Save Your Own Neck: How to Maintain Good Spine Health

"When the center of the ear is aligned right over the center of the shoulder, that's the anatomical gold standard," says Beijing United Family Hospital (BJU) Chiropractor Dr. Roger Hinson. If your ear doesn't align over your shoulder because your head sticks too far forward, you may need to work on your posture. Here, Dr. Hinson gives his advice about how to reverse any damage your posture may have done to your spine. 

Growing up, your mother always told you to sit up straight at the dinner table. But did she ever teach you to maintain good posture while playing on your phone, typing away on your laptop, or crushing your high score on your Gameboy? If she didn’t, or if you chose to ignore her all these years, you may have been doing it all wrong, crouching over your screen with your chin on your chest, which does your neck no favors. 

“A big issue today is what we call ‘IT neck’,” says Dr. Hinson. This is when a person’s head sticks out forward and their shoulders become hunched over. “Every month or so, I see a new child with this issue, which I would never have seen even a dozen or so years ago. I now see people in their 30s and quite a few in their 40s (mostly people in IT work) who have degenerative changes that we would associate with 60-year-olds." 

So, what’s the big deal if a person’s head does stick out a little in front of them? Well, if left uncorrected, it can cause issues down the line. When the bones in your neck are aligned properly with a slight curve, the weight of your head (5-6 kg) is distributed evenly down the spine, and your body knows how to deal with it. If you spend hours a day with your neck crooked over, however, your head will stick out in front of you, and the weight of your head will be borne, not by the spine, but by muscles in your shoulders and neck. Over time, these muscles will get stiff and tense, and this will cause the natural curve in your neck to straighten out, or even curve the wrong way. This can lead to damage to the bones in the neck, which can, in turn, cause nerves to get trapped and cause pain, numbness, and weakness in the extremities. 

This may all sound rather dire, but rest assured that there is something you can do to reverse these degenerative changes. “I always tell patients to gradually adopt a supine sleeping position with no pillow,” says Dr. Hinson. That is, sleeping on your back with your heat flat against your mattress instead of raised up on a pillow. “Back sleeping is actually good for your back if it’s done correctly. When you sleep on your back with a small support in the middle of your neck, it pushes the curve out in a very normal – what’s called lordotic – configuration, which is ideal. When sleeping on your side, the pillow should be adequately high to keep your head and your neck in the right position, avoiding a sharp angle in the neck.” 

What kind of support can you use under your neck as you sleep? Dr. Hinson suggests that his patients use a small, rolled-up towel. "It’s the ideal density if it’s rolled up really tight, and then it’s adjustable," he says. "You can make it a little bit bigger or smaller depending on how it feels on you. You should feel a little bit of support and pressure, but no discomfort. It may be mildly uncomfortable at first, but some people tell me that, after a few nights, they can’t sleep in any other position.”

Using a hand towel instead of a pillow is a hack that's so easy, you could try it tonight. "Do it for a minimum of 20 or 30 minutes," advises Dr. Hinson. "During that period of time, if it starts to feel painful, then maybe it’s a little bit too big. Just make it incrementally smaller. Again, you should feel some pressure, so strike that balance where the pressure is still there but there’s no pain or discomfort. If you can sleep for two or three hours in this position for two or three nights, you might find that that same size is not giving you any pressure anymore. That’s a good sign – it means that your curve is being enhanced. So you should make the towel incrementally smaller and chase that moving target until it stops, at which point you probably have pretty good posture."

Dr. Roger Hinson trained as a chiropractor in Atlanta in the USA. He has 30 years of clinical experience, both in private practice and doing research and teaching. He is a founding member and current president of the Chiropractor’s Association of China (CAC). If you would like to make an appointment with him, call the BJU Service Center at 4008-919191.

• Keen to adopt good posture at work? Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Jike Lu shares his tips. 

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