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Poor Posture Linked to Heart Disease

August 9, 2011 By spencer 4 Comments

Poor Posture Should Not Be Ignored

A joint study with UCLA AND UCSD conducted in 2004 found that individuals with anterior head carriage or vulture neck, had a higher incidence of getting heart disease.  The experiment was done on elderly individuals, people more likely to have poor posture and more at risk for heart disease.  It was found that those with poor neck posture were about 3x more likely to get a heart attack.  It was also found that the more forward the individual’s head, the higher a chance that their heart would be affected.

How is the Heart Related to Poor Posture?

The method of heart disease this study specifically mentioned was atherosclerosis of the heart vessels.  Atherosclerosis is a partial blockage of the blood vessels with a build up of cholesterol, which restricts blood flow and oxygen to in this case, the heart.  The lack of oxygen causes heart tissue to die, which eventually leads to a heart attack.  The study did not explain how this happens, but the heart and its blood vessels are powered by the nerves which exit the spinal levels T1 and T2.  For a person with poor posture, the areas most affected are in that region.  If you look around you, almost everyone has poor neck posture.  Tie this to the fact that heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States.   I am pretty sure that this is not purely coincidental…

This study is just another proof that poor posture greatly affects an individuals health and should not be taken for granted.

Related Articles:
What is Vulture Neck?
What is Good Posture?
How Poor Posture Affects your Health

Filed Under: General, Posture Tagged With: , ,

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

The further forward your ear goes from the center of your shoulder, the more stress in weight your body has to withstand

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: , , , , , ,

How Poor Posture Affects your Health

July 10, 2011 By spencer 2 Comments

Lets face it, everyone either has knows they have poor posture or knows someone very close to them that does.  It is a nationwide problem and most people take it for granted!  What is not realized is that poor posture can have a devastating affect on your health and if not corrected can lead to many chronic problems in the future.

Poor Posture and Neck, Shoulder, and Low Back Pain

Poor posture is commonly seen in the lower neck region and lower back.  In the neck region it is characterized by a forward head, aka “vulture neck”, also called forward head carriage or anterior head carriage.  In the lower back it can be characterized by a curve that goes toward your belly button too much, or too little.  Since your muscles attach to your bones, any deviation from the normal posture forces your supporting muscles to work harder to keep you from falling over.  This is why poor posture commonly results in tension or sore muscles in the neck or shoulder region and or lower back region.  Does this sound familiar to you?

Poor Posture and Headaches

Remember that muscles attach to bones?  If your poor posture is causing your neck muscles to continuously tense up, it can lead to headaches due to a reduced flow of blood to the head.

Poor Posture and Arthritis

Since poor posture is causing the increased muscle tension and since the muscles are attached to your bones, the joints of the affected muscles loose the normal flexibility since the muscles are holding them in place.  This is when a joint becomes “stuck” or subluxated as chiropractors would call it.  Loss of joint mobility begins the arthritic or joint degeneration process.  This can begin with a reduction of the natural curves of the spine.  Soon the bones will actually begin to deform due to the repeated stress of the musculature.  The bone deformation degenerates your joints and spinal discs and decreases the space where your nerves exit your spine.  The deformation of the bones and joints is exactly what arthritis is and once your bone has changed there is not getting it back to normal, even with surgery!  The most common spinal vertebrae to become degenerated or arthritic in the spine are C6 and L4, the sites most commonly associated with poor posture.

Poor Posture and Nerve Damage

Once the bones and joints become deformed, it can greatly impact the nerves that exit the spine causing them to degenerate.  Whenever there is nerve degeneration, it is always linked with joint degeneration.  What most people think of when they think of nerve damage is a pinched nerve.  While it is possible that the nerve is actually being compressed by a bone or disc, it is not usually the case.  Instead it is usually an increase in pressure that is inflaming the nerve, but it is basically the same idea.  A very common example of nerve damage due to poor posture is carpal tunnel syndrome.  Most people think of carpal tunnel syndrome as coming from the wrist, which is where it may be coming from.  What they may not realize is that the median nerve (the nerve associated with carpal tunnel syndrome) can also be injured in the elbow, shoulder, or neck, causing carpal tunnel symptoms.

Poor Posture and Organ Dysfunction

As mentioned above, nerve degeneration is linked with joint degeneration.  Joint degeneration is another word for arthritis.  A famous study done in the 20th century  followed autopsies of people that died of chronic conditions called the Windsor Autopsies.  It was found that in 97% of all people that died from a due to an organ problem (ie. heart disease or lung disease), the nerves that powered those organs were degenerated.  When the nerves were traced back to the spinal joints, the joints were arthritic.

In a more recent study done in the 21st century, it was found that individuals with forward head carriage (poor posture of the neck and upper back) were 3 times more likely to die from a heart attack due to arteriosclerosis (plaque in the arteries).  In general, the nerves that power the heart are located around T2 or the second thoracic vertebrae.  If you have forward head posture, that vertebrae is definitely affected.

Getting Better Posture

While maintaining a good posture is not the secret to a healthy lifestyle and long life, it is surely a valuable component to health and wellness in general.  There are many things you can do to resolve poor posture including yoga, massage, proper exercises, and of course chiropractic.

Related Articles:
What is Good Posture?
What is Vulture Neck?

Filed Under: 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: , ,

Avoid Back Stretches in the Morning

May 10, 2011 By spencer 2 Comments

Forward stretches such as touching your toes cause a backwards bulge of the veterbral discs.

For those people with low back pain, stretching the lower back is often prescribed to help deal with tight low back muscles.  What they aren’t told however is that stretching their lower back up to 2 hours after waking up, can also do harm to the discs in their back, which could cause severe low back pain and or sciatica if a disc protrusion or herniation occurs.

The discs in your spine are naturally filled with fluids to help it protect your back and nerves from physical stresses on the body.  Due to gravity and body movement, the discs naturally lose fluid throughout the day like how a cushion slowly gets flatter when sat on for a while.  When people sleep at night, the body does its job at healing and restoring the body, including the discs in the back.  The recovery process involves the resorption of fluids back into the disc insuring that they are plump in the morning and can resist your physical stresses.  Stretching the lower back involves flexing the hip, the same action for when you try to touch your toes.  This action causes the disc in the lower back to bulge backwards, which squeezes out the fluids from the disc, helping to wear them out.

According to Dr. Stuart McGill, the foremost authority in low back rehabilitation, the first 2 hours in the morning are when your discs are the most sensitive in losing their hydration.  Lower back stretching, especially extreme stretching, such as yoga, can do a great job at decreasing your disc height in the morning.  To keep your disc health up throughout the day, try to avoid as much forward bending or positions where your hips are bent for the first 2 hours after you’re awake.  This not only includes stretching, but sitting and bending over.  Changing posture habits such as squatting to pick something up instead of bending over can go a long way in the long run.  For those people that have desk jobs, getting a kneeling chair lessens the degree of hip flexion and reduces slouching that happens in normal chairs.

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

What is Scoliosis?

April 25, 2011 By spencer Leave a Comment

This is a moderate case of scoliosis

What is Scoliosis?

Scoliosis is an unnatural curvature of the spine.  It usually occurs when the spine moves from side to side and in the mid back, but this is not a hard fast rule.  There are many causes of scoliosis, but the most common cause is due to unknown factors.  A common time for scoliosis to occur is during growth spurts for children.  This is why scoliosis screenings are so common in school.

Because scoliosis creates unnatural curve(s) in the spine, it can lead to muscular imbalances, poor posture, and altered gait.  This can eventually lead to compensation muscular pains and arthritis in the body.  The worst fear for scoliosis is that the spine will become so distorted that it will either begin to affect the nerves that leave the spine, or encroach on the organs, mainly the lungs and heart.

Severity of Scoliosis:

Typically, a curvature less than 15 degrees is thought of minor and can be treated with non invasive measures.  15-30 degree curves are of medium severity and are typically treated with a combination of non invasive and invasive treatments.  Above 30 degree curves are severe and typically will require surgery.

Structural versus Functional Scoliosis:

Structural scoliosis implies that the person was born with the scoliosis.  This can be due to unnatrually shaped vertebrae in the spine.  A person with a structural scoliosis will still have scoliosis upon bending forward and touching their toes.  A functional scoliosis commonly begins as a muscular imbalance, which over time, can distort the bones and cause a permanent scoliosis.  A person with a functional scoliosis will typically have a greatly reduced curvature to the point of disappearance when they bend forward.

Is Scoliosis Treatable?

In terms of treatment, it is very difficult to improve a structural scoliotic curve with non invasive procedures since the bone is irregularly shaped.  It is possible to live without pain or symptoms, which is what these type of people should try to accomplish.  Functional scoliosis has much better results with non invasive treatments as long as the curvature isn’t allowed to persist for too long.

Chiropractic is considered a non invasive therapy, along with physical and occupational therapy.  Both have been known to demonstrate good results, especially for children if caught early enough.  It has been shown that there is a good chance at reducing or eliminating scoliosis in an adolescent if discovered by the age of 16.  Other forms of treatment that have been shown to work are wearing braces and posture aides.  Surgery is normally reserved as a last attempt form of treatment where rods , but for some people is necessary.

Related Articles:
How Posture Affects your Health
What is Good Posture?
Should the Spine be Straight?

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

Should the Spine be Straight?

April 25, 2011 By spencer Leave a Comment

The natural shape of the spine is not straight despite the popular belief of having a straight back.  The curves can be seen when looking at a spine from the side.  When looking from the front or the back however, the spine should be straight with no curves.  An unnaturally curved spine from the front or the back is known as scoliosis.

There are 4 natural curves in the body, 2 that you’re born with and 2 that you develop as you age.  The 2 curves you’re born with are in your thoracic spine, or the upper and mid back, and in the sacrum, which some people call the tail bone.  The cervical or neck curve develops as an infant learns how to lift its head and the lumbar or lower back curve develops as a child learns how to walk.

It is very important to maintain the proper curves in your back because these curves control the normal biomechanics of your movements.  Failure to maintain correct curvature or posture commonly results in muscle pain or spasms and irregular movements.  If poor posture is maintained for extended periods of time, conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, and herniated discs/disc bulges can develop just to name a few.  Also since irregular posture creates subluxations, it is possible and even common for these posture imbalances to cause dysfunctions in your organs.

Many health care practitioners are able to assess your posture.  Sometimes even your friends and family can do it (can’t your hear your mom now telling you not to slouch?)!  If you are not sure where to go, seeing a chiropractor is an excellent way to have your spine and posture checked out.  Not only can they treat your poor posture, but they can give you exercises to help prevent your poor posture from returning.

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

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