Medical experts at the Imperial College London reports that there are a number of considerable risks to people that decide to wait to pursue medical attention when they have been dealing with significant aches and pains for any amount of time longer than a month or so.

Many of these risks involved:

• Increased susceptibility to injury
• Further injury of the impacted area
• Compound conditions because of weakened areas of the body

… And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Though you may be tempted to “suck it up” and push through the pain, the truth of the matter is that unless you’re dealing with a relatively mild form of pain or just a bit of muscle soreness you may be doing far more harm than good. Most doctors regard pain as a vital sign.

Recognize what your body is trying to tell you in the first place

The most important thing you can do when you are trying to determine whether or not it’s time to visit the doctor or to push through the pain that you are currently dealing with is to understand exactly what you’re up against.

A lot of people are going to be under the impression that any chronic pain is simply a little bit of soreness and isn’t that big of a deal while others are going to be under the impression that even the slightest injury needs to be treated with modern medical attention, but the truth is really something somewhere in the middle.

Take stock of your activity levels, any potential instances that could have caused injury, and your past medical history to understand what you are up against.

In this way you’ll know whether or not you’re dealing with muscle soreness from an overenthusiastic exercise or a serious underlying medical condition that needs to be addressed ASAP.

Don’t be shy about being a little overzealous in taking advantage of modern medical solutions

It’s always better to be a little bit safer when it comes to seeking a medical attention than to be sorry later dealing with an issue that could have been cured or prevented with earlier interventions

You may not always feel like it is a good idea to pursue medical attention, but at the end of the day you’d have to be at least a little bit crazy not to jump out in front of something that could be quite serious – even if you aren’t sure of the severity of the issue at that particular point in time.

The overwhelming majority of the workforce leads incredibly sedentary lifestyles and are stuck in less than ideal chairs 90% of the workday, only to flop themselves down into even less comfortable and less ergonomic chairs and couches when they get home at night.

This is leading to a real problem when it comes to posture, spinal health, and your neck – and it also explains why so many people are contending with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome today, more so than ever in the past.

If you have a stiff neck most of the time and if you aren’t able to get rid of this stiff neck without having a professional masseuse work you over the you’re going to want to pay very close attention to all of the inside information below.

The odds are pretty good that you are overtaxing the muscles in your neck, putting undue stress and pressure on your cervical spine, and generally destroying durability to get comfortable without even realizing it.

Here’s how to combat pain effectively!

Stretch every morning and every night

A lot of people are unaware of just how much fluid ends up going in their spine and their neck every single night as they are lying prone, at least until they get up in the morning and realize that their muscles and their neck are anything but loose and refreshed.

Because of the spongy material that your spinal discs are made out of – and because of how many spinal discs are located in the cervical region of the spine (up in your neck) – you’re going to be dealing with a lot of fluid retention that you have to stretch out of your neck or you’ll be stiff all day long.

It’s also a good idea to stretch before you go to bed so that you push that fluid out of the areas that it will try to flood throughout the night, limiting the amount of fluid that actually makes it to your neck.

Hot and cold showers work wonders as well

Though probably not as beneficial as a traditional massage (or even rolling your neck with a foam roller), hot and cold showers – showers that start off very warm and finish cold or vice versa – have been proven to be incredibly effective at relaxing neck muscles and helping you unwind more than you would have been able to with just a hot shower or a cold shower.

Give it a shot for a week or so and see how much your neck loosens up.

According to researchers in numerous universities throughout the United Kingdom, watching your favorite comedy show or movie can have a transformative impacts on your body’s – and your mind’s – ability to manage pain, to the point where you forget you’re even injured altogether!

This research (just recently released at the end of 2015 after a five-year study) is in line with similar research conducted by medical professionals in the United States and Australia, and a lot of it has to do with the medical fact of the “placebo effect” and how potent our minds ability is to control our emotions and our ability to recognize pain.

Just 15 minutes of your favorite comedy can cure almost any headache

As mentioned above, this research study was conducted over a five-year block of time with close to 700 different individuals being tested.

Each and every one of the test subjects were encouraged to bring a copy of their favorite comedy show or movie, and then they were subjected to a handful of mild forms of pain. When they registered a specific threshold of pain – similar to the pain of a migraine headache – they were then be encouraged to watch 15 minutes of their favorite comedy and then were both surveyed and put through an MRI to better understand how the body and the mind react to the stimulus.

Laughter really is the best medicine

The results were fantastically conclusive, especially for those that physically laughed while watching their favorite comedy.

Those that chuckled every now and again saw mild reductions in pain, but those that laughed out loud – and those that laughed heartily – saw a significant drop in their ability to register pain, so much so that many of them claimed they weren’t feeling any pain whatsoever any longer.

Researchers believe that there are multiple factors at play here.

For starters, breathing in and breathing out rapidly while laughing causes a flood of endorphins to be released. These endorphins are scientifically proven to alleviate pain, and this research study shows that they work just as well as anticipated.

On top of that, researchers found that the rapid breathing while laughing also “confuses” the body though when it comes time to recognizing pain signals in the first place. This may help to explain why so many people were able to report feeling no pain at all even though they were still being subjected to the pain inducing stimulant while laughing.