What Your Neck Can Reveal About Your Health

You shouldn’t be able to see your thyroid from the outside, so a lump that appears in the lower part of your neck or slightly off to one side could be a thyroid mass. “You might see it move up and down when you swallow,” says Erich P. Voigt, M.D., director of the division of general and sleep otolaryngology at NYU Langone Health. Most are benign (meaning you don’t have cancer), but a large one, called a goiter, may eventually make it hard to swallow or breathe. Depending on the size, your doctor may advise a watch-and-wait approach, prescribe medication or (in certain cases) recommend surgery.

This is often simply a sign that your immune system is hard at work fighting off a virus like a cold or the flu. But if you have nodes that are bigger than a golf ball, get them checked out, as this could indicate one of several neck cancers, says Mark A. Varvares, M.D., FACS, an otolaryngologist with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear. A swollen node that feels like a lump right below your jaw can be a sign of oral cancer, often related to HPV, a common sexually transmitted infection. “Oral HPV-related cancers have increased about 225% over prior decades,” he says. “The tumors often start in the mouth and spread to the lymph nodes, which is when they become visible on your neck.” Catching this early can improve your prognosis and treatment options.

Is your neck feeling swollen after a trip to the dentist? Bacteria from the plaque the hygienist scraped off your teeth can sometimes make their way into your bloodstream, causing lymph nodes to swell. “The swelling should go down within two weeks, but if not, that’s when you should see a doctor to be sure you don’t have an infection,” Dr. Varvares says.

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If you notice a ropy bulge pop up along the side of your normally smooth neck, this might signal heart trouble. “When an individual has heart failure, their heart doesn’t pump blood as efficiently; that can cause things to get backed up and the jugular vein to bulge out,” says Dr. Voigt. There are likely to be other signs of heart failure before this bulge appears, so it’s not an emergency room situation, says Dr. Voigt, but “you should call your doctor sooner rather than later for a checkup.”

If your neck is wide — measuring over 17 inches for a man and over 16 inches for a woman — you're at higher risk for sleep apnea. "A short, thick neck if you snore means you need a sleep study," advises Dr. Varvares. "Ask the person who sleeps next to you if snore — you could have obstructive sleep apnea." If you do, treatment such as a CPAP machine or surgery will help solve the problem.

If you have other symptoms such as breathlessness or feeling faint, call 911 — you could be dealing with a heart issue, such as aortic insufficiency. That means your aortic valve is leaking, and your heart is working harder than it should be. A visible neck pulse when your heart rate is resting is another red flag to call your doctor about ASAP. "That could also indicate a carotid artery tumor," Dr. Varvares says. "You may also see a firm mass in the upper neck."

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