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Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Aaron Seaton with the Chiropractic Place here in Redding, California. And I'm doing a video today on the effects of sitting and what it can do to our neck and our upper back, having neck pain, upper back pain after we do that, so it helps us better understand what happens when we sit. Most people would relay to you that they tend to feel better if they're up moving around. But when they sit for long periods, they start to notice that they have more pain, and there's a reason why that happens. So when we sit, we cause a 50% increase in the load on our spine. So when we're sitting down, the spine has to work 50% harder to hold the weight. The other thing that happens is when we sit, we're not moving, and the joints in the cartilage and the discs in our spine need the motion to get nutrition in and to get waste out. So think about it, the movement is how they eat and how they go to the bathroom, and if your body doesn't move, the neck, the spine, the mid-back, the low back, all of these things will be affected by you sitting, because that's how they get nutrition. So, that's a big deal to think about if you sit for a living and sit a lot at your desk and have a lot of neck pain, upper back pain, headaches.

This is a factor. This is playing a role. The other thing is people who sit at computer desks and are looking forward. Our posture tends to. As we're working, we tend to lean in because we're focusing on what we're doing, we start to roll forward, our neck comes forward. Over time, this can start to change the curve in our neck, which can create neck pain and headaches and upper back pain. Basically, one thing that I like to talk to my patients about is that when joints don't move, what can happen to them? And there was actually a study done on rats where they mobilized the joint, they made it so the joint couldn't move, so they could better understand what would happen to the joint if that's the case. And within two weeks, the rats had signs of irreversible joint damage and arthritis. So that's really quick that can happen, where even in human beings, if we're not moving enough and we're sitting a lot, that neck pain, that headache, that upper back pain could be a sign from your body saying, "Hey, we need to move." And that's why chiropractic is so important because what chiropractors do is restore motion to these joints. We get them moving again. If their scar tissue around that, we're breaking through that scar tissue to get that moving properly again so that your body can function properly.

And so, when it comes to having neck pain from sitting, this is something to consider as part of your care is to go see your chiropractor when you're experiencing neck pain, headaches, upper back pain. Especially if you sit a lot for your work, it's very important to keep those joints moving; otherwise, just remember that rat study over time. It only took two weeks for that to start showing irreversible joint damage. And that kind of wear and tear, which is why a lot of our patients, as a proactive way to take care of themselves, are coming in frequently. Every couple of weeks, to keep themselves tuned out, to keep their joints moving so that they're not experiencing where and tear down the road. So hopefully, this answers any questions you have regarding what sitting can do and how it affects neck pain. I'm Dr. Aaron Seaton with the Chiropractic Place here in Redding, California.

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