Issue 19 - April 2012 (PDF) - Chipping Norton Times

All those aches and pains getting you down?
Sick of swallowing pills and portions that don't work?
Moreton in Marsh Chiropractic uses a drug free
approach to move your body towards optimum
health.
Get your life back today.
Forward Head Posture
What is perfect head posture?
When the middle of the ear lobe lines up with the
centre of the shoulder. To check this, imagine a
line is dropped from the centre of the ear lode, it
should land directly in the centre of the shoulder
this is considered to be a “perfect” head posture.
Why does it matter?
Rene Cailliet M.D., famous medical author and former director of the
department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University
of Southern California states:
“Head in forward posture can add up to thirty pounds of abnormal
leverage on the cervical spine. This can pull the entire spine out of
alignment.”
With our modern fast pace lifestyle and usage of mobiles (texting)
and computers (lap tops), the head placement of the population is
getting worse and people are suffering. The forward head position
from sitting at the computer all day and/or texting on the mobile
creates tension and compression strain in the neck and shoulders, it
has been suggested that this contributes to aches and pains of the
neck, shoulder and/or arms.
For every inch your head moves forward, it may gain up to 10 pounds
in weight as the muscles in your neck and upper back have to work
much harder to keep your head (chin) from dropping onto your chest.
This results in the muscles at the back of your skull to remain in
constant contraction, putting pressure on the nerves in that area. The
compression to these nerves may cause headaches at the base of the
skull and mimic other head and/or neck based symptoms. If forward
head posture is allowed to persist, this can lead to other postural
changes from compressive load further down the spine e.g. upper
thoracic hump (often called ‘widow’s’ hump)
Would you be surprised that your neck and shoulders hurt if you had
a 20 pound bowling ball hanging around your neck? It is not
uncommon to observe a 2 inch forward head placement in the new
people that come in to see me. That's what forward head posture can
do to you.
The good news….
Chiropractic is corrective and can help release the tension and
pressure in the neck and shoulders. I specialise in reversing joint
fixations to return the spine back to its natural balanced position and
to re-train the muscles that normally retract the head.
The result…
Neck and upper back pain should diminish and disappear, and
movement will be more flexible around the neck and shoulders as
your forward head posture returns to normal.
Moreton Area Centre, High Street, Moreton in
Marsh, Gloucestershire, GL56 0AZ
Tel: 07766 142113
www.moretonchiro.co.uk
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