There`s the rub

Following the see-sawing in Parliament is dizzying enough, but our daily lives are also a pain in the neck.

The recent political drama was quite a cliffhanger, but following our fickle politicians as they went back and forth, now supporting one formation and now the other, only to change their minds every three hours... Aah! It was enough to give one a crick in the neck.

Political shenanigans apart, there’s a lot in our lifestyles today that’s a cause for — literally — a pain in the neck. Sleeping in an awkward position, staring fixedly at a computer for hours together, high-speed motorbike riding or driving for long hours on an everyday basis, and so on.

If your neck aches, you can do worse than get a neck rub. A little gentle massaging around the neck and shoulders with the balls of your thumbs can work wonders. (Although sometimes it can get you into trouble, especially if you’re the American president and the person at the receiving end is the German chancellor, a female one, as one George W Bush discovered to his cost.)

According to Dr Harshavardhan Hegde, consultant orthopedist at the Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon, neck aches aren’t always physical in nature. They frequently have a psychological dimension, and this is where a neck rub or a back massage help a lot, or provide temporary relief.

This only works, however, if the underlying reason for the pain is mechanical stress or strain, which it is most of the time.

But it could also be owed to so many other physiological causes, including an injury to the bones, muscles or ligaments of the area.

So, be careful with the maalish, and keep any pressure at a safe distance from the nub of the pain.

“Manipulating, especially hard, can cause a rupture of the small disc and can cause further problems, even paralysis,” Hegde warns.

It’s far better to take some form of pain medication (the Moovs and Iodexes and other pain balms available over the counter, Hegde feels, are palliatives at best) to tide over the worst, change your chair or your pillow to ones that have better ergonomics, or lie down with a towel beneath your neck to give it support.

Most often such simple measures are all it takes to get better, but in a few cases — especially if the pain starts radiating out to the arm — a visit to the doctor may be in order.