Your neck can feel weird or painful or stiff as a result of a pinched nerve, tumors, spinal stenosis, herniated disk, osteoarthritis, mental stress, sleeping in the wrong position, poor posture or even physical strain.
To decompress your neck at home start by taking one hand and placing it on the back of your head and then use the other hand and grab your chin.
Then pull your chin downward towards your chest.
You can also decompress your neck at home by doing side bends which is an exercise that helps relieve tension in your neck muscles by stretching them.
To do side bends, tilt your head to one side and then gently move your head up and down for 10 seconds.
If you can't relax your neck it can be a result of ligament and muscle issues within the neck.
If you're unable to relax your neck within a few days you should see your doctor as it could also be meningitis or in rare cases a brain tumor but most often the stiff neck or tense neck is nothing to worry about and resolves on it's own.
Even stress and anxiety can cause a stiff neck.
To force your neck muscles to relax apply some gentle heat such as from a hot towel, heating pad etc or take a warm shower which will help to loosen tight neck muscles.
After your neck muscles are warm you can then give yourself a gentle neck massage or have someone massage your neck for your.
The fastest way to cure a stiff neck is to apply some ice or heat to the area and doing a gentle massage of the neck.
Using a soft neck collar and taking over the counter pain relievers and staying active can also help with a stiff neck.
The signs that let you know if a stiff neck are serious are if the stiff neck does not go away within a day or 2 or if the stiff neck also is accompanied by severe neck pain, or problems walking, loss of bowel control or bladder control or lack of coordination.
Things that makes a stiff neck worse are poor posture, straining your neck, sleeping on a low, firm pillow or using too many pillows that can force your neck to bend unnaturally.
You should worry about a stiff neck if the stiff neck does not go away within a few days to a week or if the pain persists longer than a few days to a week.
Or if taking painkillers does not get rid of the neck pain and the stiffness does not go away then you should see a doctor.
A stiff neck can be a symptom of something else such as a dangerous infection called meningitis that requires medical treatment right away.
In some cases a stiff neck can be caused by sleeping in the wrong position, straining your neck or overuse of the neck.
The illness that starts with a stiff neck is meningitis which is an infection and inflammation of fluid and membranes that surround your spinal cord and brain.
The membranes are called meninges and the inflammation from meningitis usually triggers symptoms like stiff neck, fever and headache.
Meningitis neck pain will feel like intense, deep pain that can extend into the head or down the back.
The neck pain from meningitis can get worse when you stretch and can also involve more than just the neck and shoulder area.
Moving your neck up and down stretches the inflamed tissue of the meninges.
A headache from meningitis will feel like a migraine headache and the headache usually begins quickly and affects the entire head instead of just one location.
Meningitis usually begins with symptoms such as a fever, loss of appetite, cough, muscle aches and headache.
The 5 causes of meningitis are parasites, fungi, viruses and bacteria and certain cancers.
Most meningitis infections are transmitted from person to person and even cancers, drugs and injuries cause a small number of cases of meningitis.
The most common and most dangerous type of meningitis is bacterial meningitis which can be deadly within 24 hours without treatment.
Meningitis is very rare and only around 1 out of 100,000 people are diagnosed with bacterial meningitis each year in the United States.
Most of the people diagnosed with meningitis are children, college age students, elderly and infants.
Meningitis is contagious from the time the symptoms have started and for around 7 to 10 days.
You can prevent meningitis by getting a meningitis vaccine called the meningococcal vaccine and maintaining healthy habits such as getting plenty of rest, eating healthy and avoiding close contact with sick people.
You can recover from meningitis at home in less severe cases of meningitis.
In less severe cases of meningitis you can usually recover at home within 7 days to 10 days.
Rest, fluids and over the pain medicine can help to treat some cases of meningitis at home.
In more severe cases of meningitis hospital treatment is usually required.
You can tell the difference between viral and bacterial meningitis through a blood cell count as bacterial meningitis causes the white cell count to be much higher while viral meningitis causes the white cell count to be lower.
You can have mild meningitis which is known as viral meningitis which most often goes away and clears on it's own.
Bacteria meningitis is more serious and requires medical treatment or it can be deadly.
When meningitis starts it will usually show up as a blanching rash.
The start of meningitis looks like a blanching rash and nearly always develops in a non blanching red, purple or brownish petechial rash or purpia which means the rash will not disappear when pressed.
The 5 symptoms of meningitis are sudden high fever, severe headache, stiff neck, confusion and trouble concentrating and seizures.
Bacterial meningitis can be deadly within a few hours without treatment while viral meningitis is not as serious.
Meningitis causes death through brain injuries, intractable seizures, circulatory failure and brain herniation.
The part of the neck that hurts with meningitis is the back of your neck and behind the skull which can usually feel.
The neck pain associated with meningitis can also be accompanied by the feeling of soreness and tenderness in the affected area and there may also be throbbing or a persistent headache.
A meningitis rash can first appear on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet although the meningitis rash can appear on any part of the body.
The meningitis rash at first can be subtle and then spread to larger areas of the skin.
The 3 types of meningitis are bacterial meningitis, viral meningitis and fungal and chemical meningitis.
The fungal and chemical meningitis are more rare types of meningitis while viral and bacterial meningitis are more common.
The antibiotics that treat meningitis are cefottaxime and ceftriaxone which are beta lactams of choice in the empiric treatment of people with meningitis.
Meningitis does not stay in your body forever once you get treatment.
However in some cases meningitis can lead to brain damage, hearing loss and seizures for the rest of a persons life.
Meningitis is not easy to catch and the chances of getting meningitis from someone is rare as meningitis does not survive for too long outside the body.
Still you should wash your hands often and when you're around someone with meningitis.
The chances of catching meningitis are very low and meningitis cannot survive very long out of the body.
Although meningitis is infections around 97 out of 100 cases of meningitis cases are isolated with no link to other cases.
People who are at risk for meningitis are children and children younger than 1 year old.
Teens and young adults from 16 to 23 years old are also more at risk for developing meningitis although anyone can get it.
Meningitis can start in adults through viruses and bacteria being caught from someone else who has the bacteria or virus.
The bacteria and viruses that causes meningitis can be caught through your nose or throat.