– Do you ever have the issue where your neck and shoulders and upper back, this whole area right through here, is just achy and sore and you wonder why?
– Yeah, I do.
– I’m Dr. Christy Flick.
– And I’m D.r Jennifer Taylor.
– And we’re with HealthWorks: A Family Wellness Center in Plano, Texas, and the reason that you have all of that achy, soreness in your upper traps, your upper back, is because your head is not sitting on your shoulders properly.
– Well, don’t we do this all day and look at our phones all day?
– Yeah. Have you noticed that, especially the teenage group? but adults are not exempt from this, is that when you’re looking at your phone, you’re really far forward like this? You just get so engrossed in it that all of a sudden, your head just starts coming forward and forward and forward.
– Yeah, you’re on that deadline or something like that for work and you’re sitting at your computer and by the end of the day, you find yourself this close to your monitor. That just is really perpetuating this issue.
– Yes, so I want, let’s imagine for a moment. Okay, so if this is your neck and this is your head and I’m holding a bowling ball. So imagine with me, I’ve got a bowling ball and I’m holding it like this, straight up and down. The bowling ball’s heavy, but I can handle it, but the further that I come forward like this, the bowling ball gets heavier and heavier and heavier and heavier and your head is like that bowling ball. So when your head is on top of your shoulders, no big deal, your shoulders, and the muscles there can support it and handle it, but the further forward you come, the heavier your head gets.
– Did you know too, there was actually a study was done that showed that the further forward that your head gets, the more it decreases your ability to breathe by up to 30%? Decreases your lung capacity.
– You can probably try it so at home follow along and just put your head forward and try and take a deep breath. You can feel the strain starting right here.
– Yeah and then do the opposite, bring your head all the way back and take that deep breath in.
– So, what do you do about this? There is a solution. So chiropractors are great at helping you figure out how to get rid of head forward posture because often it’s not just a muscular issue, but there’s a deeper issue underneath the surface with the spinal column and the vertebral column, the bones that support that spinal column. So that’s not okay, that’s not something that you want if you have that head forward posture, it is absolutely a warning sign to get checked by a chiropractor and in the meantime before your check-up, make the effort to bring your head back and not perpetuate the problem by forward, forward, forward. In fact, we see, all of the time, after a first atlas alignment that people lose apparent head weight. So their head starts to pull less on those muscles in the neck and shoulders and people feel almost an immediate relief.
– Yeah, we did an actual study on 50 of our patients here, and on average, they lost 5.6 pounds on their head. That’s significant, I think.
– That’s here at HealthWorks and that was a study that Dr. Taylor did when she was getting her advanced training. So if you have that head forward, if you notice that neck and shoulder issue, we encourage you to get a postural check-up at a chiropractor near you soon.
HealthWorks: A Family Wellness Center is a chiropractic and wellness center located in Plano, Texas. Our chiropractors, Dr. Christy Flick, Dr. Jennifer Taylor, and Dr. Aanchal Mendoza have been helping patients function better since starting private practice in 2005. For information about this article or other chiropractic questions, please contact our office at 972-612-1800.