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Posture while…Sleeping?
What is your personal sleep posture? Spread eagle, stomach down? Fetal position? Do you move a lot when you sleep, or stay still as a rock? Few people can answer these questions with total clarity because by nature, sleep is an unconscious activity. But some sleep positions are superior to others, and we do have the power to influence how we fall asleep. We generally choose whatever feels most comfortable, which is fine for those of us who sleep on our sides or back, but sleeping on the stomach can be incredibly damaging to the spine. Here are some postural considerations while sleeping:
The primary goal for any sleepers should be to keep their spine as close to natural alignment as possible.
The stomach-down position should therefore be avoided, but if you must sleep this way, use a pillow underneath the stomach to avoid letting the curve of your back collapse into the bed. Furthermore, the position that the stomach sleeper’s head usually takes during sleep puts a lot of pressure on the muscles of the neck and the shoulders.
Sleeping on your back is one of the best positions, but it can put pressure on the lower back. You can defeat this condition by putting a pillow under the knees that gently lifts them and alleviates pressure from the lower spine. Make sure you are using a pillow that keeps your head straight in relation to the spine.
When sleeping on the side, bend your knees in a loose approximation of the fetal position to avoid pressure accumulating to the lower back. As with the sleeping on your back, pillow usage is crucial: you don’t want a pillow that encourages the neck to angle up or down to aggressively.
Changing the way you sleep is a challenging proposition: it requires peeling back years of repetitive behavior and a lot of patience, but the upside is tremendous. We would like to see people waking up refreshed and pain free. At Holmes Chiropractic, we have the knowledge to help you institute changes that will lead to a restful night’s sleep.
Call our office in Houston at (713) 862-2440
Driving Posture
Does your car seat offer you any support? If not, what steps are you taking to maintain a healthy resting position while commuting? These may sound like tough questions when you commute for only thirty minutes a day, but the minutes add up, especially for your spine. Car seats are rarely engineered to encourage a neutral resting position, so the onus is often upon us to ensure that our backs remain upright rather than slouched in our seats.
Here are some postural tips:
1. Avoid leaning to one side: this is more common than you might think. Drivers often find themselves leaning on the center console which introduces a slight but significant imbalance to the back. Over hours and hours, this imbalance can compound to cause pain.
2. Hips straight, face straight. Keep your chin level and your head balanced over your spine to prevent the weight of the head from causing excess pressure to the cervical vertebrae.
3. As time creeps on, don’t let your shoulders tense. This is something that happens no matter what the activity. Be cognizant of muscles in the neck and shoulders tightening, because this is symptomatic of the entire back. If you need to, pull over and stretch. It may sound silly, but it can save you from being stiff at the end of the drive.
4. Hands at 9 and 3
If you commute to make your living, driving posture should be high on your list of health priorities. At Holmes Chiropractic, we help people see the problem areas in their lifestyle and how it is contributing to their back pain. For an assessment that takes into account your particular back pain and how it relates to your lifestyle, call our office at (713) 862-2440.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Posture while Sitting
Take stock of your posture right this instant: chances are your head is leaning forward to the screen, your shoulders are scrunched together and your back is rounded. Or you are slouched low in your chair scrolling through a news feed on your phone. Any or all of the above are positions that many of us put our backs through on a daily base. This is because there is a human inclination toward laziness, especially when it comes to posture. We all know what good seated posture looks like, but after 5 minutes of concerted effort to hold ourselves upright, many of us falter and slide downward or forward.
Nevertheless, a reminder of good posture is always worth repeating, especially as we are spending more and more time sat in front of screens. Try to remember this ideal image of good posture when working at the computer:
- Head facing straight forward, centered over the spine
- Natural lordotic curve in the lower back which should be supported by some kind of cushion.
- Shoulders relaxed and not caving inward toward eachother.
- Buttocks touching the back of the chair.
- weight of torso distributed evenly between the hips
- Legs at 90 degrees or slightly higher and feet rested flatly on the floor, without too much pressure being pressed upon them.
Even if you could hold yourself in this ideal position for 8 hours straight, it would not be good for your spine. There needs to be a regular dash of movement and stretching added into the scheme. However, if you can teach yourself to practice good posture and stretch regularly, your work day will not leave you stiff and sore anymore. Call our office in Houston at (713) 862-2440 for more tips on how to make your waking habits healthy again.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Health of the Lumbar
Perhaps the most thought of region when it comes to back pain is the lumbar. Five cylindrical bones form the spine of the lower back and support all of the body’s weight while providing flexibility and range of motion. However, a key task of the lumbar is also to provide stability and not allow extreme movement that will damage the body. Because of this, the lumbar are among the heaviest bones in the spine, (only the sacral vertebrae are heavier) and among the most vulnerable to damage.
Diverging from the lumbar vertebrae are networks of nerves that influence the mechanics of the body, including the hips and knees. The low back is vulnerable because of the weight it supports as we grow, but it’s burden is compounded by counterproductive habits such as poor posture, lack of strength and the idea that the spine is just one long bone. For example, much of the burden to the lumbar can be reduced by using the thoracic vertebrae properly and performing heavy weight lifting with the legs and not the back.
No treatment will truly end back pain forever by itself. It takes a concerted effort by you and whichever back care professional you choose. At Holmes Chiropractic, we offer you the expertise and treatment that will address your particular condition at its source. Besides ensuring the alignment of your spine through the lumbar region, we help people by preaching prevention: the actions you can take to strengthen muscles, sit and stand properly, and optimize the mechanical advantage of your back.
Call our office in Houston to schedule an appointment and see how we can get your back feeling better today.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Range of Motion in the Thoracic (Vertebrae)
The lesser thought of set of vertebrae when it comes to dysfunction is the thoracic. The thoracic vertebrae have a limited range of motion because they form the the thoracic cage which houses the heart and lungs. This makes them the least vulnerable to injury, but misalignments in this region still occur, and can cause discomfort.
Ensuring your thoracic spine’s health imparts upon you the following benefits:
- Improved spinal mechanics
- Better shoulder mechanics
- Greater lung capacity
- Better diaphragm functioning
- Increased range of motion
The spine is not one long bone; as such, the thoracic vertebrae are meant to be a functioning member of your spine. While the thoracic spine may have limited motion, it is not meant to be immobile. If you are feeling pain in the middle of your back, it is worth getting an assessment to ensure that your thoracic vertebrae are in alignment. Call our office in Houston to find out how you can start using your spine to its maximum mechanical advantage.
We can be reached at (713) 862-2440
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Cervical Range of Motion
How much credit do you give to your neck? Perhaps it goes unsung until it starts hurting you, and then every little movement creates a horrible pain.
Seven vertebrae in the cervical region support the weight and articulation of your head. Imagine if your neck had no capacity for movement: you could only look straight forward and any time you wanted to look at anything, it would involve moving your entire upper body. Perhaps your peripheral vision would take up some of the slack, but life would be much more inconvenient. This is why keeping your neck’s range of motion is a critical piece of being healthy.
Because of their (literally) pivotal position in the spine, the cervical vertebrae are also the most vulnerable to injury. While the lumbar vertebrae often succumb to to accumulated rigors of time, the neck is a much more sensitive instrument that can be jarred out of alignment from even slight traumas.
If you have a crick in your neck, a chiropractic assessment could be in order. Chiropractic adjustments are important for maintaining your cervical range of motion into the future. At Holmes Chiropractic, we know necks: you can count on our office to provide you with a level of care that will reduce your pain and get your neck back to full flexibility. Call our office in Houston at (713) 862-2440.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Cervicogenic Headache
Cervicogenic headaches are among the most unusual headaches because the pain is not originating in the head. This happens to make them the hardest to diagnose. But for people who have experienced trauma to the neck, back or head at any point in their lifetime, cervicogenic headaches are worth considering as a root cause if you suffer from chronic headaches.
How it works:
Whether because of trauma, repetitive stress or poor posture, nerves in the neck are impinged due to misalignment of the spine. These nerves are sending signals which travel up the spinal cord and merge with nerves in the brain. When the pain is manifest from nerves in the brain rather than the neck, a headache is the logical outcome. The idea that pain can manifest in a place different from where it originates is called reference: nerves in the neck are referring pain to nerves in the brain. Cervicogenic headaches are often misdiagnosed unless the neck is examined for misalignment. There are also over 20 muscles in the upper back and cervical region that can refer pain to the head if they are tightened or strained.
Regardless of where headaches begin and end, it is important to approach them with the right attitude: headaches are not just a part of life. They are a clear signal that something is wrong, that a dysfunction exists within your body. Diet, exercise and nutrition are great ways to manage your symptoms, but sometimes it takes a little more research and treatment. That is where we come in: call our office in Houston at (713) 862-2440 to schedule an appointment today.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Headaches and Sleeping
For many people, getting to sleep, or staying asleep is difficult because of headaches and, by the opposite token, lack of sleep creates headaches during the day time. Sleep is a key ingredient to overall wellness, and as such, the pursuit of restful, restorative sleep is a primary pursuit at Holmes Chiropractic. How can you begin to function for a day when your restorative hours were racked by headache and stress? It sets a tone for your life that becomes hard to manage.
As we see it, nerves exiting from the cervical spine are involved in regulating the limbic system, which is responsible for mood. A nerve interference at this level could cause fluctuations in happiness, and lead to stress, anxiety and depression. Furthermore, a nerve that is being pressed by a misaligned vertebrae could be causing pain that is referring to your head. As muscle spasms begin to accrue in the shoulders and neck, the problem becomes muddled. It is not unbelievable that a cervical subluxation could be causing your headaches that stop you from sleeping. And it is proven that not sleeping causes headaches, whether from anxiety or exhaustion.
At our office in Houston, we believe that together we can make positive impacts on your sleep health. We take everything into consideration: sleep hygiene, nutrition, ergonomics and posture, as well as chiropractic considerations that treat the spine to ensure your nerves are functioning properly. Call our office to schedule an appointment today and start sleeping right to reduce headaches.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Posture Headache
If someone were to take a picture of you right now, as you sat at the computer, how would you look? Would you be upright in your chair, with a healthy lordotic curve, shoulders back and face straight forward. Or would you be slumped forward, neck cricked downward, with tight shoulders and a rounded back? For many people, it is option two, and it’s not doing their head any favors. For people who come home from a grueling day at the office with a pounding headache, posture could be your downfall.
Here’s how it works: after hours of mental exertion, any awareness of posture has gone out the window. We have succumbed to the malaise of work and our muscles are now suffering. The chin starts moving toward the screen, as though by magnetization, and the head follows, rounding the back and scrunching shoulders in the process. Now the weight of your head, no longer at the top of a straight spine, is magnified, creating an imbalance that requires shoulder and neck muscles to compensate. This is how these muscles feel tight or strained. Often times, muscle spasms will accompany this position, and the pain is referred to the head, leaving you with a headache.
Clearly, this is not something you want to do to yourself. There are many intangible factors which create headaches. It is in all of our best interest to exercise the powers in our control to limit headache symptoms. Posture is one of the most effective, least used ways to influence your health: unlock its power by calling our office in Houston today at (713) 862-2440.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Everyday Stress and Headaches
What is a regular, every-day headache? They are the headaches for which we quickly take aspirin in the hopes of muting the pain, allowing the causative condition to linger. They are insidious and multi-faceted: perhaps you did not drink enough water today? Or not enough food. Too much computer time could have done it, but it is also allergy season. We write them off as being just part of life; a manifestation of internal and external factors that cannot really be helped. If we are willing to accept this, could it be so far fetched that a misalignment in the spine is to blame?
At Holmes Chiropractic, we believe in finding the root cause rather than treating the surface symptom. Modern lives leave us at the mercy of myriad stressors, and our bodies naturally tighten in a protective response. Unfortunately, this tightening becomes chronic and prolonged periods of tightness will leave muscles strained and vertebrae misaligned. We often see people whose shoulders and necks are in such a state of tension that it is no wonder pain is being referred up into the head.
We treat you with a holistic approach, addressing the headaches by relieving tension and misalignment in the cervical region. Massage releases endorphins that have natural stress and pain fighting properties. Do not let tension headaches hold on to your life any longer: call our office in Houston at (713) 862-2440 to see how we can turn daily headaches into a thing of the past.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.