Cervical Spine Pain

A common pain complaint that in fact is on the increase is neck pain, better known in the medical world as cervical spine pain. Research is laying the blame of this increase in cervical spine pain squarely on the increased use of the computer and the sedentary staring-at-the-screen lifestyle. Many thousands of people spend hundreds of man hours per week at their desks in front of the computer and few take their posture at their workstations as an important aspect of their productivity.

To avoid cervical spine pain there is a right posture to take at your computer and the right place to place work documents as you work. The tendency especially when working at a computer from home is to take any seat that fits at the desk. Some of the seats in the home tend to be slightly lower than the computer screen which will give you a natural inclination to stoop towards the screen. This forward stoop can cause or aggravate cervical spine pain. The best angle to view your screen from is at about two inches higher than the start of the screen such that you look straight into the document while leaning back into the back rest of your seat.

Working documents, as much as possible should be at an elevated height too to reduce the natural tendency to lean in to see. As time goes by, and the body adopts this slight lean to the front, the head's weight starts to place a lot of pressure on the spine. The head, scientists tell us, weighs approximately about four kilograms. When properly balanced on your shoulders, that weight does not exert forward pressure on the spine. However, a slight thrust forward of as little as one inch increases the heads weight significantly, which does trigger cervical spine pain. The right head alignment on your shoulders is when your ears are in direct alignment with your shoulders from your side profile. Train yourself to balance an imaginary pot on your head, or to hold your head up as though by an imaginary string and you will reduce your chances of cervical spine pain significantly.

Discuss It!

Mark Josefsberg said:

"Train yourself to balance an imaginary pot on your head, or to hold your head up as though by an imaginary string..." If you HOLD your head up you'll be adding tension. We have enough tension. If you have neck pain because of computer use, try the Alexander Technique. It works. It will teach you to rid yourself of excess tension.