3 Common mistakes made for neck pain

• Not realizing that using iPhone’s and iPad’s are having a detrimental effect on our neck:

It is astonishing if you were to start taking notice of the majority of the population’s posture when they are on their phones, Ipad’s and computers. Billions of people are on the planet are using devices in poor posture with forward head posture and shoulders rounding.

Did you know it requires so much more force from the muscles in the back of your neck to hold you in this posture? In fact even 15 degree forward head posture requires 12.25Kgs extra force from the muscles in the back of the neck and shoulders to hold you in this posture. Imagine the impact of this constant pressure on the neck and shoulders over a long period of time!

The activities that you do day after day and not even think twice about, are often the ones having the biggest effect on your body and the pains and symptoms that you are experiencing.

When tissues are immobilised, as when the cervical spine (neck) is out of alignment due to poor posture, this leads to changes in the tissues of the neck which therefore leads to stiffness and restricted movement. This immobilisation can then lead to connective tissue change and scar tissue formation. This is where Chiropractic is important. Manual therapy can work to break up the adhesions within the scar tissue. It must be reinforced to you that movement, its frequency, duration and rate, is vitally important to change the tissue structure (Dan Murphy, Dc, Assessment of cervical stress in the cervical spine caused by posture and position of the head).

When experiencing neck pain or restricted movement, Chiropractic care is recommended. This may enhance your recovery and get you back to your best as soon as possible!

• Not realising that how you are sleeping is affecting your body

When you are sleeping at night you are having a massive impact on how your body is functioning. If you are not using a supportive pillow to keep your neck aligned throughout the night, whether you are sleeping on your back or side, this can lead to you having neck pain and restricted movement.

If you are a stomach sleeper, this may lead to neck problems as you are twisting your neck all night in this posture.  It is always advised to our clients that you keep off your stomach as not only are you twisting your neck all night, you are also lying on your stomach all night when many of your organs are functioning at their most during this time. This extra pressure on them can affect the way they are functioning.

It is always best to sleep on your back or on your side with a pillow that supports your body and neck in alignment. Our team at Global Chiropractic are trained to fit you with the right size pillow that you need to support you in this posture. We are even happy if you would love to bring in your pillow and we can let you know if this is right for you. If not, we will show you which option suits you best for your sleep posture.

• Not realising stress is impacting on your neck

When the body is in a stressed state the body tends to carry most of the stress through the neck and shoulders. As a result the neck and shoulders can become tight and tense. This tension can lead to increased pressure on the nerves in this area and may impact on their function.

When stressed our breathing tends to be shallow and only goes chest deep. As a result this is using the muscles of the neck and shoulders more and can lead to stiffness and pain in this area.

Being aware of your breathing is very important. If you concentrated for 2 minutes 3 times per day making sure that when you were to breathe you focused to breathe down into your belly, yes your belly should expand, and then breathe out as your belly will shrink again. This style of breathing actually helps to relax the muscles around the neck so can help with minimizing pain in the area.

If you find this exercise hard or if after doing you still feel not much relief you may actually need to seek further attention. 

Here at Global Chiropractic we are very passionate about assisting our clients in relieving stress from their nervous system as it is very common that this may be the cause behind a lot of pain, symptom and dysfunction that a lot of people are suffering from.

Dr. Deanne Esposito (Chiropractor)

Global Chiropractic