Have You Developed "Computer Posture"?

Have you developed "computer posture?" Is your neck beginning to jut forward while your upper back takes on the rounded shape of someone hunched over a keyboard all day?

It makes sense that no matter what your occupation, if you spend extended amounts of time in the same position, your body will begin to stay that way. Your body loves to adapt. If you lift weights, your body thinks that you must need bigger muscles to accomplish your daily activities. On the other hand, if you don't lift weights, your body assumes there's no need for big muscles.

If you are hunched over the keyboard, your body begins the process of creating a computer posture for you. A postural change that will help you stay in the position that you are in the most.

So to solve this problem (yes, computer posture is a problem), you're going to have to do activities that tell your body that your desire is to sit up straight -- and out of pain.

The great thing about your body is that you won't have to do the additional activities nearly as much as you are doing the position that is contributing to your computer posture.

You just have to do it effectively. You have to target the muscles of your back that support your posture and help you maintain a straight position. Just going to the gym and bench pressing is not going to get you the results you're after.

Spend time exercising your back and you'll make it difficult for you body to keep you hunched over your desk.

Do You Need Chiropractic After An Auto Accident?

Do you need to seek out chiropractic care following an auto accident? My answer is a resounding "yes!" Why is it so important?

Why can't you just rest and take the medications that were prescribed by your medical doctor? Is the insurance company going to give you a hard time about it?
The reason why chiropractic care is so important after an accident has little to do with you being in pain (although it's good for that too). A vertebra that moves out of its normal alignment can wreak havoc on your neck and its associated nerves. You may not be in a lot of pain immediately following the accident, but research indicates that most people will experience a bulk of their symptoms after a few days.

Once you start to feel symptoms, this is a good indicator that something has moved out of place, and likely that you're experiencing a sprain/strain kind of injury. Sprain and strain don't sound horrible, but really they are describing tears of various tissues in your body. The severity of the tear will indicate the type of treatment you should probably consider first. The chiropractor can help make the determination.

Eventually, your body will heal with scar tissue. Scar tissue is more sensitive than the previously uninjured tissue that you had within you before. Once scar tissue sets up (this takes about 3 weeks following the trauma), it will become increasingly difficult to get you back to your pre-accident state. Receiving some chiropractic adjustments to your spine will help assure that your spine is in its best position as that scar tissue begins to form. The better your spine is when all of this occurs, the more likely you can return pain-free following your therapy and treatment.

So why can't you just rest and take the medications? That may be your best first course of treatment for a couple of days following your accident, but certainly can't be the best choice long term. The medications are there to help you with pain, to help you get through the difficulty of the initial phase of your injury. However, they're certainly not fixing anything.

In addition to the chiropractic adjustment, you can typically receive additional therapies that will help your muscles and other soft tissue heal more quickly than just "resting" alone. The additional therapies also help with pain, swelling, and inflammation and can be a big help in the speed of your recovery.

Will your auto insurance or health insurance company give you any trouble? You have insurance for just this type of situation, when you need health care and you can't afford to pay for it yourself. Your health insurance company may have issue if the accident wasn't your fault and the other person should be paying for it (or their insurance), but otherwise you shouldn't have trouble here.

Your auto insurance policy will determine the amount of coverage and just how much help the company has to give. Still, it's your body and your health and you'll need to make sure your injuries are taken care of following the accident. Where you will have trouble is if months have gone by and you haven't gone to see any doctors, just hoping it will go away. Then you decide to tell your insurance company that they need to pay for it all. That doesn't go over too well.

If you've been in an auto accident, it's a good idea to see a chiropractor and do it as quickly as possible once you realize you've been injured. The faster you get some type of treatment, usually the better your results.

Can Chiropractic Help Neck Pain?

Your neck consists of seven very small vertebrae and supports the entire weight of your head. The average weight of the human head is 10 to 12 pounds, which isn't very light when you consider the neck is constantly supporting it!

Add in how much neck strain is incurred when you sit for long periods in front of the computer and you steadily increase the amount of work and strain you are expecting of your neck.

The neck also allows your head in nearly all directions which adds even more stress to your neck. With all of this responsibility, the neck is subject a great deal of stress, which often results in chronic pain and stiffness.

Once neck pain has been persistent for any period of time, you may begin to develop neurological symptoms. These may include numbness, tingling, or a "pins and needles" feeling. Usually these complaints are in the neck at all, but can be felt in the fingertips or up and down the arm.

If you begin to experience any of the neurological symptoms, this is usually an indicator that the neck problem is becoming worse. The early phase of pain is just stiffness, then it moves to real pain that can be sharp in nature. The pain will continue to get worse until the radiating symptoms begin.

Many people have neck pain and it is often extremely bothersome. Medical doctors cannot do a whole lot to permanently relieve neck pain. They can prescribe medications to mask your neck pain and they can do x-rays and other tests to see where the pain is coming from.

When they do find something wrong with the neck they will probably want to schedule surgery, which can prove to be a painful procedure with a long recovery. Surgery, while sometimes necessary, really should be considered a treatment of last resort. You can always do the surgery, but if you do the surgery first, you eliminate many other effective and conservative options.

If you have neck pain it may be wise to consult with a chiropractor before going to the extent of something much more serious such as surgery. Some of the first things that a chiropractor will do on your first visit will be to ask you questions about your neck pain.

Some questions they may ask are:
- When did your neck pain start
- What have you done to try to ease your neck pain
- Are there any other parts of your body that your neck pain stems to or from?

These are a few questions that your Chiropractor will most likely ask. After the initial consultation they will then perform a physical examination. The examination will consist of chiropractic tests, orthopedic tests, and a neurological examination. This entire process will allow the chiropractor to get to the root of your problem and allow him or her to come up with a solution to your pain.

A common practice of chiropractors is to perform a neck adjustment. A neck adjustment is a form of spinal manipulation, and is very specific in nature. This is a very precise technique and is usually very effective in alleviating neck pain.