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Comment by dahart | Hacker News Reader

> Yet. I suffer from neck pain

Have you tried cervical traction?

> Medicine: You Suck! We can send robots to Mars [...]

Seriously! Though maybe to be fair, the design of the spine isn’t that great. I mean it’s amazing. And simultaneously can’t take the abuse we pile on it. Whoever invents the cure to deteriorating joints and deteriorating nerves is going to solve half the world’s pain and also become very rich.

> Someone below wrote

Just curious - why not reply? Saying ‘below’ can be awkward when comments move around.

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I'm doing cervical spine traction right now... it makes my head hurt but I've found ways to do it that are less uncomfortable.

My story is similar to others here, I'm a lifelong athlete with some injuries that are exacerbated by computer usage. I now stand all day, every day with a monitor at head height, which has been the most impactful lifestyle change. Otherwise I do stretching, some exercises like in this article, deep breathing, and massage.

Looking forward to getting back to lifting and sprinting full-time, meanwhile though my cervical spine needs to become more stable. I'm never going back to sitting at a computer, because I literally can't! I suppose that's good ultimately but I do find it hard to concentrate on certain things while standing.

> it makes my head hurt

Oh that sounds potentially bad... I don’t know about you, but did find that I tended to turn up the pressure too high so that it feels like it’s giving my neck a good stretch. I’ve found that I can leave it quite low and get the same benefits without any pain. One or two docs have warned me in the past that it’s possible to make things worse if I do too much. So, anyway, be careful!

I’m in the same camp too, a life of sports and outdoor activity. I’ve crashed mountain biking a few times and suspect my neck trouble stems from or was accelerated by that. But when I told my doc that story, he listened and responded with “so what do you do for work?” I told him software, and he was like, “yeah, so I’d lean toward a couple of decades shitting in a chair with bad posture being your main problem.” That’s when I got the treadmill desk.

> Have you tried cervical traction?

Do you have any recommended products or procedures?

> Just curious - why not reply? Saying ‘below’ can be awkward when comments move around.

Because I wanted to expand the context of the thread, I guess? Spending time with a long response to a short comment in a nested thread structure felt like it would get buried.

Good question, I guess I’d recommend seeing a physical therapist first, and trying traction under guidance for a few weeks before buying anything.

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