Headaches Part 2

What are the structural changes that occur from bad posture?

As we continue to stress our necks in the ways I described in Headaches Part 1, our body does what it is designed to do...adapt. With forward head posture you will gradually lose the normal curve in your cervical spine (neck). This curve is important for decreasing the shock of impacts while you are standing or sitting upright. If this curve is straightened out it will lead to damage to the discs in the cervical spine and arthritis. (I will write a section about discs at a later date that will explain the causes and prevention.) If left untreated this curve can even reverse!

As you examine these pictures I want you to try and picture the muscles that surround your neck. While your head is forward the muscles in the front will shorten and the ones in the back will lengthen. This is exactly the opposite of what they were meant to be. When the muscles in the back are stretched they also become over worked because as your head moves forward the stress on the muscles increases dramatically. Your head weighs in at about 10-15 lbs. So imagine holding a bowling ball out away from your body all day.

This is a large reason why you may sit around all day at work, but you feel like you just got hit by a truck. And those headaches that seem to work their way up the back of your head and into the back of your eye or eyes...they are from your neck.

So how do I know if my curve is decreased or reversed?

In some cases it may be somewhat simple to see that someones curve is decreased just by looking at their posture. However what we can not see in some cases is if the curve has reversed. What will happen is a person may have once had bad head posture, but now their head is back over their shoulders. All better right? Not necessarily. When the curve has reversed the head can move back into alignment over the shoulders. In order to know what stage you are in, you must have an x-ray examination done by a Chiropractor that has been trained and certified in Chiropractic Biophysics (CBP). Many Chiropractors will say they practice CBP, but have had no training or have only attended a seminar or two. If the analysis is not preformed properly, or if the treatment is not done correctly, serious injury could occur. You can find a list of Doctors that are fully trained and certified (highlighted in yellow) at http://www.idealspine.com/pages/referral.htm . Just click on the state you live in and you're on your way.

The next section Headaches Part 3 will contain information about how your curve reverses and what the dangers are if a reversed curve goes untreated.