Don't spend all day staring at a screen
Dr. England's Healthy Lifestyle Advice
One thing I constantly tell my kids is that they need to turn off their screens. Their whole lives revolve around the stupid glowing rectangles. Games, movies, annoying Caillou and even schoolwork are all there. They do good things with technology, things that make me impressed and jealous. When I was their age we were in awe because a neighbor could pick up a fifth TV station with their rabbit ears. Now my kids watch any episode of any show they could ever want. When confronted with a commercial they simply have no idea what is happening or how to skip it.
It is easy to tell my kids why they cannot spend all day staring at a screen, but the same reasons are even more true for myself. I rationalize my screen time with often true sentiments like “This email is important” or “This person on the internet is wrong, I have to tell him!”. The issue is not with technology itself but the ridiculous positions we assume while we use it. We are so used to seeing someone Pinteresting on their phone in a waiting room that we don’t even care that they are hunched over like Quasimodo. We don’t even think twice when we see someone hacking away on a computer with posture that would make their grandmother cry. Have you paid attention to how you hold your neck, shoulders, and hands as you scroll on Facebook for hours and hours while the kids kill each other in the other room?
The position that we us to checking our fantasy team causes a named condition: upper crossed syndrome. This image is to prove that I didn’t make it up (Rehabilitation of the Spine, Leibenson). Symptoms associated with UCS are headaches, neck pain, back pain, concentration issues, shoulder pain, tingling in the arms and hands, weakness in the arms and hands, tension, etc. It sure seems like 99% of us deal with these issues in one way or another, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.
Changing how you watch cat videos is the first step, the second is to visit England Chiropractic. Your back and neck needs help beyond what you can do at home. We can help restore motion in the spinal joints and assist in reducing the tension in the muscles. Chiropractic care has been shown to be very effective in treating upper-crossed syndrome, its associated symptoms and much more. I know from experience; I’m not only a chiropractor, I’m also an upper crossed survivor that typed this entry while hunched like a melting snowman.
