Hold Your Head High Going into the New Year
KAYLE SANDBERG-LEWIS BCN-FELLOW, MA, LMT
Within the last hundred years, we have become a sedentary society, which matches the time span in which we saw a skyrocketing increase in chronic disease. With only a cursory search, we learn that at least 200,000 studies have shown a clear link between physical inactivity and chronic illnesses.
As recently as the early half of the 1900s, most people were on their feet throughout the day. That our current society encourages us to be sedentary does not override approximately three and a half trillion generations of evolution.
We evolved to move on foot, scanning the horizon to note movements of friends and foes. The primary curve of our cervical spine evolved to hold our heads in a “neutral” position, balanced over our shoulders. While the neck can bend forward, back & side to side, its resting position should be aligned with the midline of the body.
Unfortunately, we have added “screen time” to our sedentary ways. Our laptops and smartphones are generally held around waist level, as we thrust our heads forward in order to read the screens. The effective weight of your head on your spine increases from about 11 pounds in the neutral position to 49 pounds when your head is hunched forward at a 45-degree angle, a 2014 study found. That additional “functional” weight distorts muscles, and crimps the nerves and vasculature running through the delicate lattice work of the cervical spine, leading to neck and shoulder pain, headaches, jaw pain and reduced respiratory function. Habitual forward head posture leads to foreshortened muscles that resist remedies. This phenomenon has already started to occur in young children who are reporting more neck, shoulder and head pain.
Understanding our evolution can help remedy our self-imposed injurious behaviors. An immediate and easy remedy would be to set our computers on elevated surfaces, allowing the screen to be visible when our heads are neutrally positioned. Another improvement would involve bringing our phones up to our faces rather than our faces down to our phones.
With these simple shifts in posture, 2022 may be less of a pain in the neck.
Kayle Sandberg-Lewis holds an MA in Behavioral Medicine, the study of how what we do affects our well-being. She has over three decades experience in stress management and is board certified in neurofeedback, which she introduced to her practice in 1996. Kayle co-founded Hive Mind Medicine in 2019, where she currently offers neurofeedback to her clients. Telehealth consults are available.
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