnetic therapy, reflexology help improve blood circulation. These procedures improve the functioning of tissues and organs, so inflammation is subsequently relieved, pain disappears, crunching is eliminated, and the neck does not hurt. Physiotherapeutic treatment brings results when used correctly, so you should resort to it only with the approval of a doctor. Each treatment method has its own contraindications, so physiotherapy in most cases is prescribed as an addition to the main treatment.

ethnoscience

In case of a crunch and pain in the neck, traditional medicine methods can help. They should not be considered harmless - if used incorrectly, natural medicines can aggravate the disease or create new problems. It is recommended to use folk remedies only with the approval of the attending physician.

Herniated discs

This pathology is an extrusion of the disc into the spinal canal. If the neck crunches for this reason, then the age of the patients falls within the range from 25 to 50 years. In old age, a hernia is vanishingly rare due to the fact that the spinal disc loses mobility over the years, and therefore is physically unable to “jump” out of place.

Causes of development of intervertebral disc herniation:

traumatic impact. Most often - a fall on your back or a noticeable blow to the upper body from behind;
increased load: for example, lifting heavy objects from the ground. Therefore, quite often a hernia is diagnosed in weightlifters and loaders;
excess body weight;
curvature of the spine of various etymologies and degrees of neglect;
a sharp turn of the head with a significant amplitude.

And again, osteochondrosis. A third of patients with this diagnosis, with insufficient or unprofessional treatment, develop a hernia as a complication.

With this disease, pain occurs when turning the head, has a high intensity, and radiates to the arm. Problems with the hand may also occur: numbness, goosebumps, decreased sensitivity of the limb.

Posture problems

They are most often caused by lordosis (curvature of the spine with the curvature reversing forward), kyphosis (curvature is directed backwards, which can cause the formation of a hump) and scoliosis, in which the curvature occurs either to the left or to the right.

With all disorders, the delicate balance of interaction between muscles, joints and adjacent bones is disrupted; they cannot function in the mode prescribed by nature, and changes occur at the level of biochemistry. In advanced forms of the listed diseases, the neck constantly cracks, movements are accompanied by pain and stiffness, and the patient quickly gets tired of physical activity.

It is very important to know what to do if your neck cracks due to the development of poor posture. It only seems that it affects exclusively the aesthetics of appearance. Lordosis, untreated systemically, negatively affects the functioning of the heart, gastrointestinal system and lungs; Often the disease leads to metabolic disorders.

With kyphosis, respiratory ability is greatly affected, and frequent cases of asthma have been reported. Severe scoliosis deforms and shortens the torso, reduces the volume of the chest (and this again leads to breathing problems), and limits the performance of a number of internal organs, which can result in a noticeable reduction in life expectancy. In other words, premature death.

Unstable spine

If your neck crunches, one of the reasons is often increased mobility of the vertebrae in this area. The relationship between the vertebrae located in close proximity to each other is disrupted, their vibration amplitude increases, and the entire section as a whole becomes unstable. In this case, displacement of the vertebrae often develops.

With such instability, not only does the neck crack, but headaches also begin, which without timely treatment tend to intensify. Moreover, there are sleep disturbances, and consequently: destabilization of the nervous state, increased irritability, breakdowns, fatigue, decreased sensitivity of hearing and vision, and impaired coordination. When crunching, back pain may occur; its intensity increases rapidly when lifting loads or even normal bending.

Spinal instability develops after injury; it can be congenital or formed as a result of osteochondrosis (and not only) affecting the cervical spine.

Exchange processes

Metabolism can be disrupted in different ways. One of the options is when the body does not completely absorb calcium and does not remove the remaining residues. Deposits of salts of this mineral are possible in all parts of the neck: on bones, ligaments, joints, tendons, and on the connecting border of the muscles. During the process of deposition, an excess load occurs on individual fragments of the spine, as a result of which the neck crunches - strongly and distinctly, and a pronounced pain syndrome is observed in the area of the affected vertebra. In this case, there are additional symptoms: the patient sways when walking, experiences dizziness, blood pressure “jumps,” and chest pain is noted.

Vertebral artery syndrome

It cannot be called an isolated disease; it is a complex of symptoms signaling a disruption in the blood supply to the brain. The syndrome was first described by French doctors in 1925, and osteochondrosis was recognized as the main reason provoking its development. However, in about a quarter of cases, the appearance of vertebral artery syndrome is caused by other factors, so it is worth mentioning separately.

The essence of the phenomena occurring with it is simple: as a result of the developing pathology, the artery spasms, blood circulation experiences interruptions, and problems with the brain begin. Its manifestations:

pain, and headache. The character can be different - paroxysmal, constant, pulsating or burning. The pain is localized in the back of the head, but during exacerbations it is transported to the temples, eye sockets, frontal lobe, and sometimes even to the ears;
a crunch in the cervical spine is accompanied by a ringing or humming in the ears, which is synchronized with the pulse;
dizziness and vomiting also often accompany the development of the syndrome.

A frequent symptom of vertebral artery syndrome is the patient falling when turning the head too sharply. Sometimes it is even accompanied by loss of consciousness. The patient comes to his senses, gets up on his own, but after fainting feels deep weakness.

As the syndrome progresses, more and more frightening symptoms appear: visual acuity rapidly decreases, deafness may develop (in one ear or both), problems with swallowing may appear, control of movements is lost, and in heart patients the underlying disease worsens. If such signs also cause a neck crunch, what to do is obvious: immediately consult a doctor. Perhaps even by calling an ambulance, especially in the presence of fainting: they indicate almost critical oxygen starvation of the brain.

When the syndrome was first described, it was characteristic of elderly patients. Now the contingent is getting younger: symptoms of the disease are increasingly observed in 30-year-old people. And sometimes it occurs in those who have barely crossed the 20-year mark.

The main trouble caused by vertebral artery syndrome is the difficulty of diagnosis. Despite the severity of the symptoms, they can indicate the presence of both osteochondrosis, with which the syndrome most often begins, and a number of different vascular diseases.

Therapeutic Basics

How to figure out what to do if your neck cracks? You need to understand that each case is individual. The course of treatment should be prescribed based on the diagnosis, the characteristics of the disease, the presence of concomitant pathologies, age, and in many diseases, also gender.

You notice that your neck is cracking. What to do? The smartest step would be to visit a doctor. After all, you need to find out what causes the unpleasant sounds. The prescribed course of treatment depends on its definition.

For diagnosis, consultations with doctors from different fields may be necessary: traumatologist, orthopedist, vertebrologist (specialist in diseases of the spine), neurologist. You may also need to see a rheumatologist if suspicious symptoms affect other joints. An examination by a cardiologist is almost mandatory, since problems in any part of the spine quickly affect the heart.

Urine and blood tests in cases where there is a crunch in the cervical spine are usually uninformative. However, they can also come in handy, since they reflect the presence of an inflammatory process and indirectly indicate the development of pathologies. The most valuable of the instrumental examinations are:

X-ray of the cervical spine. Typically the photo is taken from two angles;
magnetic resonance and/or computed tomography;
electromyography;
electrocardiography – it is needed if symptoms include swelling of the left shoulder or arm. This allows you to exclude or confirm cardiac pathologies;
Echo-encephalography can clarify the cause of headaches in cases where they are particularly severe.

A tactical plan to eliminate crunching in the cervical spine will be developed based on the data obtained. If the cause of its appearance is pathology in the cervical spine, then at the first stage treatment will be aimed at stopping the acute period. That is, the patient will be prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs (usually from a non-steroidal range) and chondoprotectors; in case of severe pain - painkillers, sometimes administered by injection. If non-steroids are ineffective, their effect can be supplemented with muscle relaxants. Their task is to relieve inflammation, but the effect is considered more severe.

When the pain syndrome subsides and the degree of inflammation of the affected area decreases, physiotherapeutic procedures, manual therapy techniques, massage, and physical therapy are gradually introduced into the course of treatment. For diseases of the cervical spine, gentle gymnastics with specially designed exercises should become part of the patient’s daily life and be performed in a disciplined manner, without interruptions.

In the most difficult cases, when conservative treatment is powerless to stop the development of the pathology, the doctor prescribes surgery.

Prevention

If after treatment your neck does not hurt and the crunching has stopped, you should eliminate from your life what caused the unpleasant symptoms. This is what prevention is all about:

A balanced diet: a sufficient amount of vitamins, microelements and fluids will allow you to maintain bones and cartilage in working condition.
Physical exercise: especially recommended for those who have to spend a lot of time at the computer.
Maintaining a healthy weight: Obesity puts serious stress on the spine and worsens its condition.
Reasonable load on the spine: evenly distribute the load on your arms when carrying bags, avoid lifting heavy objects.
Rejection of bad habits.

And, of course, it is categorically not recommended to intentionally crack your neck, since in this case there is a possibility of damaging the joint.

How are diseases of the cervical spine diagnosed?

Any diagnosis begins with clarifying the conditions for the development of the disease, therefore, for maximum objectivity of doctors’ conclusions, it is important to describe in detail the circumstances of the appearance of symptoms, describe your lifestyle without embellishment, and hide information about injuries, serious illnesses and bad habits. After this, the specialist performs palpation, checking muscle tension, the degree of cartilage mobility and tissue soreness when touched.

In addition, radiography and computed tomography are mandatory. To clarify the diagnosis and assess the general condition of the patient, electrocardiography, ultrasound examination with Doppler, and a puncture of cerebrospinal fluid can be performed. You should approach visiting a chiropractor with caution, since such practice is pseudo-scientific and the positive effect of the intervention has not been confirmed by objective data.