With students going back to school this month, it’s a great time to bring up the topic of posture, Postural Syndrome, and Tech Neck also known as Text Neck. Our posture directly affects our health, the function of our organs, and the mechanics of our body. Maintaining optimal posture is the key to maintaining health and wellness.

Our brain and nervous system are the most important parts of our body. They control every other system in our body, such as our digestive system, immune system, respiratory system, reproductive system, lymphatic system, muscular system, etc. The brain sends information to the rest of our body through the spinal cord and nerves. It is extremely important that our brain can easily communicate to our body and vice-versa. Nerves exit the spinal cord between each vertebra bringing information from the brain to every single cell, organ, muscle, and tissue. If our posture isn’t optimal, then neither will our brain’s ability to communicate with the rest of our body.

Optimal posture looks like this:

Front View: If you’re facing yourself in the mirror, your eyes should be level with your shoulders forming a straight horizontal line.  Your shoulders should also form a straight horizontal line be level with your hips. Your hips should be level and form a straight horizontal line, and your toes should be facing directly forward. If you could draw an imaginary line down the front of your body, your nose should align with your sternum, belly button, and pubic symphysis.

Side View: If you could see yourself perfectly from the side, you should be able to draw an imaginary straight line from your ears, through your shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. Any variation of this is a postural imbalance, which can later form into a syndrome with symptoms.

Postural Syndrome: The classic presentation for someone with Postural Syndrome includes aching pain in the middle and upper back region. Usually this pain is made worse by sitting at a desk for extended periods of time (as students do most of the day) and it is often relieved by movement and activities.

It’s caused from a chronic shortening of the anterior muscles of the chest and shoulders such as the pectoralis muscles, and chronic fatigue and strain of the scapular retractor muscles.

Usually kids or young adults that have Postural Syndrome will have a forward head carriage, an exaggerated curve (hyperkyphosis) of their thoracic spine, and trigger points in their traps, rhomboids, levator scapulae and pectoralis muscles.

The best way to treat this condition is chiropractic adjustments of the thoracic and cervical spine, deep tissue massage, and then exercises that focus on stretching the pectoralis and strengthening the traps and scapular retractors, in that order!

Tech Neck/Text Neck Syndrome usually includes all of the presentations of postural syndrome, but the neck is affected too. Our neck naturally should have a lordosis curve in order to efficiently carry the weight of our head without putting any extra strain on the shoulders, upper back, and lower neck. If someone is consistently looking down at a screen, the weight of their head puts so much strain on the neck and back that the natural lordotic curve straightens out or even reverses. This results in the muscles of the neck and back to compensate and be overworked.  Often times Tech/Text Neck includes symptoms of headaches, upper back pain, poor posture, radiation of pain and/or numbness into the arms, hands or fingers.

For kids and young adults that are starting back up at school, back-packs are also an added stress to their posture. It’s super important to be proactive about postural imbalances now, so that it doesn’t because an actual syndrome later. Dr. Sarah K. Wharton, with Cypress Chiropractic can help!

Thanks for reading the Charleston, SC Cypress Chiropractic Health Blog. Until next time, stay healthy!