Gravity is constantly pressing down on your body, causing you to “slouch” or flex forward. So many of the habits that we have are “flexor dominant” further reinforcing poor posture habits.
Flexor dominant posture habits include:
- “screen time” – looking down at your smartphone, lpad, or computer
- looking down while reading
- looking down while doing homework, and
- sitting with slouched posture while watching television.
When gravity pulls the body into Flexor Dominance you see your children (or you!) have a C-Shaped spinal curvature where the back and shoulders round forward. The muscles of your chest are tightened, and the muscles that support the spine are weak.
Because gravity is an ever-present force, it is imperative to have proper posture habits to resist postural collapse. Posture is the structural framework of your body.
Bones, muscles, joints, and connective tissues make up the Posture System to hold your body upright against gravity, preventing postural collapse. Stress to the Posture System results in Postural Distortion Patterns, impacting your child’s ability to live healthy and pain free.
Children Are Now Being Diagnosed With “Text Neck”
It is estimated that the average teenager spends about 9 hours PER DAY on the cell phone! This day in and day out stress is extremely harmful to the spine and can cause Subluxation from constant repetitive postural strain.
The common physical effects of “Text Neck” include:
- Pain in the neck, upper back and shoulders
- Headaches
- Poor posture
- Reduced spinal mobility
- Balance issues
- Jaw pain
- Numbness and tingling in hands and arms.
These are just the physical effects, the health effects include:
- Less focus
- Worse sleep
- Decreased oxygen and blood flow to the cells and tissues
- Weakened immune system
- Increased stress response in the body.
For those children and teens that are active in sports issues like “Text Neck” will decrease performance, increase risk of injury, slow recovery and overall limit potential. This will decrease performance in school and social relationships.
This is an ever increasing epidemic that few people truly understand and are talking about. The first step to improving this for you and your family is to develop health habits for technology.
How to Develop a Healthy Relationship with Screens
- Identify when and why your child wants to be on their screens
- Identify the root cause of their addiction or desire
- Become self-aware of how much time your child is spending on screens
- View educational content on devices
- Reduce mindless scrolling or games on screens
- Give your child healthy activities to do when they would otherwise be on their devices
- Reduce screen time to 2 hours or less per day
Safe Screen Use
- Hard-wire your devices to reduce EMF exposure
- Set a timer at night to have the WIFI turn off
- Don’t allow screens in their bedroom
- Use headphones instead of bringing your phone up to your ear
- Put your device on Airplane Mode when it is within a close proximity of your child’s body
- Wear Blue Blocker glasses in the afternoon and evenings when on screens
- Put your device in “Night Mode” to reduce Blue Light emission
Why is Slouching So Unhealthy?
The reason posture is so important is not just because it puts stress on your body and causes pain, but because that pressure will shift your spine out of alignment and cause Subluxation. This subluxation is not a muscle or joint problem it is a brain and nervous system problem!
This is why posture affects almost every physiological system in the body and is directly linked to overall health. When the spine shifts out of alignment and gets stuck in the position from postural stress it immediately affects the body’s ability to adapt to stress and to function and heal properly.
Subluxation is the most dangerous health issue you or your children can have because it limits all function in the body. Subluxation will lead to dysfunction in the nervous system and keep you from living your optimum health potential.
As a corrective care chiropractor, we specialize in assessing posture and correcting the underlying issues to restore normal posture and healthy nervous system function for a healthier body.
I see kids and teens with these issues every week and we are able to help them get a natural solution with proper spinal care and lifestyle changes. If you see that your child and/or teen is on devices multiple hours per day it is important to get them and exam and possibly x-rays to look for the effects of “Text Neck” on the body and prevent further issues in their health.
Has Your Entire Family Been Checked for Subluxation?
Food Drive Donation and Friends & Family Week 11/18 – 11/22
Donation of food covers evaluation and X-rays!
