JJ
HEALTH & WELLNESS by Dr . Lisa Intriligator
Sleep
How Your
HABITS Affect the Spine
Dr . Lisa Intriligator focuses on bringing a holistic and corrective approach to her patients . She seeks to help people attain longevity and resilience through corrective Chiropractic Biophysics and wellness and longevity education . Dr . Intriligator has resided in Dubuque since 2011 with her husband William and their four children . Dr . Intriligator ’ s office is in Dubuque Fountain Park ’ s Cove Building . Schedule an appointment at ( 563 ) 556-0012 or visit her website at www . DubuqueBio4HealthChiropractic . com .
In the next few columns I will focus on the impacts of three items used by most people in the west : pillows , shoes , and cars . What do these three have in common ? They all impact our posture and therefore our spines . In this column I will focus on pillows .
Any of you who have read my previous columns will know that the spine houses the communication highways that relay vital wellness messages between the brain and every cell in the body . The spine also houses the communication highways that take status updates from the body back to the brain .
The brain uses this information to adjust its instructions to the body , and the signals are sent off again . In this way the brain and the body remain in balance always striving to maintain wellness . Over two billion wellness messages are sent every day through the communication highways housed in the spine .
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But these information highways can be compromised , making it much more difficult for this proper communication to take place . Just as a tree can fall on a power line or telephone lines cutting off electricity and land line communication to our houses , slips and falls , bad posture habits , auto accidents , and injuries can cause our spines to get stuck in positions which interfere with the communication between the brain and body . When the information highways are compromised by our bad spinal conformation and vertebrae stuck in the wrong positions as a result of bad posture , bad work habits , or injuries , our wellness is compromised .
Research done in 1989 at the University of Colorado confirmed that even the weight of a single dime shuts off 60 % of the communications between the brain and the body . Research done in the ‘ 90s confirmed that every inch of spinal displacement away from ideal normal position causes 25 pounds worth of tensile stretch on the spinal cord .
How does this translate to pillows ? The primary restorative part of our day is sleep . Those of us who are lucky enough to get our daily-recommended sleep are doing this 7-12 hours a day , depending on our age . It follows that what we do with our bodies during this time and the habits we have while we sleep are impacting our health about a third to a half as much as what we do when we are awake .
For those who are not pregnant , or with breathing or acid reflux issues , or for some other reason have been advised to the contrary , the ideal sleeping posture is on our backs with no pillow or a small neck pillow just to support the neck .
I ’ m sure I ’ m getting a lot of eye rolls on this one .
It ’ s difficult to achieve back sleeping all night , primarily because as people descended from animals , it is a psychological vulnerability to sleep with our bellies exposed . You rarely see animals sleeping on their backs .
In addition , people who already have trouble with their spines may find that staying in one position all night causes them to feel stiff .
As far as our spines are concerned , back sleeping is the most symmetrical and healthiest way to sleep . For most of us , moving around at night is part of what we ’ re used to , due partly to the fact that most of us have pillows that are not designed for ideal spinal health . Some are trying to back sleep on pillows that raise their heads too high , tightening the paraspinal muscles , and stretching the spinal cord .
While the neck sometimes can benefit from support of an elevated section of the pillow , the head should not be elevated more than an inch off the bed . If you have the proper curve in your neck and upper back , you should be able to sleep on your back without a pillow . People who sleep on pillows that elevate their heads more than an inch are causing anterior head carriage in their general posture . This , along with our present endemic cultural habit of tilting our heads down to look at devices , is the primary cause of anterior head carriage .
Anterior head carriage leads to a stooped posture as we age , not to mention dowagers hump , pain in the neck and upper back , tight shoulders , and spinal degeneration – also known as arthritis .