Reduce Headaches and Neck Pain
Video by Dr. John Wertish
Posture and alignment have always helped reduce strain on the body. Mechanics of how we move can change our health. Today’s stress on the body has increased from our habits formed from television, sitting at a desk, and our cell phones. Social media and advancement phone technology has positioned our head and decondition the strength of specific muscles. Most have felt tension in their traps, fatigue of the neck, and tension in our neck joints. This can lead to headaches, neck pain, mid back pain, and tingling down into the arms. There are receptors in those joints that can also lead to dizziness. These deconditioned muscles can lead to forward head posture (FHP). When our head shifts forward and changes our center of gravity we get weakness in the anterior neck muscles and shortening of the posterior neck muscles. This mechanical deficiency can lead to chronic problems. Once of my favorite exercise to help FHP is the chin tuck. Give this exercise a try to help fight of the hunch back and FHP. Here is some quotes from the research article on forward head posture.
“Almost everywhere, including homes, schools, and offices, computers and smart phones are commonly used today. Although this usage is efficient in terms of improvement in work productivity, it has also several negative aspects, e.g. headaches and visual problems, and musculoskeletal disorders are the most important negative factor resulting from the regular use of computers and smart phones”
“Forward head posture (FHP) is one of the most common types of postural abnormality, and it is generally described as an anterior position of the head in relation to the vertical line of the body’s center of gravity6, 7) . Many researchers have reported that several factors, including headache, neck pain, and musculoskeletal disorders such as temporomandibular disorders or rounded shoulders, are related to FHP”
References:
Kyeong-Jin Lee, Hee-Young Han, Song-Hee Cheon, So-Hyun Park, Min-Sik Yong, The effect of forward head posture on muscle activity during neck protraction and retraction, Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 2015, Volume 27, Issue 3, Pages 977-979.
Our Message
If you’re looking for a Chiropractor near you that you can trust, choose one who will not only get rid of your back pain, neck pain, or headaches but who will also guide you to living a healthier lifestyle to keep you out of pain. Our Chiropractors located in Dallas, near the corner of Mockingbird Ln. and Abrams Rd., will teach you what the research says about how and why we should eat a better diet, move more and have more positive thoughts. By improving these areas of our lives we can become healthier and stay out of pain!