Neck pain is insidious and systemic. You wake up in the morning with a stiff neck from trying to accommodate a Doberman, two Persians, one small child and three stuffed animals in your full-sized bed. This happens, you can live with it. No big deal.

What really happens though, is that as the day goes on, whether you work in a field, at a desk, a construction site or trying to keep your house and family running, you find yourself maintaining unnatural positions in order to keep the pain from jumping on you and stopping you in your tracks. What this works out to in reality, is that by the end of the day, you aren't dealing with neck pain anymore.

Well, you are, but not just neck pain. Even without all the contorting you've been doing to drive to drive, type, answer the phone or pour cement without turning your head too far, this probably would have extended up into your skull, gifting you with a generous headache.

Going down and outwards, it is very likely that you now have upper back and shoulder pain, possibly compounded by lower back aches, depending on what kind of day it's been. The longer this goes on, the worse it will get and sooner or later the Doberman will expect to be picked up and you might never move again.

It's also highly probable that you're dosing yourself with some analgesic or other. These are not bad in the short term and can certainly be what you need to get through the day, however, over time and in large doses, none of them is really good for you.

We've all heard of the dangers of anything prescription - addiction, inability to function and so on. Not to mention the expense. Even the over-the-counter pills have side effects overtime.

Acetaminophen can lead to liver damage, acetacylic acid, ibuprofen and naproxen sodium can all cause blood thinning and lead to things like stomach ulcers. Finally, while they do either mask the pain or in some cases actually relieve the swelling in the insulted area, which can have some positive effect, they do not address the overall problem.

While anyone can get neck pain now and again - somedays it's a miracle we don't get more - chronic, severe or consistent pain may have a lager cause. Muscles hurt because they're overworked or being worked in an unnatural way. And because the body is a system, something that goes wrong with one part can generally lead to problems with another.

Having your body put back into alignment and being taught how to strengthen the muscles and carry yourself in a way that you stay that way can have an amazing positive impact. Pain makes us less active and more cautious of ourselves.

Not that caution is necessarily bad, but being afraid to participate in even moderately physical activity due to certainty or even fear of pain can seriously diminish your quality of life. Knowing your muscles are strong enough and that you are using the right body mechanics so that you don't need to fear neck pain will make a world of difference.