Is Your Drinking Hurting Your Neck?
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Like a Bonsai Tree
Your terrible posture at
My dinner table
The photo above shows an injurious positioning called "a forward head." A forward head position presses cervical (neck) discs outward, causes upper back and neck pain often called "upper crossed" syndrome, and can press the nerve going down the arm, leading to arm pain and hand/finger numbness. Jutting the chin upward with the neck forward can, over time, create a spondylolisthesis (vertebral shifting). Raising the arm with the shoulder rounded and the neck forward adds to shoulder and rotator cuff injury.
Check yourself for a forward head position when eating and drinking (and on the phone):
- Corner of the jaw is far forward of the shoulder
- Neck tilts forward
- Jaw juts forward
- Neck pinches backward, with high compressive force
- Shoulder rounded
Don't rely on, "Keep ear over shoulder" thinking that is straight posture. You can see in the photo that the ear is over the shoulder, but the neck is craned badly.
Use healthful positioning for built-in upper body muscle exercise and easy pain prevention. Check yourself sideways in a mirror. Watch other people eating and drinking for an easy reminder. Happy Holidays.
For More Healthy Neck Motion:
- For looking upward, click Gaze Perseid Meteors Without Neck Pain.
- For neck and upper back health looking downward over desk, click Tax Preparation Health.
- For drinking and biking, with drawings of fixing neck and upper back while looking up, click Fast Fitness - Stop Neck Pain From Biking
Photo © copyright Dr. Jolie Bookspan of student
Labels: fix pain, impingement, injury, neck, rotator cuff, shoulder, upper back, yoga
2 Comments:
At Tuesday, February 05, 2008 10:15:00 AM,
Rowsella said…
I have been experiencing chronic problems in my neck and shoulder (esp. left shoulder--I'm left handed). If it progresses enough, it causes pain and what my doctor diagnoses as a tendonitis in my upper left arm which paradoxically hurts at rest-- esp. when driving. It is not uncommon for some shoots of pain/numbness/tingling to shoot down to my hand.
I have started a yoga class which gives me some beautiful painfree moments esp. after half moon and mountain poses.
I am sure many of my problems are due to poor posture and general physical deterioration associated with poor diet and inadequate exercise. I have been improving each of these issues but have been hitting roadblocks with various physical issues with my arm, neck, occasional sciatic pain on my right and a chronic pain in my left heel which can become so bad, it causes me to limp. I suspect these are all inflammatory processes that are related and may have something to do with obesity.
I am going to look up your books and try to incorporate them in my life. I wonder which poses you recommend in yoga and which ones you recommend not to do-- are these in a particular book? Or can you tell me which ones via email?
At Saturday, February 09, 2008 3:57:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Kathlene, sorry you are hurting. This kind of pain can be quickly stopped by no longer using injurious positioning and using healthy ones instead. Then the pain will stop and the area can heal.
Start by clicking the three links right in the post:
"upper back and neck pain"
"press the nerve going down the arm, leading to arm pain"
and "shoulder and rotator cuff injury."
The links will take you to posts that cover how these result and exactly what to try.
Then click the label links under the post. They will take you to all posts about that topic, for example, Fix Pain.
This kind of pain results from simple mechanical pressure and is not usually inflammatory. That is why anti-inflammatory medicines usually do not help. They can even sometimes add to troubles.
You can easily stop the cause of the pain, instead of taking pills that do not have anything to do with the cause. This will include stopping some yoga poses that are unhealthful for the neck like the plow and shoulder stand. They only practice an overstretched forward position. They are not helpful, as commonly thought. Most people are already so far overstretched to the front that it is counterproductive to do these poses. Notice your neck position when you do other poses and also during daily life that you do not jut the chin and neck forward.
My book Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery details how good joint positioning works during exercise, yoga, and daily life for your entire body, so that you can make decisions on your own, instead of memorizing rules.
Stopping the cause will stop the pain and prevent it from coming back. Feel encouraged and keep us posted.
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