Ask Dr. Nick
On today’s episode, Dr. Nick talks about the importance of proper head and neck posture for health. Head position has multiple degrees of freedom so that we can look at multiple places quickly. This is good, but it also leads to necessary stability to control. At the same time, our modern lifestyle of working from computers, using cellular phones, and sitting too much, we have developed a common forward head posture. This posture can affect breathing, muscle tone and activity, balance, and neck pain. These can all lead to more physiological stress and other biomechanical imbalances on the body. At the same time, head position can change following a concussion due to imbalances in the central vestibular and proprioceptive systems. This may need more work than simply trying to correct posture. Check out the video for more in depth information on how poor head and neck posture can affect one’s health!
Reference: Szczygieł E, Fudacz N, Golec J, Golec E. The impact of the position of the head on the functioning of the human body: a systematic review [published online ahead of print, 2020 Jul 23]. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2020;123104.
