Loss of the curve in your neck will cause the spine below it to buckle.  Traditional medical science views the spine as a bridge connecting the head to the pelvis.  If a bridge begins to collapse, the correct approach is to try to hold it together by fusing its structure.  Chiropractors, however, view the spine as an engine.  If the engine in your car starts to run funny, and you fuse the cylinders together, this might not solve the problem.  Motion is essential for proper functioning of the spine and the associated soft tissue components.

 

The reason your spine buckles as the curve in your neck disappears has to do with physics.  When you carry your groceries in to your house from your car, you carry the bags close to your body.  Increasing the distance between your body and the bags of groceries causes an increase in the apparent weight of your burden.  In the same way, holding your head forward puts a greater stress upon your spine.  In fact, for every inch the head moves forward from your center of gravity, the apparent weight of your head increases by 10 pounds!

One of the easiest ways for the body to adapt to this increased load is to add another curve into the spine.  If you are holding a heavy weight in your hand and flex your wrist forward, your elbow will swing out to the side to make it easier for your muscles to support the weight.

Why does the curve in your neck disappear?  There may be many different reasons.  Sometimes it is a motor vehicle crash, or an incident of trauma.  More often, however, it may develop slowly, over time, as we live day-to-day.  Studying in school, working at a computer, or focusing on a project on our workbench often requires that we hold our head downwards and forwards for long periods of time.  Eventually, this causes the spine to slip, bit by bit, until the muscles become tight and strong.  The body then begins to use these stronger muscles more than the weaker ones, reinforcing the change in posture.  With the loss of the curve in your neck, the nerves that travel from the brain to every single cell in our body begin to suffer.  In a straight neck, with no curve at all, the spinal cord is stretched by 10%.  If the neck buckles completely, this can increase to as high as 28%!  If somebody pulled on your finger until it was 28% longer, you'd probably complain about it a little.

 

 

Why do the chiropractors at CLEAR Institute think that restoring the curve in your neck can help to correct a scoliosis?  Well, there is research that suggests scoliosis may correct spontaneously if the tension from the spinal cord is removed:

 

"[16] patients underwent a hindbrain decompression, and... the scoliosis was seen to improve or arrest its progression in 6."

 

And other researchers have concluded that the spine adapts to a short, taut spinal cord by producing rotation in the spinal column, which will take pressure off of the nerves.

 

"A short, unforgiving spinal cord could produce the abnormal rotatory anatomy observed at the apex of scoliosis..."

 

Of course, restoring the curve in the neck is only one aspect of our unique approach to scoliosis.  Rehabilitating the muscles, tendons, & ligaments is also important, as is re-training the brain to use the postural muscles more evenly.  But we'll save that for next month!  For now, we hope you understand more about how what happens in the neck can affect the rest of the spine, and why it is important not to neglect the top of the spine in scoliosis correction!

 

 

 

 

CLEAR Institute is in the process of finalizing its seminar schedule for 2007.  We will continue our seminar series at Parker College of Chiropractic in Dallas, Texas, and we are exploring potential new locations.  Possibilities include Denver, Colorado; Santa Barbara, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and the Northeastern states.  If you are interested in coming to a seminar in one of these locations, or if you would like to make a suggestion that CLEAR Institute host a seminar in a different region, please contact us at care@clear-institute.com to let us know of your interest! 

 

 

 

John-Allen Price,