Continued maintenance of the same posture can take its toll. I am now at the receiving end because of this. I had a wry neck about a week back which progressed to a searing pain down my right arm and forearm. Believe me, the pain is unbearable, you feel like amputating the limb! Analgesics, muscle relaxants or sedatives were not only USELESS, but also caused erosive gastritis.
Continuous maintenance of the same posture, in addition to trauma or arthritis, may predispose to cervical (=neck) spondylosis, disk prolapse (the structure between two adjacent vertebrae, just like cement between two bricks or a sandwich), slipped disk and various other conditions. In such situations, the prolapsed disk or a new bony outgrowth may compress upon the nerve/nerve root, causing radiculopathy, causing tremendous pain. The etiology can usually be found on X-ray or MRI. Thus, it is vitally important that we take a break every 30 minutes or so, while we are doing some computer related work, for example, move our limbs and axial skeleton including the neck and the back, focus (our eyes) alternately on near and distant objects outside, apart from switching our minds to some less intensive subjects.
Luckily, I have some good friends, a rheumatologist, Dr. Jayanta Saha, and an orthopedician, Dr. Humayun Ali Shah, who came in to my rescue. I was given TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), UST (Ultra sound therapy), and some kind of mechanical traction. Short wave diathermy is going to be added soon.
The improvement was noticeable. As prevention is better than cure, I would suggest you to adopt the right posture, it costs nothing. There are many websites dishing out information on this topic. As of me, 'once bitten twice shy'!
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