Why is Slouching so bad?

How often have you been told that you are slouching? That you should straighten up?

Well, When it comes to preventing tension headaches, perhaps they were giving you excellent advise.

Why is slouching so bad?

A Slouching position puts pressure on your bones, thereby causing discs to become compressed and making you vulnerable to back pain. Also, it causes your pelvic muscles to go slack, which makes it progressively harder to support a well-aligned stance.

Nerves in your neck get pinched as well, causing tight muscles...and tension headaches.

In addition, this posture can cause other problems:

1. it can lead to incorrect head positioning that can cause improper spine function
   
   
2. your head in this forward posture can add up to 30 pounds of abnormal leverage on your cervical spine
   
   
3. forward-head posture causes a loss of vital lung capacity, by as much as 30 percent, which can lead to heart and vascular problems
   
   
4. your entire gastrointestinal system can be adversely affected (evacuation problems are common with people who have a forward-head posture)
   
   
5. forward-head posture leads to unsightly hunching
   

How to check to make sure your posture is normal:

• Stand in front of a full-length mirror and assume your usual stance.
  
• Are your shoulders somewhat rounded?
  
• Is your pelvis rotated back? Is your head jutted out?
  If so, pull your shoulders back, tuck your pelvis forward and make sure your head's not jutted out (I'll bet you look taller now!).
  
• Now turn sideways. What you want is to be able to draw an imaginary vertical line that goes straight through your ear, shoulder, hip, back of your knee and ankle.
  
• To be more precise, you can use string and weight. What you do is attach a pair of scissors to a six-foot length of twine (longer if you're really tall). Have someone hold the free end of the string just above your ear and let the scissors rest on the floor.

If this exercise shows that you're out of alignment, correct your stance using the string as a guide. Now, simply remember the feeling and adjust your stance whenever you sense that you're posture's out of whack.

You should also check for a proper sitting posture, especially if you spend most of your days at a computer terminal or other job that forces you to sit a lot.

If you're like many people, you probably often cross your legs while you lean forward. You may well find that your head is often jutted out toward your computer screen, which results in your shoulders being rounded and your back being stretched out.

To break these habits, follow these simple tips to have proper posture while sitting:

• Sit up straight - in other words, assume the military
  position: shoulders back, head up, chest out, stomach tight
  
• Get a good chair with back support
  
• Bring your work surface closer to you
  
• Take several breaks during the day to perform a series of stretching and isometric exercises (these can be done sitting or standing)

a. With your hands behind your back, gently pull your shoulders back and maintain this position for one to three minutes

b. Turn your head halfway to the right (or left), then drop your head forward until you feel slight tension. Let the weight of your head gently stretch the neck muscles. Go slowly - no pain! Hold this position for up to two minutes, then turn to the opposite side and repeat.

Remember, an ounce of prevention - in this case, good sitting and standing posture - is worth a pound of cure...especially when we're talking about tension headaches.

To get more information about Tension Headaches read: How to Get Permanent Relief From Chronic Tension Headaches. It will give you several easy-to-follow stretches to do that gradually retrain your muscles to adapt to a proper posture.

The Real Cost of Headaches- Lost time from work, family and fun

Did you know that headaches are nearly epidemic in the United States? Don't just take my word for it. Consider the following statistics:

• The National Headache Foundation says up to 45 million Americans suffer from repeated tension headaches. (Forbes Magazine, June 8, 2004)
  
  
• According to Dr. Ellen Drexler, director of the Headache Center at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City, chronic daily headaches afflict 4 to 5 percent of the American population. (July 14, 2004 interview in Healthscout)
  
  
• About half of the people in the world who suffer from a headache don't get any treatment, according to the World Health Organization, which also says that more than 80 percent of adult women and two-thirds of adult men suffer from headache disorders. (July 14, 2004, Atlanta Journal Constitution)
  
  
• Americans spend over $4 billion annually on over-the-counter drugs and therapies for chronic headaches. Muscle tension accounts for about 90 percent of all headaches. (Health and Fitness Magazine, July 8, 2004)
  
  
• One in eight American workers is in pain and losing productive time at work, costing U.S. businesses an estimated $61.2 billion annually, with headaches being the most common type of pain, according to a November, 2003 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Reuters, Nov. 11, 2003)
  
  
• A Cleveland-based study in 2004 found that over 20 percent of 680 children and adolescents involved in that study overused such pain relievers as acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Overuse was described by Dr. A. David Rothner of the Children's Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic as taking these medications at least three times a week for six weeks. (Cleveland Plain Dealer on June 12, 2004).
  
  
• According to Dr. Rothner, children under the age of 19 shouldn't use aspirin because it puts them at risk of Reye's syndrome, a potentially fatal disorder. Other risks of overusing over-the-counter pain relievers include kidney failure, liver problems, intestinal and stomach bleeding, and occasional headaches becoming chronic, Rothner said. (Reuters, June 10, 2004)
  
  
• Women get more headaches than men, and people with advanced degrees suffer more often from tension headaches than the less educated, according to the a
  1998 study by the John Hopkins University School of Public Health
  
  
• Americans make more visits to non-conventional healers (some 600 million visits a year) than they do to medical doctors and spend more money out-of-pocket o do so - about $30 billion annually. (Newsweek Dec. 2,2002)
  
  

To get more information about Tension Headaches read: How to Get Permanent Relief From Chronic Tension Headaches. It will give you several easy-to-follow stretches to do that gradually retrain your muscles to adapt to a proper posture.

An exercise stretch to keep tension headaches AWAY!!

Today I want to share a great stretch you can begin to prevent tension headaches. It is called the behind-the-back stretch. It can be completed in a sitting or standing position.

It's especially useful to do whenever you feel the back of your neck and upper back begin to tighten from having sat too long at your computer.

If you're going to sit, make sure you have a chair with backing that comes halfway up your back.

Hook your arms over the back of the chair and pull your shoulder blades together (if you're standing, assume the military position: head up, shoulders back, stomach tight).

As you do this, make sure to stick your chest out. As this is very important, you should exaggerate a bit - and make sure you keep your head up, too.

Pull your shoulder blades together until you feel a pull in your shoulder joints. Don't go overboard on this; you don't want to cause any pain.

Now hold this stretch for three full minutes (don't cheat and quit early; the length of this stretch is very important).

At the end of this stretch, you should feel your back muscles loosen; you may even feel a warm rush of blood up the back of your neck.

It is helpful to take many breaks throughout the day to perform this stretch - it will help in prevent tension headaches.

Read our series on Tension headaches:
What causes tension headaches
To get more information about Tension Headaches read: How to Get Permanent Relief From Chronic Tension Headaches. It will give you several easy-to-follow stretches to do that gradually retrain your muscles to adapt to a proper posture.