Integrative Health emphasizes mindful awareness and patient self-care along with conventional and integrative approaches to health and well-being. The Circle of Health highlights eight areas of self-care: Surroundings; Personal Development; Nutrition, Recharge; Family Friends, & Co-Workers; Spirit & Soul; Mind and Emotions; and Physical Activity. The narrative below shows what an Integrative Health clinical visit could look like and how to apply the latest research on complementary and integrative health to neck pain.

An Integrative Health approach to neck pain incorporates proactive self-care. This may include an anti-inflammatory diet, manual therapies, and various ways to move the body such as yoga, qi gong, and tai chi. Dietary supplements, injection therapies, and other conventional and complementary approaches also can be considered.

Meet the Patient

Michael is a 35-year-old man who is complaining of midline and left-side neck pain that he developed about three years ago following a whiplash injury. The symptoms have been slowly getting worse. He currently works in a customer service position that is mostly sedentary. The neck pain is generally mild in the morning, but gets worse as the day progresses. He does not have any associated neurological signs, such as pain down the arm, extremity weakness, or bowel or bladder dysfunction. The neck pain is occasionally accompanied by mild posterior headaches.

He has a normal neurological exam, some point tenderness in the mid-cervical region and left cervical paraspinal muscles.

Imaging showed nonspecific mild degenerative disk and facet changes of the lower cervical spine.

Michael has tried a variety of treatments, including several courses of Physical Therapy, chiropractic care, and acupuncture without significant sustained improvement. Ibuprofen and Tylenol “take the edge off” but do not provide any lasting relief. He takes Nortriptyline at bedtime and finds that it helps reduce daytime pain the next day.

He is frustrated about the lack of improvement in his symptoms despite treatments and the impact that neck pain has on his day-to-day quality of life. He is wondering if he will have “to live with this pain” for the rest of his life and feels anxious about it.