Haque's Health Hacks
Haque's Health Hacks with Dr. Anita Haque
Haque's Health Hacks
Posture Perfection: Hacks for a Pain-Free Life
Posture is far more than just "standing up straight" – it's the structural foundation that determines how well your entire body functions. In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Anita Haque reveals why poor posture has become a modern pandemic affecting people at increasingly younger ages, and what you can do about it.
Take control of your posture before it controls your health. Keep those shoulders back, your head up, and your screens at eye level – your body will thank you.
Welcome to the Haque's Health Hacks podcast, your trusted source for wellness, fitness and healthy lifestyle insights. We believe in empowering you with knowledge to take control of your health. Join us as we explore the latest in self-care, share expert advice and guide you on your journey to optimal well-being. Let's embark on this path to a healthier you together well-being. Let's embark on this path to a healthier you together.
Charlie McDermott:Well, welcome back to Haque's Health Hacks. I'm Charlie McDermott, the producer, and, as always, we have Dr Anita Haque. How are you doing today, anita?
Dr. Anita Haque:Great, thank you. How are you?
Charlie McDermott:Doing terrific, as always. I'll tell you. What we're going to talk about today is, I think, so, so important. I mean, all your topics are so important, but I think this is one that maybe doesn't get the attention it needs, because it's well. I'm not going to, you know, let the what do you say? I'm not going to spoil the surprise here, so I'm going to let the expert get into it. But for your listeners, today we're going to be talking about posture, something we all know is important, but many of us struggle with Dr Hopp. So let's start with why. Why is posture so important for overall health?
Dr. Anita Haque:So I like to say this to my patients in a way that's easy to kind of get in your head, which is this a ladder is only going to work best when it's in proper positioning. Your body, your structure, is going to work best when it's in proper position and your structure meaning your posture, how you stand, how your positioning of your joints are your structure impacts your function. So I always like to make sure that you understand posture is your structure and your structure is the foundation to how well you're going to function. Just like anything else, a bridge is not going to work well if it's not structured properly. It could fall right. We've heard like bridges falling. Of course, it's not the first time.
Dr. Anita Haque:So that's why our posture is so vital. And actually, charlie, I would take it a step further that posture now has become or bad bad posture, rather, has become a new pandemic. Because of all the tech that we use, we're affecting our postures in a really negative way, even more now, at a rapid rate than we were, say, a decade ago. Yeah, yeah. So that's why posture is so vital, because you know you can't be at your optimal level of wellness, function, motion, if you're off kilter. That's really the short end of it all. You know, if I sum it up for our listeners here, your posture is going to impact how you feel, how you move and how well your body is communicating to each other, meaning the brain to the body. It affects that tremendously.
Charlie McDermott:Good, good, good, so yeah, and again it's, it's we don't, I don't. You know, I think for most people they, when you say it that way, they they go. Oh, yeah, yeah, but it's not like front of mind, right? So we're, we're not thinking posture. Fortunately, my wife stays on me, to you know, keep my posture aligned, because she knows how important it is. Yeah, yeah, so.
Dr. Anita Haque:And.
Dr. Anita Haque:I think it's more important now because, in my practice particularly, I am getting younger and younger patients coming in complaining of what? Neck pain, shoulder pain, pain, likeness in the neck. Sometimes it can even lead to pain down the arm, numbness, tingling carpal tunnel. That is all part of what we call in my profession, in the medical world as well, the term tech neck. So basically it's all the tech that we're using constantly screens that are making our heads look down right, we're always looking down at our phones and most of us are in that posture for several hours a day. And it starts now, charlie, at a really young age.
Dr. Anita Haque:I'm sure that many of our listeners have seen babies, toddlers, holding on to mom or dad's phone or screens, just so that mom and dad can maybe get a moment to do something. I see them in practice all the time. Parents are coming in while they're getting their adjustments. Their might be there and what they're doing is they're looking down at the screen mom's screen, right looking at a game, a show or something like that. And then come 13, 14 years old, these young kids that have been doing that at a young age. Now they're having neck issues, pain between the shoulder blades and presented postural issues that parents are very concerned about, because what a lot of kids do? They're gaming. They're not going outside and playing with their friends. They're playing with their friends on their screen.
Dr. Anita Haque:So this has definitely become an epidemic that I'm treating on a daily basis with a younger population, not just the older population. So that's why this topic is so passionate for me to speak about. It's kind of the top thing that I work on with every single patient, even a patient that may come in Charlie for sciatica. They have lower back pain radiating down their leg Part of their treatment plan. I'm still working on their posture because the top effect affects the lower part of the spine. The lower part of the spine. Everything connects with your posture.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, Now I, I, you. I think you've talked to this, but I want to make sure we don't miss it. What, what are you seeing? What are the most common posture issues you see in your patients?
Dr. Anita Haque:So I think the the most common thing is the fact that there's pain or stiffness associated, but commonly it's the shoulders rounding forward like this, right, because we're holding stuff in front of us, like I said, our devices.
Dr. Anita Haque:That's step one. The second most common that kind of goes with that is the head or the neck, and I'm just going to turn to the side just in case anybody's watching this right now. But you know, their head, their ear, is no longer lined up with their shoulders. If the shoulders are back, the ear would be lined up with the shoulder. But often we're seeing the head go forward, the hump come at the back of the neck, that Dowinger's hump is what it's called. It's not just for older people now. We're seeing it, like I said, in younger people. So it's the rounded shoulders, the forward head. Look kind of that posture that even mimics a pre-Parkinson's posture. You know Parkinson's, you're rounding kind of like a worm forward.
Dr. Anita Haque:So that is the most common thing that I'm seeing in terms of what does it present with? And the symptoms are, like I said, the stiffness in the neck, tightness. And a lot of kids too, charlie, are talking about headaches, right, because you know they're leaning their necks forward and it's not just headaches from their structure. Sometimes it's headaches also coming from eye strain. You know, looking at those screens and that vision is also affecting the ability to try to focus on small words or things on the screen for hours is starting to cause more strain and more postural issues. They kind of go together.
Charlie McDermott:Wow, wow, all right, so lots to unpack there right Lots to unpack. I mean yeah, and especially, you know, starting so young nowadays. So which leads to this next question how do these posture problems affect our bodies in the long run?
Dr. Anita Haque:So there's a couple things that I noticed lately as a huge pattern. One is a lot of times the postural issues start, and it's so slight, so subtle, that us humans we're adaptable, we're easy to get used to even negative things. For what I mean by that with posture is it starts kind of small, the stiffness, the tightness, and us humans we're good at ignoring those symptoms. If it's tight, it'll go away. I still want to get what I'm doing on my screen done. I'm going to ignore it.
Dr. Anita Haque:So it would be simple if we were like our pets, like cats and dogs. They get up and stretch all the time, right, if they listen to their bodies, they're a little bit more in tune to not ignore that, whereas us humans we can ignore it. So what that will lead to? Then, when we ignore it, after a period of time those symptoms start to become more, more, more large. So now we're talking about more pain, more sharp pain, maybe more stiffness, more restriction in the range of motion. But again, it's so subtle, it's like taking a frog and putting it in lukewarm water and then you're cranking up the heat and eventually it's boiling in there.
Dr. Anita Haque:So that's a lot of times how postural issues can present. We can get adapted to the stiffness, the tightness. We can ignore the signals of our bodies until it becomes more catastrophic. And that's usually when it becomes more catastrophic that patients are seeking care. They're seeking out maybe my help or someone else a doctor to look at what's going on. I'm having neck pain now.
Charlie McDermott:They can't ignore it anymore.
Dr. Anita Haque:right, Exactly so which is why we're here talking about this because if we can avoid that from happening and put some things into place, simple things in place with your posture, then maybe we can avoid some of those catastrophic issues that can can cause a lot of havoc in your life.
Charlie McDermott:Love it, love it. So then let's talk health hacks here. So what are some simple posture hacks people can use at work or at home.
Dr. Anita Haque:Well, you know, let's talk about some logical things that I'm sure, as a listener, you might already be doing this, but maybe you forgot or maybe you know you just got off the game of doing this.
Dr. Anita Haque:But one thing that's really simple is trying to keep your devices at eye level, and it's not always easy. When you're using, you know, a smaller screen, right, Whether it's like your phone or, you know, maybe like an iPad or something like that, sometimes you can hold it down on your lap and then hours later your head has been down. So every time you're angling your head forward for a longer period of time, you're putting extra pounds of pressure and strain on the back of the neck. So one simple thing is at work, even at home, even with your phone, get a holder, put it up on something so that it's more eye level. See, I'm having my phone right up to eye level, so a stand could be helpful using, maybe, a bigger screen. You know, back in the day they would say, oh, don't use your television, it's making you. You know your screen time that YouTube right.
Dr. Anita Haque:Sometimes I cast my phone screen onto my television screen so that I can look straight up or up, as opposed to looking down to maybe view pictures, to do things, to get on my work. You know laptop again, eye level having it so that you're not having to look down. It's such a simple thing at work that you can do at home, that you can do, and it can make a huge difference overall.
Charlie McDermott:I'm going to use that one. I love that. The cell phone casting it on your big screen that's a great idea.
Dr. Anita Haque:Yeah.
Charlie McDermott:You're full of them.
Dr. Anita Haque:Yeah, use these bigger screens right, how about?
Charlie McDermott:the setup of our. Like you said, we're sitting all day long, a lot of us. You know how important is the setup of our desk chairs. Heck even sleeping positions for maintaining good posture.
Dr. Anita Haque:Yeah, I think posture is just beyond. You know, sitting at a screen because now we are driving with our shoulders forward and you know we're eating like this and then you know you start with one bad postural hack and then you kind of end up being like this. Then you sleep kind of like in that position. So there are many things that can be done in terms of like little besides having things eye level, sometimes just taking a break every 40 to 35 to 45 minutes to sort of step back, move your shoulders back, your neck back Again. These are simple things that we tend to ignore, to do with little things that can make a difference. So what I try to do is, when I'm at my desk and I know that I'm going to be seated for a long period of time, I'm not moving around as much my posture might be affected.
Dr. Anita Haque:I have my water right next to me. I'm drinking tons of water. Why do I do that? Well, it's always good to hydrate one but two. When I drink more water my internal lateral you need to use the bathroom and that gets me up. So sometimes it's a two for one. It's a win-win situation. Hydrating more when you're at your screens will kind of push you to get moving around, putting a timer, maybe an alert on your phone or on your laptop If you're working there, to say you know every 30 minutes stretch having stretch breaks and I know sometimes I ignore my stretch breaks that come up too. But having that reminder does get me to move around and do just some simple stretches like this. You just your hand, you pull your head over to the side, take a deep breath. Yeah, try this with me, charlie.
Dr. Anita Haque:you lean your head one deep breath and when you exhale, take your chin down towards your chest and you'll start to feel kind of the back of your neck and shoulders also releasing, and then I often course repeat on the other side. So breathing is important with your stretching. A lot of people hold their breath so they don't get the advantage of improving their flexibility. So, pulling your head over, take a deep breath and when I exhale I kind of look down with my head and shoulders and that's going to kind of release some of the neck and shoulders and just doing that already I want to stop taller you feel the difference.
Dr. Anita Haque:It's kind of really simple, but we took 10-15 seconds to do that. Now I can get back on my laptop and not feel so strained. Right, simple things like that are easy to do.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, any other stretches or exercises you'd recommend for just those quick breaks?
Dr. Anita Haque:This is another quick break that I do constantly, whether I'm standing or sitting. So, just so that I can make sure I demonstrate this for the viewers that might be watching this, and I'm also going to detail explain. What I like to do is interlace them behind me, with my palms facing up, so I have my fingers. Like this, I'm going to interlace my fingers and then what I'm actually doing is I'm pulling my arms away from my body.
Dr. Anita Haque:At the same time as I'm doing that, charlie, I'm looking up. So I'm basically pulling my shoulder blades back, lifting my arms up and looking back up to the sky or up to the ceiling, take a deep breath in and then when I exhale, I release it and what I'll notice is my shoulders are sitting further back. Such a simple thing. It feels good. And then just getting that extra breathing time in, right, like a lot of times we're not even breathing enough because we're kind of shallow breathing. So having a stretch with your breath can help kind of give you some energy, and then when you go back, your shoulders are back. So two easy stretches. And that stretch I just showed or demonstrated, where you interlace your fingers behind you. You could do it seated, you could do it standing up A quick way to get the rounded shoulders to go back where they need to go, which is what we want, yeah.
Charlie McDermott:I am using them both. I love it. Thank you for that. You're welcome. So how about chiropractic care? How does that help with posture correction?
Dr. Anita Haque:So that is, of course, my exciting part of what I my passionate excitement. So what chiropractic care does for posture is a few things. What I personally do in my practice is, you know, when someone comes in with neck issues, we always are checking posture. So we, in order to check posture, we check the feet, the knees, the hips. How's everything lining up? Okay.
Dr. Anita Haque:Now, once we figure out where things are off kilter through examination, possibly even through x-rays we do digital x-ray Then I can mark and see what is the curve of the neck. So from the side view, when we look at an x-ray, then I can mark and see what is the curve of the neck. So from the side view, when we look at an x-ray, or looking at someone's side view of the neck, I mentioned how the ear, the whole of the ear, should be lined up with the back of the shoulders, as long as the shoulders are rounded. And on x-ray we want to see like a banana shaped or reverse C shaped curve in the spine. It's about 35 to 45 degrees is the angle of the neck on a healthy, normal x-ray. If we are lacking that curve, then we'll put into play adjustments, meaning I'll actually work on realigning the vertebrae to elicit more of the curvature through the actual hands-on approach. That's one step.
Dr. Anita Haque:Second thing that we do is traction the neck. So we have devices that we'll use in our practice that are very gentle, that basically it's a stretching mechanism, so that instead of looking down all the time, we're stretching the neck back to promote that curvature and obviously promote healing. We will also maybe provide things like straps to hold the shoulders back, so someone who's maybe at their computer for hours a day they could actually try to keep that better posture for a longer period of time. There are pillows that we might recommend for certain patients to use nighttime to be therapeutic postural time. So, as we are ruining our postures all day long, to have something with a curve in the pillow to help promote proper posture for seven, eight hours a night can also be a great tool to undo some of the things that we're doing. You know screen time that we can't get away from throughout the day.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, wow, good, good. So, yeah, you know, I've seen those, those straps, and I've often thought, wow, that is that something that you would recommend, like you would wear all day long when you're in front of the you know, sitting at the desk to help with posture.
Dr. Anita Haque:Yeah, so I use a strap called Posture Medic.
Dr. Anita Haque:I have no affiliation in terms of like you know, that's just what I find very, very helpful, because it does sit around you know your shoulders but it's also a great like stretching band that you can also use for exercises. So that's actually something that we will use in our practice and give to patients. But I don't recommend to patients to use a posture band all day One. It's very challenging, charlie, to do that. It gets fatiguing, especially if you are rounded forward. So typically I recommend 30 minutes at a time to start.
Dr. Anita Haque:And then if a patient can get to an hour and then take a break for 30 minutes and, you know, put it back on again, that's a better way versus trying to do too much at once, where a lot of times then you won't do it at all. And sometimes, as we're correcting, you know, spinal issues or muscular skeletal issues, postural issues, fall into musculoskeletal. It can be a little bit uncomfortable, you know it's like it's. It's like starting a new exercise. It can make your muscles sore. So we don't want to overwhelm. Uh, you know, if you're, if you're used to, you know, scratching forward to push it back 24 hours a day, that may not be the best approach. So but I do definitely recommend, recommend bands like that, shoulder straps, you know if someone wears them, you know, to help them a little bit with that. You know bad postural, you know formation that we're all unfortunately getting into.
Charlie McDermott:How about all your experience over the years? What comes to mind? A success story that you've helped a patient who had posture issues kind of get back aligned posture issues kind of get back aligned.
Dr. Anita Haque:So you know, I have plenty of stories of postural issues like this and the reason why I say plenty of stories is because we take x-rays before and then we take x-rays at the end of the treatment plan and it is to see the difference of the curvature coming back. But in particular I'm thinking about one kid. I say kid, he's not really a kid, he's 21. But you know as old as I am, I think a 21 year old kid. But yeah, he's young, young adult, 21 year old. He came in complaining of neck pain, headache, and actually was getting some more tech neck symptoms like wrist pain, thumb pain, from holding the phone, texting all the time, swiping, you know. So there was like a whole like kinetic chain of neck shoulder.
Dr. Anita Haque:So we started treatment on this young man and he was in college. So what are you doing in college? You're studying, you're looking at your screens even more right, your head is down, so definitely perpetuating the problem. So we started treatment and he started to feel tremendously better. Within two weeks he noticed that he was having less symptoms, less discomfort. And guess what happened? Charlie, on one of his visits after his adjustments at my office, he calls us about an hour later saying dr Haque, I just got rear-ended and I was in a car accident. So he comes back around and we take a new set of examination tests to see how he was doing. Like I said, he had a lot of shock, a lot of pain in his neck even though he was already getting better.
Dr. Anita Haque:Two weeks in we took a new set of x-rays. So another thing that people don't realize is whiplash injuries, whether it's from a car, sometimes it's through sports injuries, falling off a horse. Where I live, a lot of people do horseback riding. Those can cause whiplash injuries which can affect the posture or the curve of the neck. So we had found with this young man that even though he was getting better after his car accident, it messed the curve up of his neck even further, and so we are treating him now kind of on a separate base. Yes, so this kind of got complicated. This is why I wanted to share this story.
Dr. Anita Haque:And then we go forward now another 90 days Okay, so it's four months in. We take a new x-ray. He is completely on the reverse side, so his neck curve looks back into normal condition. So he went from basically having a 10 degree neck curve back into a 37 degree neck curve in a matter of like four months, even with the injury. But that was with not just chiropractic treatment, charlie. We also incorporated some strengthening moves and rehab to support the muscles, the postural band, the pillow, the device for him to kind of use every night for 30 seconds to get his neck curve or, you know, traction to come in. So four things that can be done. Even though he was still in college during the time, we saw significant progress in a short period of time, yeah.
Charlie McDermott:Wow, amazing. So, before we wrap up, what's one simple posture hack that our listeners can start using today?
Dr. Anita Haque:One thing that is so silly to say but is so powerful. Charlie, to help your posture, I know I mentioned tips about raising your screen, bringing your phones to eye level. You know some stretches, but the simplest thing that we all can, you know, do every day for one minute, is to stand up against the wall with the back of your heels, the back of your your, your pelvis or your glutes, your buttocks okay, up against the wall, straight wall behind you. You back up your shoulder blades to the wall and, most importantly, you back your head up against the wall.
Dr. Anita Haque:So you're basically kind of like in a soldier military position, having the back of your head, the back of your shoulders, the back of your glutes, the back of your heels, all up against a straight wall and watch a Netflix, watch a commercial. So basically a minute. If we did this one move for one minute, it strengthens all the back muscles that we're putting forward constantly to pull back those muscles. And just a minute a day, Charlie, can provide significant postural improvement. So what a simple hack. Stand up against the wall. You can go longer than a minute, but if we just strive for one minute to hold that upright posture per day, at the end of the day, at the beginning of the day, both is even better. The ability to hold your head and shoulders back and avoid the slew of health problems that can come with postural issues can be significantly reduced.
Charlie McDermott:Wow, wow, dr Haque, you knocked this out of the park.
Dr. Anita Haque:You tell them about this talk, or what?
Charlie McDermott:I'm supposed to be the host here and I'm taking all these notes and going, oh, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that and I'm doing the exercises and, like my head, my neck, feels better, yeah, yeah, and I'm at the end of the day, as you know, and so it relieves a lot of tension and stress. Good stuff, and I'm going to order. It was the Posture Medic. Is that correct?
Dr. Anita Haque:Yeah, and also this information always on my website, which I'm sure you will also post.
Charlie McDermott:Love it, Love it Well until next time, wishing you the absolute best.
Dr. Anita Haque:Same to you and same to your listeners, all of our listeners today keep those shoulders back, keep your head up and keep your screens at eye level, and you will feel much better back, keep your head up and keep your screens at eye level and you will feel much better.
Intro/Close:Thank you for tuning in to Haque's Health Health Hacks podcast. We hope today's discussion has provided valuable insights into achieving and maintaining your health. Remember your well-being. Visit us at haquechiropractic. com or call 925-960-1960 to learn more or schedule an appointment.