Hi, everybody. Dr. Jodi Kinney, your chiropractor for neck pain in Belmar, NJ.
So when patients come into my office with neck pain, one of the most common things I see is what we call tech neck.
So through a comprehensive history and examination, we’ll determine if they’ve had past injuries or accidents going on with their neck, but I always take very specialized digital x-rays to see if they have a good curve in the neck.
So when we look at good posture, upon posture analysis and good curvature of the spine, what we should see is the head or the ear over the shoulder, over the hips lined up in a nice straight line.
With repetitive use of electronics, looking down at your phone, looking down at your tablet, your laptop for hours on end, you start to lose that normal posture.
And when we get what’s called forward head posture.
Forward head posture is when the head and the shoulders round forward, and it causes there to be a lot more stress on the neck over time.
It puts something like 60 extra pounds of stress on your neck when your head is shifted forward.
So your head weighs approximately 10 to 12 pounds.
You need a nice curve in the neck in order to hold your head upright properly.
When you start to lose that head or that curve, it forces the neck to have to hold up a lot more weight.
This is verified when we take x-rays.
So you should have something like a 35- to 40-degree curve in your neck.
Oftentimes, I see curves in the 10, eight degrees, zero degrees, maybe even reverse curves of the spine, which can put a lotta stress on the neck muscles.
It forces a lot more stress on the disks and definitely gives rise to disk injuries like herniations, bulges, and then arthritis down the road.
So if you are starting to feel like you have symptoms of tech neck, a lot more stress in the neck and the shoulders, maybe you’re getting numbness and tingling in the hands or fingers, headaches, neck pain, then you need to get yourself checked to see if you have tech neck.
This is something that’s correctable in my office.
But don’t wait ’cause it only gets worse over time.
All right, thanks so much for tuning in, and we’ll see you soon.
