It is definitely Back to School time. I know I am old fashioned but why can’t school start the day after Labor Day?
We have talked about back packs and the damage they do to developing spines but what about all of you out there who are bent forward doing computer work, texting and gaming??
Bending your head forward when carrying a heavy backpack, to text, game, read or work on the computer puts your neck in a forward position. If you did that for 5 minutes per day, it is no big deal. But when you do it for hours, you flatten the curve in the neck.
Who cares about a flat curve in their neck? Not many unfortunately.
This posture (previously mentioned as Forward Head Posture) causes: muscle strain, disc herniations and pinched nerves. For every inch of forward head posture, your head weighs an additional 10 pounds. Do you ever feel like your head is so heavy your neck can’t carry it? We had a patient with neck pain so severe she literally couldn’t hold up her head and was using her hands to hold it. Her x-rays showed a complete loss of the normal curve in the neck.
You may not know if or how this is affecting you. Ignoring the problem can result in early arthritis, decreased endorphins, decreased lung capacity, decreased metabolism and immune function and occasionally neck pain.
Give us a call and schedule an appointment to determine if all that computer use is aging you quickly. And start your kids off early with a visit to gently keep their spines straight!
