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"The most common cause of neck pain is poor
head posture - the 'poking chin'."
Effect on the spine
The lower neck bends forward, the upper neck
bends backward, this can put pressure on nerves causing a whole
variety of symptoms, pain, ‘pins and needles’ and
numbness, that may be felt anywhere from the top of the head to the
fingertips. The cause of some headache and other head pain is
definitely posture related.
Causes of the poking chin
- Eyestrain
- The wrong glasses. The focal length for reading and screen use
is different, if you are using reading glasses for screen use, you
may be leaning forward to bring the screen into focus
- Bifocal and vari-focal glasses may be causing you to tilt your
head back to view the screen
- Glare and reflections on a monitor screen
- Screen placed too high, causing you to tilt your head back to
view it. Usually the top of the screen, not the monitor, should be
level with the eyes
- Bad definition between characters and background
(Font/background contrast). If the contrast between font and
background is insufficient, it is not clearly defined and in order
to read you will gradually lean further forward and adopt a poking
chin posture.
- Stress and tension
- Armrests too high or too long - The armrests on your chair hit
the desk edge and you have to lean forward to reach the keyboard
and look up at the screen
- Poor lumbar posture - If you ‘slump’ you have to
look up at the screen
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"If you sit with your chin poking
forward and your ears 8 cm in front of your shoulders, your neck
muscles are supporting around 13 Kilograms. That’s an awful
lot of unnecessary work."
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Other Causes
- Fixed height armrests often hit the desk edge with the chair at
the correct height. Sitting too low can cause sustained contraction
of the shoulder lifting muscles. This causes reduced bloodflow and
a buildup of chemicals within the muscle, which in turn leads to
more contraction, and so on, until the muscles spasm and cause
pain.
- Writing, looking up, down or to the side for long periods.
- Repetitive head movements. From screen to keyboard to copy and
round again.
- Clamping the telephone handset between ear and shoulder when
simultaneously using keyboard/writing. Fatigue.
- Poor head/neck support when sleeping, ‘relaxing’,
watching TV or in the car.
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"If you wake in the morning with a
stiff or painful neck, it’s definitely worth trying a change
of pillow"
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The above information covers only the most
common causes and is far from a complete reference. If you would
like further advice or information please contact us.
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