Pediatric Posture Epidemic Part 3 of 3

Pediatric Posture Epidemic Part 3 of 3

Welcome to part 3 of 3 of my posture series.

Now that you have heard all about our decline in posture we need to make some changes. I challenge you to try some of this re-education. You will feel better.

We have a decline in healthy posture at the speed of technology. Children and adults are showing poorer posture.

50.5% of school-age children have poor posture! Over 50%! We have an epidemic!

Poor posture decreases balance, coordination, self-confidence, and results in a poor cognitive and emotional state. Posture distortion is unfortunately the new normal, and we need to reverse this in the ‘digital age.’

Tech neck posture at a 60-degree angle causes 60 pounds of force to the neck and upper back! Tech neck causes digital dementia

I strongly recommend no tech under two and school-age children a maximum of 1 hour per day.

We discussed posture rehabilitation in part 2 of the blog series and you can see it here

Posture re-education:

1.    Take frequent posture breaks – extend your head backward and arms back behind you. For every hour you are on a device you need to take a 30-sec posture break

2.    More movement: sit on an unstable surface such as sitting with a wobble seat or posture seat, ball chairs

3.    Do digital detoxes: decrease tech time; monitor your screen time. Make 3 hours a day tech-free such as 1 hour in the morning, 1 hour before bed, and 1 hour at dinner time with your family.

Devices and technology are part of our world, and we need to watch how we interact with them. Poor posture and technology overuse affect our mood, sleep, increases our anxiety, and cause us stress.

As adults, we developed our posture before technology; our children have always had the technology, so it is up to us to teach them how to uses it correctly and to monitor them on time and correct habits.

Dr. Joelle Johnson practices at Family First Chiropractic and Wellness at 142 Erickson Drive, Red Deer. www.family1stchiro.ca 403-347-3261

Pediatric Posture epidemic Part 1 of 3

Pediatric Posture epidemic

Part 1 of 3

I have decided to break this blog into 3 separate parts, the first to discuss the issue, the following 2 will be the exercises and rehabilitation for improving your posture.

We have a decline in healthy posture at the speed of technology. Children and adults are showing poorer posture. This posture is the forward head tilt with an increased midback curve called a hyperkyphosis. Most hyperkyphosis posture is postural; however some are structural. When you trunk flexes forward you have poor balance; this imbalance decreases your ability to regulate movement properly. You will have a slower gait and a wider stance causing poor coordination and balance.

50.5% of school-age children have poor posture! Over 50%! We have an epidemic!

Poor posture decreases balance, coordination, self-confidence, and results in a poor cognitive and emotional state. Posture distortion is unfortunately the new normal, and we need to reverse this in the ‘digital age.’

Tech neck posture at a 60-degree angle causes 60 pounds of force to the neck and upper back! Tech neck causes digital dementia

Digital dementia is defined as non-Alzheimers dementia-like symptoms form the overstimulation of devices and poor lifestyle habits.

It causes

1.    Understimulation of the Parietal lobe

2.    Overstimulation of the occipital lobe

3.    Understimulation of the cerebellum

4.    Understimulation of the PMRF

5.    Understimulation of the frontal lobe

I strongly recommend no tech under two and school-age children a maximum of 1 hour per day. Our children are developing their nervous system and spines with technology and are the first generation to have this from birth. Previous generations have developed their posture and nervous system before technology.  We need children to spend at least 2 hours a day physically playing, which activates their vestibular and nervous system.

Increased screen time causes the following

1.    Thinning of the brain cortex

2.    Decreased GPA with increased screen time

3.    Increased in ADHD

4.    Decreases in working memory

5.    Lower quality of life with increased screen time

How do we help these children and adolescents?

•    Spinal alignment, chiropractic adjustments  to stimulate the spine and the nervous system to function optimally

•    Posture rehabilitation

•    Posture habit re-education

Watch for the next blog part 2 by Dr. Joelle Johnson Bsc, D.C.,  from Family First Chiropractic and Wellness, 142 Erickson Drive Red Deer T4R3B3 www.family1stchiro.ca

403-347-3261

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

How to Get rid of your Mommy Belly

How to Get rid of your Mommy Belly!


In my practice I see a lot of pregnant mothers and they often ask me during their pregnancy what is causing a tearing, burning pain often at the top of their pregnant abdomen just by the ribs. Often they think its indigestion or baby kicking them in the ribs, but it is a separation of the abdominal muscles called diastasis recti. Often mothers feel batter after the abdominal muscles fully tear and the burning sensation disappears, however this can result in the mommy pooch after baby is born as well as making their core weaker which may cause spinal instability. Many women struggle with getting their abdominals back after having a baby. Back pain, poor posture, pelvic floor problems, gastro- intestinal disturbances like constipation and bloating are all symptoms that occur when the support system for the back and organs is the weak connective tissue instead of the muscles. Most women who have had a baby have a diastasis recti, and this usually gets worse with each pregnancy.

How do you know if you have a diastasis?

If you have a protruding (pregnant looking) belly OR your belly button is an outie OR you have a half football (alien like) bulge when you lift your shoulders off the ground, you most definitely have a diastasis! An umbilical hernia is a side effect of a diastasis recti.


Lie on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Place a hand behind your head for support. Next, place the index and middle fingers of your other hand just above your belly button, pointing them downward. Raise your head and neck off the floor and press your fingers into the separation between your muscles. If you can fit more than two fingers into the opening, you likely have a diastasis.Often the top of the tummy will form a tent- this is indicative of a separation.

Here are a few exercises that will reduce the diastasis. One rule to remember DO NOT DO CRUNCHES as this will increase the diastsis.

 Dr. Joelle Johnson practices at Family First Chiropractic and Wellness located at 142 Erickson Dr, Red Deer

403-347-3261

www.familyfirstchiro.ca


The Bridge: Part ILie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the ground and arms at your sides. Take a deep breath and pull your belly button in.

The Bridge: Part IIAs you exhale, slowly tip your pelvis up so that your upper body forms a straight line from your knees to your shoulders, as shown. Hold for two beats; take another deep breath, then exhale and slowly roll back down.  

 

 The Modified Hundred: Part ILie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the ground and arms at your sides, as shown. Take a deep breath and pull your stomach muscles in.

The Modified Hundred: Part IIAs you exhale, slowly lift your neck and head off the floor, extending your arms on either side of your legs, as shown. Be sure to keep your stomach muscles pulled in. Hold for two beats, then take another deep breath and slowly lower yourself as you exhale.

The Flat-Belly Fly: Part I Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the ground. Lift your legs one at a time so that your calves are at a 90-degree angle to the floor. Place one hand on your belly and the other arm at your side, palm down, as shown.

The Flat-Belly Fly: Part II

Pull your stomach muscles in and with a slow, smooth movement, open your legs as far as you can without puffing your belly out; slowly close your legs.

Back Pain

 

An estimated 75-85 percent of people will experience back pain at some time in their life, and most cases are mechanical in nature, meaning the pain is not due to a serious medical condition such as inflammatory arthritis or fracture.

Fifty percent of all working adults say they have back pain, and it's one of the most common reasons for missed work.

According to the American Chiropractic Association,¹ Americans spend at least $50 billion annually on back pain treatments, and are often left feeling more confused about their problem.

Not surprisingly, back pain has become a major target for Big Pharma disease mongering.² The latest example of this is the emergence of ads for ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the axial skeleton, which includes the spine.

The drug advertised is Humira, which has a price tag of about $20,000 a year. It is reprehensible for drug companies to promote this expensive and dangerous drug for an exceedingly rare cause of low back pain, which likely is responsible for less than a tenth of a tenth of one percent of low back pain.

Side effects of the drug include tuberculosis, serious infections, increased risk of lymphoma and other cancers, hepatitis B infection in carriers of the virus, allergic reactions, nervous system problems, blood problems, heart failure, certain immune reactions including a lupus-like syndrome, liver problems, and new or worsening psoriasis — and that’s the short list! There are many more.

Considering the fact that most cases of low back pain are not caused by inflammatory conditions, you probably do not need this drug — although you may have no trouble receiving it should you ask your doctor for it...

Besides addictive and dangerous painkillers, pain injections also carry risks. Last year, nearly two dozen people receiving steroid injections for chronic back pain contracted meningitis. The outbreak was traced to a contaminated batch of injectable steroids.⁴

Since poor posture and/or improper movement is to blame for most cases of back pain, one of the best things you can do to prevent and manage back pain is to exercise regularly and keep your back and abdominal muscles strong.

What’s Causing the Pain?

With the exception of blunt force injuries, low back pain is commonly caused and exacerbated by:

Poor posture	Poor physical conditioning facilitated by inactivity	Internal disease, such as kidney stones, infections, blood clots
Obesity	Psychological/emotional stress	Osteoporosis (bone loss)

To book an appointment, call us at 403-347-3261 Family First Chiropractic, 142 Erickson Dr, Red Deer. www.family1stchiro.com