Sit up straight! Does this sound familiar? You’ve heard it from mom for years but why is this so important for your health? Lack of proper posture can have surprisingly harmful effects on our health and can contribute to headaches, breathing problems, poor sleep, and symptoms like pain, tight knotted muscles, and numbness and tingling in arms and hands.

Generally things that most affect our posture are some of our innocent daily routines that cause our heads to be bent forward looking down or our shoulders to hunch forward for prolonged periods. In this day and age, using electronics makes avoiding these positions nearly impossible. Ever watch someone texting on their cell phone? How about playing video games or watching TV? Notice the head is usually facing down and the arms are outstretched during these types of activities.

Most at risk are people who spend significant time sitting at a computer in the positions mentioned above for many hours daily. While sitting for the first few hours of a day, our body uses many of our larger muscles to hold up our head and body. As the day progresses, without enough rest and movement the postural muscles fatigue and the smaller muscles in the neck and back are left holding our body weight. By the day’s end the ligaments holding our spine together are left almost alone to hold up the body. Over time these ligaments slowly stretch and allow our spine to change shape often resulting in Forward Head Posture, a common cause of poor posture and musculoskeletal complaints that I treat in my practice daily.

Prevention is key! Avoid sitting with poor posture and get up often to move your muscles and joints to give them a break. If you are already suffering from symptoms, fortunately there are gentle and effective ways to correct and reverse Forward Head Posture by doctors who are trained to detect and restore normal structure to your spine. Not only will you look and feel better, but wouldn’t mom be proud?

Dr. Angela Ahluwalia practices at Kirkland Life Chiropractic and specializes in correcting Forward Head Posture and resulting neck, back, and arm/hand pain, numbness, and tingling. She offers free consultations and posture evaluations and can be contacted at 425-576-5433 or drangela@kirklandlife.com for any questions.