Non-surgical Methods for Reducing Neck Pain

In my 26 years of clinical experience, I have seen only a handful of cases where patients with neck pain have had their pain completely eliminated through spinal surgery. That’s why, at Boston Chinese Acupuncture (BCA), we are always looking for non-surgical ways to reduce neck pain. Recently, we spoke to Dr. Jing Fan, an orthopedic surgeon trained in China about best practices for reducing neck pain. In his ten years practicing medicine, Dr. Fan has concluded that the best way to reduce neck pain is to perform regular, self stretching exercises for the neck.

We believe that before committing to surgery, you can first try acupuncture to reduce the tightness of your shoulders and neck and then perform stretching exercises to help prevent the tightness from returning.

In this video series, Dr. Fan demonstrates a set of Chinese stretching exercises that he routinely practices. Dr. Fan emphasizes that these exercises should be done in a quiet place as a way of combining meditation with stretching and that each pose should be held for three breaths. If you have chronic neck pain and would like to avoid doing surgery, why not try acupuncture and self-stretches first?