With healthy posture, the ear generally lines up over the shoulder (Go ahead, have someone assess this on you now!)
More often than not, what we’ll see in our practices are people with their heads forward, sometimes with rounded shoulders, and even worse, that stooped hunched over posture.
There is good news though – You can prevent all this!
You can dive into what good posture really entails in this blog post, but for now I want to bring your attention to something great that was demonstrated in a research study that looked at how poor neck posture was connected to brain function.
What is “Text Neck”?
Researchers took 80 young adults with forward head posture and reduced cervical lordosis (yep, the “text neck” look). None of the participants had any pain. The researchers then tested whether restoring that curve through spinal care could literally improve how their nervous systems communicated.
Compared to the control group (people who did not receive any chiropractic pinal adjustments) here’s what was noted in the study group:
- Increase in cervical lordosis of 13 degrees (vs no change in controls). A healthy cervical curve is 42 degrees, and many Chiropractors will measure this during their assessments, particularly if xrays are taken. Improving this curve is a great sign of improvement in the overall curve of the neck.
- Improved speed of nerve conduction & higher amplitude of nerve responses. Quite simply, the people in this group had noticeably faster processing of sensory information in their brain.
Researchers summarized that fixing forward head posture didn’t just change their X-rays, but it improved their neurophysiology – how their brain worked.
This is the first study to show that cervical curve correction alone — even in individuals without pain — can produce measurable changes in the nervous system. This research provides scientific support for the notion that posture rehabilitation has a neurological impact, not just a mechanical benefit.
Seeing a Chiropractor for your neck pain doesn’t just improve your posture, it’s going to improve your whole body function!
For more information how spinal adjustments affect your brain check out these posts:
Can adjustments strengthen your brain?
