Importance of Your Cervical Curve

How many times have you been told to sit up straight? It turns out your parents were right. Sitting up straight is good advice indeed. Hunching your shoulders and keeping your head down while working, studying, or texting isn’t just bad for posture, it can actually reduce the healthy curve in your cervical spine. Here is some information you need to get in the loop about why the body has, and needs this important curve.

What is the Cervical Curve?

The cervical curve is the length of your neck, and contains the first seven vertebrae of your spine. It begins directly below your skull at the atlas vertebrae and ends above the thoracic spine. A healthy cervical curve resembles a wide, backward “C” shape and studies show the ideal cervical curve is approximately 42 degrees when standing upright.

Cervical Curvature Starts with Tummy Time

Infants are born with spines curved like the letter “C” and this makes sense when you think about how babies are positioned in utero. At a few months old, the cervical curve starts to form due to that important “tummy time”—the period when infants begin holding their heads up while lying on their stomachs and crawling. This leads to the development of the lumbar curve. Lumbar curve further develops as infants start to walk. These two critical curves slightly resemble an “S” shape in healthy adult spines.

How Do Cervical Curves Reduce?

Cervical spine can lose its curvature due to both major and minor traumas to the body. Physical stresses like car accidents, slips, falls and sports injuries can reduce spinal curvatures. Micro traumas, such as sitting with poor posture for prolonged period of time. Poor sleeping habits. Such as sleeping on your stomach or using unsupportive pillows or too many pillows put our spines in a compromised position.”

What You Can Do 

Get checked by a doctor of chiropractic for cervical curve loss and its severity, or osteoarthritis. Your chiropractor will create a customized plan for correcting, reversing or preventing the continued degeneration. Like a crooked tooth Cervical curve reduction is due to structural changes. Where muscles, ligaments has shortened or lengthened, and adhesions formed. In addition, every inch of forward head posture, the weight of the head on the spine increases by an additional 10 pounds. Research also indicates that continuous forward head posture leads to long-term muscle strain, disc herniation, arthritis and pinched nerves.

Dr. Elton Clemence is a Chiropractor at Family First Chiropractic and Wellness, located in Red Deer, AB 142 Erickson Drive, www.family1stchiro.ca