Importance of Breathing!

I once heard the phrase, "If you lose your cervical curve-you die!"

This phrase is significant in many ways.  At first, I thought it was just an expression.  The cervical, meaning your neck, keeps your head up and your eyes forward.  The vertebrae in your neck make a curve, and if that curve is lost then your head would flexed forward with your eyes down.  If your eyes are looking down, you can't see where you are going, you have lost your way, you have given up, hence- you die.

As I have thought more about this phrase, and then listened to the recent Neuro lecture, the phrase is much more literal.  We are living in a "Head Forward" society- our students sit in long classes all day long sitting with their head forward, many workers sit at desks 9-5 with their head forward, many sleep on their backs with their head on a pillow, pushing their head forward as they sleep, and there is a whole generation spending their time in head flexed position playing video games, texting on their phones, or spending hours at their computers.  Have you ever wondered why kids who text have very little social skills?  It's not because their too engaged in their activity.

As we sit all day long in a head forward position, we set off a chain reaction that can be detrimental.  When we sit with a head forward, we decrease the curve in our neck.  This position closes down our airways.  To think about this more, think of a paramedic giving air or CPR to a person.  One of the first things done is to tilt the head back to open up the airways.  A head forward position closes in on our airways, constricting the air getting to our lungs.  This does a couple things.  First, this makes our body work harder to breath.  In order to breath, our body needs to recruit other muscles usually up by the neck to help move the chest. Recruiting these muscles promotes mouth breathing, instead of breathing through our nose.  There is a giant list of conditions that occur when we breath through our mouth, most notable is sleep apnia, along with snoring, morning fatigue and cardiac dysfunction.  The other result to blocking our airways is hypoxia, or lack of oxygen.  If we are not getting enough oxygen, our breathing changes from being long and deep to short and shallow.  Our respiratory rate increases significantly.  Research has shown that a respiratory rate greater than 15 breaths/min is strongly associated with chronic illnesses.  The lack of oxygen also effects our prefrontal cortex, effecting our mental health where we begin to see problems such as stroke, ADD, ADHD, personality changes, and yes even lack of social skills- going back to our young texters.

In a society where we sit all day in a flexed forward position, we are oxygen deprived.  85% of the US population is sleep deprived, many are fatigued and struggling with several illnesses.  Where do we begin?  It all begins when we're born.  When a baby is born, especially with boys, their lungs are not fully developed and they need to learn to work and expand.  Yet, we are taught to swaddle them tightly and keep them from breathing.  Babies spent the last nine month curled up in a ball, it is necessary for them to extend and work on the curve of their neck.  Babies innately know how to develop, you often see them extend their head back.  Yet, we are told to have them sleep on their backs- where not only can they not work on their curve, but they sleep in a flexed forward position, limiting their breathing- and we wonder the existence of SIDs.  One of the best ways, especially for boys, to develop their lungs is to exercise and run.  Yet, we let our kids sit and watch TV, play games, text, and watch more TV.  These changes are up to us.  But if we don't change, then our kids won't change and we are spiraling down to an ill-centered generation.  These conditions don't happen right away, but are alarmingly becoming appearant and widespread.

A few helpful ideas would be first to see a Chiropractor.  Again, I'm not trying to sell anyone on chiropractic, but who else knows more about correcting the curve of our neck and keeping our body in good posture. Don't sleep on your back. Don't sit at a desk for long hours at a time, take breaks and walk around.  Exercise and do breathing activities (Train yourself to hold your breath longer than a minute . . or more).  Just take a deep breath . . . and relax.  We can't afford to lose our cervical curve.  We can't afford to keep our eyes down, not seeing where we need to go.  We can't afford to lose our way.  Hold your head up high!