If you were to step back and take note of the amount of time that you spend each day with your head out in front of your body, you would most certainly be blown away by the data! You probably wake up each morning and reach for your smart phone to make sure you didn’t miss anything while you were sleeping, and then you sit down to drink your coffee and lean over your breakfast plate to fuel up for the day. After this, you more than likely rush to your car to slouch over the steering wheel so you can drive to work only to sit in front of the computer screen for 8 hours. Unfortunately, this is a very common routine for many of us today.
When it comes to the anatomy of the human body, one thing that many of us fail to realize is the fact that our heads weigh about the same amount as a bowling ball.
This means that our heads can weigh anywhere from 10 to 15 pounds! If you have ever been out bowling with friends and held the ball close to your body, it probably didn’t seem awfully heavy because you had it close to your center of gravity. Now, what if you had tried standing there with the ball held away from your body? Unless you were trying to make up for a missed workout, you probably wouldn’t be standing in that position for too long. The further the weight is away from your body, the heavier it is going to feel.
This same law of physics applies to our heads and necks as well. For every inch that the head moves forward in posture, it increases the weight of the head on the neck by 10 pounds.
When you think about how much time you spend with your head out in front of your body on any given day, you will see the reason that we see so many cervical (or neck) problems today.
The technical term for this “bowling ball” syndrome is forward head posture. Forward head posture is considered to be present when the neck slants forward placing the head in front of the shoulders. The forward pull of the weight of the head puts stress on the vertebrae of the neck, contributing to degenerative disc disease and other degenerative neck problems. This posture also causes the muscles of the upper back and neck to be continuously overworked to counterbalance the pull of gravity on the forward head. These overworked muscles can often times become very tight and sore leading to other problems.
The longer this forward head posture is present, the more likely it is that you will develop neck and other spinal problems. The prolonged shearing of the vertebrae eventually irritates the small facet joints in the neck as well as other ligaments and soft tissues. This irritation can result in neck pain along with eventual radiating pain to the upper back, shoulders and sometimes down the arms into the hands. This abnormal posture can also lead to chronic headaches.
In the world that we live in today, it is nearly impossible to totally eliminate forward head posture. When I think back to the time when computers did not dominate our lives, it seems that we were much less abusive to our necks. I really can’t even remember using a computer on a regular basis until I started college, and when I did, it was usually for short periods of time in the library. As I made my way through school, I noticed that I had to spend more and more time sitting in front of the screen. By the time I approached graduation, I was forced to jump on the ship and purchase my very own “personal computer” for home use. It became a necessity to have your own computer to complete the needed work for classes. Most classes began to only make notes and assignments available online, thus making the amount of time that we had to spend in front of the computer that much greater.
During my post graduate education, you no longer had to decide whether or not you were going to buy a computer, because it was now required. Part of my tuition dollars for my first quarter of graduate school went towards a brand new laptop computer that the college provided to all students. I finally accepted the fact that computers were now a vital part of our lives.
As chiropractic students, the focus of our education was on the human body, especially the spine, and how we could detect, treat and most importantly, prevent problems. As one would rightfully assume, we took many classes on ergonomics and posture so we could one day educate our patients on ways to maintain proper spinal health. As we were going over things such as proper placement of your desk and computer in your work station, proper posture oriented chairs for sitting, the dangers of sitting slouched over your computer for long periods, and so on, it finally struck me! I sat up to take a break from my vigorous note taking during my ergonomics class and glanced around the room to see all of my fellow future chiropractors sitting in their cheap plastic chairs slouched over their new laptop computers taking notes on “proper ergonomics.” I realized that if a room full of chiropractic students sitting in a class on ergonomics were not maintaining proper posture, we are going to have a real societal problem on our hands one day!
As a practicing chiropractic physician looking back on that day, I must say that I was correct. Not many days go by that I don’t have a patient walk into my practice suffering from some degree of posture related neck pain. I often times can predict what that person does for a living just by looking at their initial complaint and their forward head posture. Maybe not the exact company or job title, but it is usually quite evident if a person spends a good portion of their day looking at a computer screen. One thing that is very alarming is the fact that I am seeing neck problems that I once only saw in older adults, in younger and younger kids. I wasn’t required to engage in constant computer use until my later college years, but today it is common to see kids in kindergarten sitting slouched over their computers for long hours during their school day. At least 70 percent of America’s 30 million elementary school students use computers, according to a recent New York Times article. Not to mention that many of these same children will go home only to pick up their IPad or smart phone to play some games while dinner is prepared and maybe once again before bed. I believe that unless we really begin to stress the importance of posture and proper spinal health to our children, we are going to have a generation of young adults with neck problems that their parents never even had.
I am certainly not insisting that we all stand up and boycott the use of computers; I just think we can be much smarter in the way that we use them. The first thing that we all need to do is make sure that we along with our children are putting our bodies in an ergonomically correct position while we are sitting at the computer.
When setting up a computer workstation, it is important to understand the concept of neutral body positioning. This is a comfortable working posture in which your joints are naturally aligned. Working in this position reduces stress and strain on the muscles, tendons, and skeletal system and reduces your risk of injury.
Even though this neutral working position will greatly reduce the amount of stress being put on the spine, it is never healthy to sit in the same position for prolonged periods of time. It is always advised to take small breaks to stand up, walk around and even stretch a bit before continuing your work.
In my chiropractic career I have seen many hip replacements and knee replacements, but I have yet to see a spine replacement. For this reason it is very important that we take care of the spine that we have. A critical part of maintaining proper spinal health is to first see your chiropractor to find out exactly how healthy your spine is. With most spinal problems, pain is typically the last step in the process. When people wait until they are experiencing pain to come into the office, often times we see degenerative changes in the spine that have been progressing for some time. If we are able to detect a spinal issue at the early stages, we are normally able to prevent the pain from ever occurring. It would not make any sense to only see your dentist when you are experiencing tooth pain, and likewise it does not make any sense to only see your chiropractor when you are experiencing back pain. Being proactive with your health is the best way to prevent problems from happening and to live life to your fullest ability.
