Page 120 - Welcome to Posture Pro

Study after study is validating what health care practitioners have been seeing for
the past decade or more: Children at a younger and younger age are seeking relief
from adult-type pain and discomfort. What could be the cause of this increased
frequency of young patients seeking care? The author believes it is
the result of sociological and technological pressures that have only
developed within the past generation, the Tweet Generation.

It began in the early 90’s when schools eliminated lockers and
required children to carry their lockers in backpacks. A couple
of years later that child began playing hand held video games.
Next came the cell phone for kids with affordable family plans.
But the child didn’t use the phone to make and receive calls. It
was used for texting. Massive amounts of texting. The author’s
11 year old daughter sent out 11,000 text messages in one
month.

Next we go back to a change made at the school level. As the
Internet expanded so did the reliance of schools on the Internet as a
method of delivering content. So, as a result, time in front of a
computer at school and at home was expanded and required.

The connection between all these activities is clear: Since the early
90’s children from the age of nine up through young adulthood, their
musculoskeletal formative years, have engaged in activities that create
a Forward Head Posture environment. These activities have literally
molded their bodies into an abnormal posture profile. Re-read the
conclusions of the studies cited at the beginning of this article. For
those readers not yet alarmed at those conclusions, consider these other
studies.

• "All measures of health status showed significantly poorer scores as C7 plumb line
deviation increased.“3
• "Older men and women with hyperkyphotic posture have higher mortality rates.”4
• "Spinal pain, headache, mood, blood pressure, pulse, and lung capacity are among the
functions most easily influenced by posture.“5

What is being done to raise adult awareness of this growing trend in children? Not
much. Every State requires a school scoliosis exam. During a school scoliosis
exam a child is also examined from the side, but only to observe evidence of gross
kyphosis. And in most States that part of the exam is not mandatory. Studies show
that 4.2% of the children screened for scoliosis trigger a referral for radiographs.
And of those 4%, only a small fraction will require advanced treatment. It appears
that no one is educating parents and schools about the 30% of the children in that
same age group that are experiencing Forward Head Posture and it effects.