Todd Gladden

The two terms get used interchangeably, but they describe different stages of the same process, and the difference affects what treatment makes sense. Here is a plain explanation of both.

Your head weighs about a dozen pounds when it sits over your shoulders. Tip it forward to look at a phone and the load your neck carries climbs sharply. Here is what that does over months and years.

If your back pain settles down for a few weeks and then returns, the problem is usually not the muscle that feels sore. Here is what tends to be going on underneath, and why rest alone rarely settles it for good.