Let's Talk About The Neck & Neck Posture

​Good day guys. Dr. Michael from Charlton Chiropractic. Happy healthy Tuesday. Today I want to talk about a really important topic, and that's your neck, and your neck posture, and how that relates to neck problems. So people having neck pain, neck tension, shoulder tension, things like headaches, migraines. The three reasons why it's recurrent for people.

The first thing to think of is what a normal healthy spine looks like. And what we want is a nice curve in the neck. That's probably not the best model, but you want a nice C shaped curve. You got the brain on top, spinal cord running down the back, the nerves coming out towards you. They go down your arm, they also supply into things like your diaphragm. So they control and coordinate the movement in your neck, shoulders, arms, as well as the feeling and sensation.

So they're pretty important. Your brain is kind of like a super computer, and it's always monitoring things. The nerves are kind of like an electrical cable sending signals back and forth to your body. So when you go out of alignment, and can go out of alignment in a few different ways, but the most common is a loss of the curve of the neck. You'll actually stretch the spinal cord.

A neurosurgeon, Alf Breig in the '70s found five to seven centimetres of stretch with the loss of the neck curve. So that can certainly be important. We can also lose alignment in the joints, or a jammed up joint. Or they can get immobilized, and they can wear out. Now, my experience is that most people, when they get care for something like a neck issue. They'll wait 'til they hurt, number one. And when we consider that potentially the first time that you have an alignment issue with your neck can be the birthing process. From forceps deliver, from vacuum suction. We're talking 70 kilos of pressure pulling on the upper neck. Now, when you consider that as a baby, they're not going to say hey, I've got a bit of a sore head. They're going to be irritable. So that's also why we check kids.

Or then, you might have, as a toddler you might be running around and doing slips, and bumps, or falls. Or even then as an adult, things like a car crash, or sitting at a desk where you have that poor posture, that can all contribute to an alignment issue of the spine.

I guess the first problem that people face is that they don't understand that the pain is not the problem. The pain is the symptom of what's going on in their spine and nerves, from the damage that's occurred previously. So what they'll do is they'll do things to address just the symptom, they'll go to physio or a chiropractor, or a massage therapist. And they will work until they feel better. It might be a week, to two weeks, three weeks, four weeks treatment. But, they're not really doing things to address the underlying changes.

Now of course, if there's changes and damage in the spine shape, or there's damage in the wear and tear of the spine, it's going to limit your ability to make improvement. But, what you do is make the best of the scenario so people can get as best they can. And of course, it's just like brushing your teeth. If you haven't brushed your teeth since you were young, since you got those second stage teeth, there's going to need some care to get them back up to scratch, and get them working properly, and a healthy mouth.

It's just the same with what we do. And then once we get you there, our job, quite simply, is to keep you in check, and to keep your spine moving well, and keep your nerves functioning well, or the best we can.

The second thing is they'll do things just to address the joint issues, or the muscle. They won't do anything to address the curve in the neck, or the loss of curve. So again, they'll do some care, and they'll do some treatment that will help improve their symptoms, but then they won't do the things to change the curve of the neck. Obviously without the curve change, what have we got? We've got tension on the spinal cord, we've got tension on the nerves. And that compression, has not changed. So that's important. We need that alignment better.

Now the third thing, is people will think it's something else. Well maybe my shoulder's a little sore, I need a massage. Look, I get a massage regularly. It's certainly beneficial, but is it addressing the alignment issue in the neck? Is it addressing the nerve feedback from your brain, through the spinal cord and then out through the nerves? Is it helping that improve? Now remember, our muscles are told what to do. What are they told what to do by? It's our brain and the coordination's from the nervous system.

So if we don't address this, then the muscles are going to be tight and tense. And of course, the things like the loss of curve in that forehead postural might make you feel tight and tense as well.

So this is really sort of a summary understanding for you, but really helping you see why we want to really address things properly for you. We want to really make the best care possible for you. So that not only that you will get the relief, but you'll get the functionality, you'll get quality of life, and hopefully quantity of life from what a healthy spine looks like.

So, if you have any questions feel free to let me know, but have a wonderful day, and a healthy, happy Tuesday.