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"There is an ongoing debate amongst researchers as to why muscle and joint pain, such as neck pain, are so common, and why this seems to be more prevalent among women than men," says Anna Grimby-Ekman, postdoctoral student and statistician at the Sahlgrenska Academy's Department of Public Health and Community Medicine. "We know that physical work with heavy lifting or assembly work that involves a lot of arm-raising above shoulder height can lead to neck pain. By looking at a group whose work is less physically demanding, we can more readily identify other factors that could be implicated and perhaps explain the generally high incidence of neck pain."
A questionnaire distributed to university students in Sweden - 627 women and 573 men - showed that neck pain is more common in women than men, and that more women than men developed neck pain during the four years of the study. These results were something of a surprise as the researchers had expected that roughly the same number of women as men would develop neck pain in a young group like this, where the majority had yet to start a family and studying meant that the women and men shared a similar working environment.
Comment: Since stress is such a prevalent problem among women (due to their increased sensitivity to the environment), they would greatly benefit from the vagus nerve activation (that wanders throughout the body, including the neck area) to reduce their neck pain and stress.