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What is Vulture Neck?

July 16, 2011 By spencer 1 Comment

What is Vulture Neck?

Vulture Neck is a term that my wife invented to explain her postural problem also known as anterior head carriage or forward head carriage.  It is characterized by a person’s head being far in front of their body, just like a vulture’s.  It can also come accompanied with forward shoulders and a lump or bump on the base of the neck similar to that of a mini hunchback.  Vulture neck is at least a nation-wide problem.  To judge whether someone has anterior head carriage or not, simply look at their posture from the side.  If their ear hole is generally in front of the middle of their shoulder, then they have vulture neck!

Vulture Neck and poor posture starts early, don't let it turn into a bad habit!

Is Vulture Neck Normal?

Forward head posture is developed due to poor postural tendencies.  While many people have developed this pattern so that they do it normally while standing, it is easiest seen when people are working on their computers (especially laptops), texting, or playing hand held video games.  While it is so common that people may think this is normal, it is important to note that COMMON DOES NOT MAKE SOMETHING NORMAL. Obesity is now a common occurrence with 2 out of 3 people clinically being overweight.  This does not make being overweight normal.

Poor Posture Creates Stress on your Neck, Back, and Rest of your Body

Having poor posture can have detrimental affect on your body.  Your head is approximately 7-8% of your body weight or about 10.5 lbs if you weigh 150 lbs.  Since your head is on top of your head, every little bit that your head is forward of your spine is more stress that your neck muscles have to endure to keep your head from falling forward.  Since your muscles are attached to your bones, having chronic tight muscles due to poor posture greatly affects those bones, thus greatly affecting those joints causing a subluxation.  When your joints are compromised, the nerves coming out of those joints are also affected.  Since your nerves power everything in your body, including your organs, having poor posture can greatly have a negative impact on your organ and overall health, especially if kept for a long time.

 

Vulture neck can lead to many things.  Some of the symptoms in a progression like order include:

  • Neck and or shoulder pain/discomfort
  • Headaches
  • Arthritis
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Organ dysfunction or failure

Find out if you have Vulture Neck

Vulture neck is easiest to correct if caught early.  A chiropractor is well equipped to help any individual with postural problems included to, but not limited to vulture neck.  Our office in El Segundo does routine postural analysis on our patients and interested individuals at our office or any of our community events.  One of our goals is to address the total health and well being of the individual and we strongly believe that posture is an integral part to the entire picture.

Related Articles:
What is Good Posture?
How Poor Posture Affects your Health
What is a Subluxation?

Filed Under: Back Pain, Chiropractic, General, Posture Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What is Good Posture?

June 30, 2011 By spencer 1 Comment

What is Posture?

Posture is the way your body positions yourself.  Your posture is determined by the shape and size of your bones and the give and pull of the muscles of the body.  Assuming there are no anatomical birth defects or traumatic accidents, the posture of the spine in a healthy adult has 4 distinct curves, which go forward and backwards.  You are born with 2 of these curves in your mid back and sacrum or tail bone and you develop 2 more as you mature, in the neck and lower back.  The 2 curves you’re born with are called kyphotic or primary curves.  They round out towards your backside.  The 2 curves you develop are called lordotic or secondary curves and they round out towards your front side.  The body is not supposed to have curves that round out to the sides, which is a condition called scoliosis.

What is Good Posture?

Good posture can be measured by looking at specific body landmarks in relation to others.  This can be easily done by standing next to a weighted string to see where a straight line passes through your body from the side.  Some people call this a “plumb line”.  To achieve the best posture for your body the string should pass through the following parts of your body:

  • Ear lobe
  • Mid point of shoulder
  • Center of hip
  • Center of knee
  • Slightly anterior or in front of your ankle bone

If the plumb line does not pass through these body parts on you, then you do not have proper posture.  Having an altered posture creates distortions and imbalances in your muscles, movement, and stance.  Over time, it can easily lead to pain and arthritis.  Poor posture also creates subluxations in the spine, which leads to an decrease in the functioning of your body and nervous system.

Poor posture is a very common problem for many individuals, but that doesn’t mean it’s normal.  It is much easier to correct postural tendencies when you are younger.  In really chronic situations, it can be irreversible.  Having a good posture is an important aspect to having and living a healthy life.  Do yourself a favor and get your postured checked!

Posture Analysis on our receptionist Shantoi

*Our office routinely does postural workups on our patients.  We are able to track what your posture should be relatively against what you already have.  We find anterior head carriage to be the biggest problem for most people and a common cause of upper back and or neck pain.  We find it so often, we have termed the posture problem “Vulture Neck.”  If you would like to get your posture analyzed, call our office.

Filed Under: Back Pain, Chiropractic, Posture Tagged With: , ,

Stress Management and Your Health

June 20, 2011 By spencer 1 Comment

You are Stressed!

In life there are good stresses and there are bad stresses, but whether you think you are or not, everyone is stressed.  Stress is good for the body in that it helps you adapt to change and get stronger.  When you get more stress than it can handle however, it has negative consequences and will always lead to a decrease in health.

The 3 Stresses

There are 3 main stresses that everyone encounters, physical, chemical, and emotional stress.  When most people think of stress, they often think of emotional ones, which could include but are not limited to family, financial, and social concerns.  Physical stresses are ones that are done on the body such as falls, injuries, accidents.  Repetitive injury however, is also a physical stress such as overuse of a particular movement (computer work leading to carpal tunnel), poor posture or poor lifting habits or exercise techniques.  A sedentary lifestyle is also a stress on the body due to inactivity.  Chemical stress is the least often thought of, but consists of all the types of substances we put on our in our bodies.  The obvious negative stresses are alcohol, nicotine, drugs, junk food, and to some extent caffeine.  Lack of the right nutrients is also a chemical stress and pollution is definitely one, albeit one we can’t really control.  Finally beauty products is one that most people don’t consider, but many of the things we put on our skin is absorbed through it.  Deodorant is a very common product, but did you know that the #1 active ingredient in it is aluminum, a neurotoxin (chemical that negatively affects the brain)?

Stress and your Health

Obviously it is impossible to avoid all these stresses in your life.  The body is able to handle a certain amount of it, some people more than others.  It is the function of your nervous system to filter the stresses coming in and adapt your body to handle them.  If your nervous system can keep up with the amount of stress coming in, you should not experience any negative side effects, and you will be healthy.

Managing your stress is thus very important.  It is a good idea to look inward and identify the stresses you experience and how you can decrease or control the amount coming in.  It is also a good idea to increase your stress handling capacity, which generally can be done by living a healthy lifestyle.  Chiropractic is great for helping people handle stress and encourages patients to also live healthy lifestyles.  Take an active role in handling your stress and creating a healthier version of you!

Related Articles:
What is Health?
The Three Parts of your Nervous System
How the Nervous System Affects your Health

Filed Under: Chiropractic, General Tagged With: ,

How the Nervous System Affects your Health

June 20, 2011 By spencer Leave a Comment

A healthy nervous system leads to a healthy individual!

Your Nervous System and your Health

Health is a state of optimal function – physically, mentally, and physiologically.  Your nervous system controls every cell in your body and provides the communication process between these cells so that your body can function.  Since the nervous system controls your body’s ability to self heal, if your nervous system becomes suboptimal, so does your health.

One of the processes that the nervous system controls, that is integral to your health is your ability to naturally heal itself.  If you cut your finger while cooking dinner for example, the cut will heal.  If however there is interference with this process, such as putting a wire into the cut, it won’t heal or will take much longer.

Interference with the Nervous System is Interference with your Health

The nervous system is constantly trying to heal your body from the many stresses you endure through out the day.  If it can handle the amount of stress you take on, your body will remain functioning at its best and you will remain healthy.  If there is interference with your nervous system, your body will not be able to take on as much stress and your health will go down.  It was found that when your body is misaligned, it can interfere with your nervous system and cause a decrease in its ability to communicate.  Seeing a chiropractor is one of the several ways to help your nervous system be interference free, to help promote your body to work at its best, and get your truly healthy.

Related Articles:
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Filed Under: Chiropractic, General Tagged With: ,

What is Health?

June 19, 2011 By spencer Leave a Comment

What is Health?

Health is a state of optimal physical, mental, and social well-being.  It is NOT simply the absence of pain, symptoms, or disease.  Put simply, health is a state of optimal function!

What about Pain?

Many people may define health for them as being “pain free”.  While this is part of health, it probably not the most accurate description.  If it were, one would simply need to take the strongest form of pain medication to instantly be healthy.  Some people are already on these medications.  They are usually found in a hospital, and are not in their most optimal state of health.  From the opposite spectrum, if you dropped a brick on your foot, would you suddenly be unhealthy?

There are many nerves in the body, but did you know that only 10% of these nerves have the ability to feel pain?  This is the reason that pain is not always felt while a problem is developing.  Instead, it may actually be your body’s final warning sign to you that something is wrong such as in cancer or a heart attack.

How we Promote Health

At Spencare Chiropractic Health, our goal is to focus on increasing the overall function of your entire body, including the nervous system.  The nervous system commands your entire body, and is behind the body’s natural healing processes.  By insuring that your nervous system works properly, your body will be able to fully express itself, which is the key to overall health.  When it is functioning properly, you will not have to worry about symptoms, such as pain, because they will not exist anymore or will be decreasing through the body’s natural healing process.  This will also prevent future problems from occurring, build up your body’s natural resistance to disease, and insure a higher quality state of life.

Filed Under: Chiropractic, General Tagged With: , ,

Can Chiropractic Help Drug Addiction?

June 5, 2011 By spencer Leave a Comment

Addiction and Chiropractic:

According to research, chiropractic can greatly help increase the effectiveness with standard drug rehabilitation.  In a study done by The University of Miami School of Medicine and the Florida Chiropractic Association, it was found that patients with drug addictions were more likely to complete their program than compared with those that did not see a chiropractor or with those that had sham or fake chiropractic.  By utilizing chiropractic, patients were 10 times more likely to complete a drug program or a 97% retention rate!  Because of this, the American College of Addictionology and Compulsive Disorders has chosen chiropractic as the profession of choice for taining in board certification in addictionology.

The doctors involved in the study attribute the success of chiropractic and addiction in its ability to remove subluxations in addicted individuals.  Subluxation, is a term used to define a joint in the body, but most commonly referencing in the spine, that interferes with the functional working of the nervous system.  If the nervous system is not working properly, it can impede the normal sequencing of the body’s neurotransmitters, which help an individual feel good about themselves.  Drugs work by releasing massive amounts of these neurotransmitters in their brain, which make them feel good about themselves temporarily.  Many people may turn to drugs because of this good feeling and they can become addicted to or crave this sensation.

Dr. Holder of the study states, “People that are chemically dependant must stay away from mood-altering substances their entire lives.  What type of primary care physician is going to be best able to meet the needs of the recovery community?  Obviously someone who isn’t going ot use mood altering substances.  We have less people with drug detox or withdrawal symptoms.  Their physical complaints are almost eliminated and they can no concentrate on dealing with their addiction.”

Filed Under: Chiropractic, Drugs & Medicine Tagged With: , ,

What is Sciatica?

May 11, 2011 By spencer 2 Comments

What is the Sciatic Nerve?

Sciatica is a condition where the sciatic nerve becomes inflamed.  The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body and travels through your buttocks and back side of your thighs.  It is the culmination of the 5 separate nerves, L4, L5, S1, S2, and S3.  It also branches out into many different nerves in the lower leg including the peroneal and tibial nerves.  It powers many of the muscles in your thigh including the quadriceps and hamstrings and also your hip capsule.  Its branches further innervate almost every muscle in the lower leg.

Sciatica Signs:

The most common sciatica symptom, in addition to back pain, is shooting pain down the back side of the leg.  The shooting pain may feel like an electric shock and is usually made worse upon bending forward, trying to touch your toes, or sneezing, coughing, or passing a difficult bowel movement.  This is because all of these actions increase the pressure in your discs and spinal column.  The pressure can be too much for your inflamed nerves, which let your body know via pain.

Please keep in mind that shooting pain is not always due to sciatica or the sciatic nerve.  Pain going down the back of the leg, but not past the point of the knee could be due to something called facet syndrome.  Shooting pain down the front of the leg and near the groin is commonly a sign of a pelvic subluxation or misalignment.

Finding the Cause of Sciatica:

There are three typical causes of sciatica, increased pressure on the sciatic nerve, clamping on the nerve via a tight piriformis muscle, or trauma injuring the nerve.  Other irritations to the nerve could be a viral or bacterial infection, but this is not as common.  As mentioned earlier, there are many symptoms, usually involving shooting leg pain, that are confused for sciatica.  It is very important to find and treat the cause of sciatica to effectively treat it.  For example, sciatica due to a tight piriformis should be treated by actively stretching and relaxing that muscle.  If a patient is improperly diagnosed and has sciatica due to increased pressure due to a herniated disc, then stretching the piriformis, which usually involves hip flexion, will actually make the sciatica worse!

Treating Sciatica:

There are many treatments for sciatica, but it is strongly recommended to choose a treatment that will address the cause, and not just the symptoms.  Chiropractic, physical, and occupational therapy do great jobs at treating the cause and helping patients with sciatic pain.  Treatment can vary from adjustments, spinal decompression, muscle conditioning, and posture evaluation.  Acupuncture can help for sciatica due to a tight piriformis and pain management.  It may be necessary to see your medical doctor as well to get anti-inflammatory medicine to reduce swelling and help with the pain.  This will greatly help with patient comfort, but if the cause is not addressed, the symptoms can easily come back, sometimes worse than before.

Filed Under: Back Pain, Chiropractic Tagged With: ,

What is Craniosacral Therapy?

May 8, 2011 By spencer Leave a Comment

Craniosacral Therapy is a procedure that addresses the relationship between the cranial bones, dura of the spinal cord, and the sacrum.  While on opposite sides of the body, the bones of the skull and your sacrum or tail bone are connected via a membrane called the dura mater.  The dura mater is a tough fibrous membrane that sheathes the brain and spinal cord, the two most important and sensitive organs in the body.  Just like the spine, dysfunctions in the dura, cranial bones, and sacrum (the sacrum is actually part of the spine) can easily cause dysfunctions in your nervous system and lead to a decrease in health.  These three areas of the body can stay healthy through proper alignment, breathing, and movement.  It is most commonly utilized to help deal with headaches and migranes, difficulties concentrating, neck and back pain, TMJ dysfunction, and even fibromyalgia.

Craniosacral Therapy is originally an osteopathic procedure, developed by Dr. William Sutherland.  It is currently utilized not only by osteopaths by also by many chiropractors, acupuncturists, and massage therapists.  Craniosacral therapy is one of the many forms of treatments utlized in Applied Kinesiology.  The theory is that there is a normal flow of cerebral spinal fluid or CSF (the liquid in between your joints of the spine) that flows from the head to the bottom of you spine via the dura mater.  Due to irregular movements or fixated joints, this flow can become impeded interrupting the normal functioning of the body.

The most common mode of treatment is to adjust the cranial bones and sacroiliac joints.  Even though most people think the skull as an inanimate object, it is comprised of 8 cranial bones that have shown to move during breathing.  Remember that 2 bones form a joint and the movment of dysfunctionally moving joints is what chiropractors do!  Of course the cranial adustment as with all other craniosacral therapy adjustments may look very different from the stereotypical chiropractic adjustment, but the purpose behind the two are one and the same, and they both can be very beneficial to the patient.

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Filed Under: Chiropractic, General Tagged With: , , ,

Can the Skull be Adjusted?

April 27, 2011 By spencer Leave a Comment

Joints of the Skull

Chiropractors adjust joints to restore proper movement and neurological function back into joints that have lost their ability to do so on their own.  As you know, two adjoining bones come together to form a joint, and the cranium of the skull is comprised of 8 different bones.  The joints in the cranium are also known as cranial sutures and have been classified as immovable once development of the skull completes in adolescence.  It has been discovered however that these sutures do infact move (albeit to a maximum of a millimeter or two) and this occurs naturally when a person breathes called the craniosacral rhythm.

When a cranial joint becomes fixated or doesn’t allow for the normal range of functional movement, it can cause a decrease in circulation to that part of the head and a decrease in the circulation of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), a fluid that helps nurture your brain and spinal cord.  The cranial bones are connected by a fibrous tissue called the dura mater, which covers the brain and spinal cord and goes all the way down to the sacrum.  Improper movement of the cranial bones can thus affect any or all of these parts of the body and common symptoms of this fault can result in headaches, migraines, TMJ issues, and neck and back pain to name a few.

Can the Skull be Adjusted?

It is possible to have the joints of the skull adjusted.  There is not normally a popping noise as with the rest of the body, but some patients do feel adhesions breaking.  Other sensations may include a sense of warmth in certain parts of the head explained as a sudden increase in blood flow to those areas.

While adjusting the cranial bones is not the primary treatment for most chiropractors, they are all educated in it while attending school.  To find a practitioner that is very proficient in adjusting the cranial bones, look for someone that is trained in Craniosacral Therapy.  Keep in mind, that  acupuncturists, massage therapists, physical therapists and osteopaths may also be trained in this form of treatment.  The most popular chiropractic techniques that utilize Craniosacral Therapy include Applied Kinesiology and Sacral Occipital Technique (SOT).

Related Articles:
What is Craniosacral Therapy?
What is Applied Kinesiology?

Filed Under: Chiropractic Tagged With: , ,

Breathing Pain or Pinching

April 26, 2011 By spencer 1 Comment

Where the ribs connect to the spine is a joint called the costovertebral joint.  What many people don’t realize is that these joints can become out of place or subluxated.  When this occurs, a patient will often feel discomfort or pain upon deep inhalation, kind of like a pinch or stabbing sensation in a very specific point, inside the body (person able to touch spot with finger tip).  These pains can become very annoying and can last for days.  The most common area that I have seen this occur in around the level of the shoulder blades.

Chiropractors are able to feel when this joint is out of place and adjust that joint.  Patients often feel an immediate sense of relief and comment on being able to breathe again.  The reason for a rib subluxation is normally due to muscular imbalances, but can sometimes be due to trauma.  Since many muscles attach to the rib, an unnatural torque or twisting of the body can easily pull that rib out of place.  Repetitive motions may also cause an imbalance of the opposite muscles holding that rib in, also causing it to be misaligned.

Breathing pain can lead to other serious conditions such as heart and or lung diseases.  If the pain shoots down the arm, only occurs after exertion, is accompanied by dizziness or nausea, has a broad and difficutl to find location, or makes it difficult to breathe normally, this is most likely NOT a rib subluxation and should be checked out immediately.

Filed Under: Chiropractic, General Tagged With: ,
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