The 60 Pound Head
“Sit up straight”
You’ve been told this when you were young and you have probably said it to your kids.
Your ear, shoulder and hip should be one vertical line, perpendicular to the floor. While inside your neck your vertebrae should have a nice smooth “C” curve to it.
When we lose that curve there is more strain on your neck. But the question is how much?
A spinal surgeon out of New York did a study to figure this out.
The average human head weighs in at 13.2lbs. 10-12lbs of force is placed on your neck while you are in the perfect position mentioned above.
So what happens when perfect changes?
15 degrees forward = 27lbs of strain
30 degrees forward = 40lbs of strain
45 degrees forward = 49lbs of strain
60 degrees forward = 60lbs of strain
This increased strains lead to faster degeneration in the neck and eventually disability.
Corrective chiropractic care aims to restore this changes back to normal as close as possible, and the changes we see in curve correction can be truly amazing even to us.
But it's more amazing when our patients feel and move much better as a result. It's very simple actually. Reduce 50lbs of strain off of your neck and it's going to work better. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that.
The crazy part is that these bad postures and neck curve changes are now seen commonly in kids with increasing time spent on technology.
In a one year period the average person spends 700 to 1,400 hours a year on smart devices. The average high school student may spend up to another 5,000 hours on their smart devices.
That’s Insane!!!
The bottom line is you don't know what you don't know. Get your kids checked by a corrective care chiropractor and see if there are in fact any structural changes that have already started and correct it now, as it is much easier to do while they are young.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.