Candy Crush your Spine

I was on the train today and was one of the few people looking out the window and enjoying the view of the countryside.

Most people in my carriage were on their smart phones, iPads and laptops. It seems that technology has caught up with us, and given most of us an addiction to distraction, with so many of us pulling the phone out as soon as we’re not busy doing anything else.Many of the clients I see come in with headaches and neck problems and shoulder problems. There is a lot of stress on everyone to perform at their best, meet deadlines and much more which can aggravate the nervous system and the body. For today though, I want to talk about neck position for when using the phone.The spine and nervous system are best functioning if they are in a neutral position. People who are on their phones never have good posture and we’re using smartphones more than we ever have before. For every 15° you bend your neck forward, the strain the neck muscles have to sustain becomes bigger as gravity pulls harder on our head. This increases the weight exponentially (as seen in the picture).You might be alright the 1st, 15th and 100th time doing so, but if you do not have correct posture I can guarantee that YOU will be showing up at a chiropractor's office with headaches, back pain, muscle or nerve damage, disc herniation etc. This has a whole body affect so please be smart when you are on your smartphone! Raise it to eye level if you know you are on there for a little while, it makes all the difference!Next time we will see how a problem in the neck can become, or manifest, as a lower back problem and why these little tricks of the trade are so important to avoid much bigger problems.This article was written by Dr. Michael Lezuo (Chiropractor) - @drmichaelchiro.