Do you spend most of your day sitting, whether it’s at work, in the car, on public transport, or watching TV? Well, you’re not alone. Australia is a nation of ‘sitters’ and its starting to take its toll on our health.

Why not improve your health simply by standing up and moving around more? It’s also important you take regular breaks from sitting to stretch, stand, change or correct your posture or walk around your office.

And while you are sitting, here are a few things to remember:

• Keep your hips, elbows and knees at open angles (slightly more than 90 degrees)
• Recline slightly to ease lower back pressure
• Ensure your feet are flat on the floor or on a footrest
• Position the centre of your computer screen at eye level and tilt the monitor upwards slightly
• Only use wrist rests while resting, not while typing

As part of Spinal Health Week 2012 chiropractors at KingsWilliam will be encouraging patients to prioritise their spinal health by sitting less and moving more.

An active spine is a healthy spine and a healthy spine leads to a healthier life. Why not use Spinal Health Week to encourage your family and friends to make an appointment with our clinic to assess their spinal health and discuss how being more active will improve their wellbeing?

You can also visit the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia’s website for more tips on how to sit correctly and to download the Sit Right desktop widget to remind you when to take a break from sitting. www.SitRight.com.au

Over the years, we have written and spoken about many ways that you can help yourself when it comes to neck pain.  To make it easier, here is a list of things to have a look at on our websites:

Video:

Conversations at KingsWilliam: “Why do I always have a sore neck?”

We are often asked “Why do I always have a sore neck?” There are many reasons but in this video Eve talks about one of the most common.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssM-8V1Vk1w

Conversations at KingsWilliam: “Stress and neck pain”

Sometimes no matter how many things you try your pain just doesn’t quite go away. Sometimes that’s because it’s related to an emotion that is creating a physical effect. Sarah talks about one of her patients whose neck pain was related to stress at work. A simple balance can break the connection and make the pain go away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tnlmmepPbU

Downloads on the chiropractic website:

http://kingswilliamchiropractic.com.au/downloads

Click the title “Chiropractic and Massage”

• 40s a day to release neck tension
• Ear pressure points
• Neck stretches
• Taking care of your body when little things go wrong

Posts on the Natural Health Care website under the chiropractic and massage category:

http://kingswilliam.com.au/category/chiropractic-and-massage

• Computer neck – Is poor posture creating all your pain problems
• Can sleeping on your stomach cause back pain?
• Which pillow should I buy?
• Neck, back and leg pain? Check out the Psoas!

That’s a start at least!  Take the time to have a look.  You’ll feel much better for it.

I thought I might point out a few things about sitting in front of a lap top, just to get you thinking about the sort of damage that you can do without even realising it.

Is this you?

Computer neck!!!  Your head is about as heavy as a bowling ball.  The muscles at the back of your head are trying really hard to hold your head up in this posture.

What happens?

You end up with a sore neck and tops of shoulders.  A lot of people get headaches as well.

Should I even mention that sitting cross legged on an angle can stress your low back?  Maybe not.

Try changing to this!

Making sure that your neck is in line with your back makes for less strain on your neck and shoulders.

Feet flat on the floor puts less strain on your low back.

Hmmmm…. Less pain!

Have a look at my latest “Conversations” video on sore necks.

Many people bring their children to our chiropractors for regular check ups.  The advantages are many – just browse through our past articles.

An interesting and common observation that parents make is that an adjustment can have a calming effect on their children.  Have a look at our latest video: Conversations at Kingswilliam – Twitchy kids to hear about one recent experience.

Pain in the wrists and hands is commonly related to doing repetitive work where the wrist is in the wrong position for long periods of time. One very common cause is in people who work at a computer all day, but it can also be anyone who uses their hands a lot; such as tradesmen, cleaners, professional drivers, and mothers of young children. Your chiropractor can look at your posture when you’re doing these activities, and show you the best position for your wrists and hands.

Many people don’t realise that wrist and hand pain can be coming from their spine. Often it’s being referred from the neck and upper back. Chiropractic adjustments to correct the spine can completely relieve this pain. Other areas it can be referred from are the shoulder, elbow, and the muscles around the neck. Your chiropractor will treat these areas also if necessary.

At KingsWilliam we believe it’s important to give you techniques you can use in between visits to keep yourself healthy and feeling good. Your chiropractor may show you some releases that you can do for your wrists and hands that will help to prevent the pain from coming back.

If you have pain in your wrists and hands don’t think it’s a lost cause, talk to one of our chiropractors about how they can help!

Over the next few months, I thought I might point out a few things about various postures just to get you thinking about the sort of damage that you can do without even realising it.

Is this you?

Using your shoulder to hold the phone can lead to chronic neck and shoulder pain.

Sitting cross legged on an angle can stress your low back.

Try changing to this!

Holding the phone in your hand and writing on the table takes all the tension out of your neck and low back.

Hmmmm…. Less pain!

Fortunately for most people the answer is no!

It’s extremely common to have a mild spinal scoliosis, and in most cases they don’t cause any problems at all.

What is a scoliosis?

A scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine. Mostly, a scoliosis is said to be “idiopathic”, which means the cause is unknown. Chiropractors believe it’s probably caused by muscular and structural imbalances that occur during growth and development.  There is also thought to be a genetic component in some cases.

What will my chiropractor do?

Your chiropractor will examine your spine and make a note of whether a scoliosis is present. Fortunately in most cases of scoliosis the spine is able to compensate for the curvature and continue to function perfectly well.

Sometimes it can mean that you’re more likely to have back problems as an adult. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have regular chiropractic adjustments, usually every 4-6 weeks. This will keep your spine working well and help avoid any problems occurring in the future. If a child or adolescent has a scoliosis, chiropractic care might be able to prevent the scoliosis from progressing any further.

In some very rare cases, a scoliosis can progress to a more severe curve, or it can indicate an underlying medical condition. Because of this, our chiropractors monitor each case of scoliosis carefully and will let you know if further examination or treatment is required.

If you have any questions about scoliosis ask your chiropractor, they will be happy to talk to you about it!

I promised to provide some instructions for home help which would compliment our treatments.  Here’s the link on “Home help for Achilles Tightness” for Graham to download  and for anyone else who is having Achilles issues.

The Achilles tendon is part of the gastronemious and soleus muscles.  To stretch out the tendon you need to stretch out both sets of muscles not just one.  Of course it’s not usually enough to just stretch.  More often than not, the muscle tightness is linked to some structural, emotional or biochemical issue which should be assessed as well.

Structurally, the way the bottom half of your body lines up is really important.  For instance, there might be an issue with the pelvis and the muscles attached to it; it might be a foot issue associated with the way you walk and the arch of your foot; to name just two things that might influence that muscle.  Emotionally, in Chinese medicine, the muscles are related to the fire element which reflects emotional instability, muddled thinking, up and down cycles of emotion and a feeling of not being able to “figure it out”. The organ, in applied kinesiology, is the adrenal gland.  All or some of these factors may be present when assessing the problems around tight calf muscles.

Sometimes however, the stress you put on your spine may be more than usual, and this can lead to pain in between your regular adjustments. This could be because you:

• Have lifted something the wrong way
• Are working longer than usual in front of the computer
• Slept in the wrong position or are getting less sleep than usual
• Are doing more physical activity than your body is accustomed to

In this situation it isn’t unusual to feel some pain or discomfort, or to feel some of your previous symptoms starting to return. If this happens it’s time to act immediately, the quicker you can do something about it, the more likely you are to get on top of it before it becomes a problem. You can even avoid having to make an earlier date for your next adjustment.

At KingsWilliam we like to show you exercises that you can do for yourself at home, so that you can get on top of your pain quickly, and go back to living your life. So what can you do?

Step 1: Think about any exercises or releases your chiropractor has suggested for you. If you haven’t been doing them as often as you should, then get back to it straight away! Most of our patients have been given massage ball exercises. The massage ball is a fantastic way to release sore muscles and can get you back to feeling great in no time.

Step 2: Get on the internet and check the articles on the website. They are a fantastic resource of things you can do at home to improve your spine. For example, below is a list of a few of the articles from the ‘Chiropractic & Massage’ category that can help you to get on top of any discomfort you may be having.

• 40 seconds a day to reduce neck tension and improve upper spinal posture
  This is a quick exercise you can do to release tension in the upper back and neck, great for people who do lots of desk work.

• Neck, back and leg pain? Check out the psoas!
  A release for a very important muscle that can cause neck, back and leg pain.

• Ear pressure points
  Some amazing points that can help to relieve pain in the spine, arms, and legs.

• Taking care of yourself when little things go wrong
  A few extra tips that can be really useful if you experience pain or discomfort

So what do you do if you’ve tried these tips and your pain or discomfort hasn’t significantly improved after 24 hours? It’s time to call the clinic. Continued discomfort means that your spine is under so much stress that it isn’t able to heal itself, and a chiropractic adjustment is required to get you back on track. The good news is that because you’ve been having regular adjustments in most cases you’ll be back to feeling great in no time.

Since this article some of you have asked if our treatment could lead to a similar outcome.  The simple answer is an unequivocal NO.  Why?  Simple, we don’t do that type of adjustment.

Chiropractic techniques using a fast manual manipulation on the neck have had a long history of being blamed for strokes.  The Telegraph article reported that a young Hornsby man suffered a stroke hours after receiving a manual adjustment from a chiropractor.  His neurologist supposedly blamed the stroke on the chiropractic treatment.

What’s the connection?  The vertebral artery is found in the neck and it supplies blood to part of the brain.  It travels through the neck vertebrae and around C1 in a loop so that when the chiropractor manually adjusts, the artery can be stretched.  There has been a lot of research into whether the chiropractic adjustment is a legitimate cause of vertebral artery damage.  There’s no definitive answer so far one way or the other.  The research continues.

In the “Community” section of the CAA website, you can download a fact sheet on neck adjustments if you want to do a little more reading.

What’s different about our adjustment?

The instrument that we use simply doesn’t stretch any vessels.  It works by stimulating muscles cells and nerves around a joint so that messages are sent to the brain to change the way it controls the movement of the joint.  We find that this is a very effective way of improving joint function without stressing the surrounding tissue.