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Many of the people we see in our office, come in with neck pain, pain between the shoulder blades, numbness/tingling in the fingers, headaches/migraines, and tight muscles in the upper back and neck. These are often symptoms associated with forward head posture. According to Kapandji (Physiology of the Joints, Volume III), for every inch your head moves forward, it gains 10 pounds in weight as far as the muscles in your upper back and neck are concerned, because they have to work that much harder to keep the head from dropping onto your chest. This also forces the muscles at the base of your skull to remain in constant contraction, putting pressure on nerves, which may cause headaches. Pressure on these nerves can also mimic sinus (frontal) headaches. According to the Mayo Clinic Health Letter Vol. 18, #3, March 2000, the effects of long term forward neck posture leads to "long term muscle strain, disc herniations and pinched nerves."

Rene Cailliet M.D., famous medical author and former director of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Southern California states:

“Head in forward posture can add up to thirty pounds of abnormal leverage on the cervical spine. This can pull the entire spine out of alignment. Forward head posture (FHP) may result in the loss of 30% of vital lung capacity. These breath-related effects are primarily due to the loss of the cervical lordosis, which blocks the action of the hyoid muscles, especially the inferior hyoid responsible for helping lift the first rib during inhalation.”

Persistent forward head posture (a.k.a “hyperkyphotic posture”) puts compressive loads upon the upper thoracic vertebra, and is also associated with the development of Upper Thoracic Hump, which can devolve into Dowager Hump when the vertebra develop compression fractures (anterior wedging). A recent study found this hyperkyphotic posture was associated with a 1.44 greater rate of mortality.

It's not uncommon to observe 2" of anterior head placement in new patients. Would you be surprised that your neck and shoulders hurt if you had a 20-pound watermelon hanging around your neck? That's what forward head posture can do to you. Left uncorrected, Forward Head Posture will continue to decline.

Chiropractic can be very corrective for this type of problem. Our specialty is in reversing the joint fixations (what we refer to as “subluxations”) and in re-invigorating the muscles that normally retract the head.

At Great Day Chiropractic and Wellness Center we have helped lots of people with these issues. We create individualized stretching and core strengthening programs that help alleviate and correct the underlying issues causing pain and other symptoms. Give us a call today and learn how we can help.
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