Many of my patients are getting past their 60s and beginning to notice that their bodies are not as strong and resilient as they were 20-30 years ago. Mostly I hear comments like “This aging stuff is not for sissies” and “I don't know why it hurts. I didn't do anything.” I am also noticing some of this stuff and don't like it! Sudden little pains and cramps that appear out of nowhere
for no good reason are really annoying. I figured being a doctor meant I wouldn't have to go through that stuff. I should know better! Ahh, as they say, our knowledge avails us naught.
One of the big concerns many of my patients express is about the development of the dowager's hump or hunchback. In doctor's talk, we call that hyperkyphosis. Yes, I know doctors talk funny. It goes back to the days when doctoring was all taught in Latin, so the names of things are all in Latin. Chiropractic school doubled my vocabulary. But back to the hump, why does it happen and what can we do about it? Let's
start with the why...
There are two main reasons for developing a hunchback – one for younger people and one for older people. The spine is designed to have four curves in it, one in the butt or sacral region, one in the low back or lumbar region, one in the midback or thoracic region, and one in the neck or cervical region. All of these curves work together to create balance and strength while also allowing flexibility. If one of
these increases its curvature, then all of them do the same to maintain balance. This is the cause of the hunchback caused by too much desk work or too much sitting. Staring at a computer screen only makes this worse. As humans, we were never designed to sit. We were designed to squat. When we squat all our spinal curves stay strong and balanced. When we sit, the stabilizer muscles in our back relax and allow the lumbar curve to slump forward. When this happens the curve in the back and neck
have to follow along to keep you balanced so you don't fall out of your chair. So sitting causes an immediate sway back down low, a hunch back in the upper/mid back, and a head forward posture. This jams the joints together and gradually causes degeneration of the joints.
The problem with sitting is the turning off of the stabilizer muscles that hug the spine on each side. Some folks (imagine a teenager) slouch in the sitting position to reverse the curve in the lower back by allowing the weight of the spine to lean against the back of the chair. As the pelvis comes forward, the head tries to match the forward movement by pulling the back into an even more bent forward position. This
stretches out the relaxed spine stabilizer muscles even more making them less strong. The remedy for this problem is to either stop sitting, which is why there has been a movement to stand up desks or to strengthen the stabilizer muscles. Standing has not worked out as it is very fatiguing and the worker ends up compensating by over-tightening their hamstring muscles. The proper answer would be to squat at the desk, but nobody in this culture does that.
As many of you have already experienced, I frequently recommend back stabilizer muscle training to counteract the weakening of the muscles caused by too much sitting. With young people, the pain complaints from this sort of problem are usually felt in the lower back. I recommend Foundation exercises for the lower back stabilizer muscles called the multifidi muscles. Here are a couple of videos of this. Video 1.Video 2. This is a good place to start to help prevent the hunchback coming on later in life. Another excellent exercise is called Bruegger's exercise or stretch. Video 3.Video 4. This is also the main exercise to counter the hunchback we use with older folks. Here are a couple of videos of that. Stabilizer muscle training is our main line of defense against problems with the forward/backward curves in the back getting out of whack. These are not
helpful for scoliosis (sideways curve) type problems.
Okay, now let's discuss what adds to the sitting problems that cause a hunched back as we age. First, keep in mind that a good posture and straight spine come from having good strong spinal stabilizer muscles with good tone. The vast majority of hunchback postures have nothing to do with osteoporosis or degenerative disc conditions. Many studies have demonstrated this. Yes, a collapsed vertebra can instantly
create a hunched back, but this is rare. With aging we have to look at the brain, specifically the motor cortex of the brain where muscle balance and tone are controlled. Once we get past age 60, this part of the brain starts to degenerate. The nerve cells get smaller and the number of connections to other nerves decreases. This means there is less electrical juice traveling down the nerves to the muscles to tell them to stay strong and balanced. All those soft heavy parts hanging out in front
of the spine are always pulling the body forward, and the only thing keeping us from folding up forward into a floppy mass are those back muscles pulling backward holding us up. Well, those muscles get weaker as we age, and the brain juice telling them to do their job is also getting weaker.
Just a moment of complaining about some of the bad advice I hear being given to my patients by so-called experts. Everyone loves to talk about strengthening the core muscles of the back. When I ask my patients what their core muscles are they invariably point to their ab muscles. Okay, go ahead and tighten up your ab muscles. Which way does your body move? It moves forward. That is
precisely the wrong direction for staying upright. Ab strength curls you forward – not what we want. The core muscles for the spine are those tiny muscles around and behind the spine, not the muscles out in front of the spine. Tight abs are for looking good in a swimsuit, not for back strength.
A few of you are thinking “What can we do if the brain is degenerating away?” I have a couple of inputs about that. One is the use it or lose it rule. The brain responds to use. The more you use a particular area of the brain the better it retains or even improves its function. I started practicing dropping my shoulders, pulling them back, and pulling my head back every time I was in the
car about ten years ago. I knew about this brain degeneration issue back then and decided I needed to be proactive at keeping that part of my brain functional. As I drive, I try to keep my head back against the headrest intermittently. It is not particularly comfortable, but so what? Slowing the downhill slide of age is not a comfortable process. It is a daily fight. It is diet, it is sleep, it is exercise, it is relationships, it is spiritual purpose.
The second answer to the brain degeneration issue is all about what can we do to slow down brain degeneration. The prime factors in this degeneration are inflammation and energy management. We have to keep the poisons out of our systems and keep our brains clean. I have written endlessly about the many action fronts we need to handle our toxic food, water, and air supply. The same applies to overloading our
brains with toxic information. Managing our brain energy supply means dealing with blood sugar problems, proper nutrition, regular cleanout of old tissues through autophagy, and a host of other conditions which I am learning more about every day.
One conjecture I would like to make. Why don't we like the forward-humped posture? I believe that the forward posture proclaims to the world that we have lost our vitality. It is a physical demonstration of our level of degeneration. It tells the world that we are old and starting to lose it. When we are young that forward posture is a sign of anxiety. It is a fight-or-flight posture. It signals to others that
we are not calm and confident. So in both the young and the aging, a hump-back head forward posture does not put us in a good light. We can fight this posture. It is not easy. It takes regular attention and effort for the rest of your days. This is not the message folks want to hear. We want a simple fix. But unfortunately, posture is a reflection of the world of how well we take care of ourselves.
Take care,
David
Hey, that amazing C15 supplement that is for making your cell membranes stronger/less fragile is now available in the office! Pick yours up now! Learn more about it in this video!
Last week Ellen did a sleep study at home. We had to go downtown to pick up the recording device. The setup was pretty easy, just the cannula you see here plus a finger wrap for measuring her blood oxygen. These plugged into a little box strapped to her chest. We push the on button and away we go. I mailed it in the next morning and we should hear about the results next week or so. What
fun!
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~ George S. Patton
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If
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Referral doctor for when we are out of town: Jennifer Webb DC
