Written by Dr. David Howard – B.Sc. (Clinical Sci.), M.H.Sc. (Osteopathy), B.App.Sc (Human Movement) from Pascoe Vale Osteopathy located in Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Most of us, hopefully, spend at least 8 hours a night with our head on a pillow. This can become a big problem if your pillow is not supporting your neck correctly.

The spine in your neck curves in order to evenly distribute the weight of your head when upright. Whatever position you prefer to sleep in, it is important to keep your spine as close as possible to its correct alignment - which is how it is when upright. This means that the natural curve is maintained and the shoulders aren’t squashed.

Symptoms of a bad pillow

If your neck is not supported correctly when sleeping, an array of symptoms can develop such as:

Neck pain
Headaches
Migraines
Shoulder pain
Numbness and tingling in the hands (due to the nerves and blood vessels being squashed)
Upper back pain
Lower back pain
Neck stiffness in the morning
Restlessness/tossing/turning at night (which will negatively affect your immune system) 

What happens when your pillow is not right…

Too High

Your neck will be bent away from the bed, stretching the muscles and taking the spine out of alignment.

Too Low

Your neck will sag towards the bed putting a strain on the spine and neck muscles. If you are a side sleeper it will squash your shoulder, and also make you more likely to roll your leg forwards which puts your lower back in poor alignment.

No Contours

If your pillow has no contours it is harder for the natural curves of the spine to be maintained. A supportive pillow with contours fills the neck arches and therefore maintains the correct curves. It can also take pressure off your shoulder if you sleep on your side.

Is your pillow ok?

Here are some questions to ask yourself about the pillow you are currently using:

Is it more than 2 years old?
When you lie on your side do you feel pressure on your shoulder?
Do your sleep with your arm or hands under your pillow?
Do you try to support your neck with your hands when sleeping?
Are you constantly fluffing up your pillow?
Do you try to bunch your pillow into your neck for more support?
Do you toss and turn?
Do you have any of the symptoms mentioned above such as neck pain and headaches?
Do you wake up in the morning with a stiff neck?

If you have answered YES to 2 or more of the questions you need a new pillow as you are probably not getting the neck support that you need!

How to get it right…

How do you sleep?

If you are a back sleeper, the pillow needs a contour to mould to the back of your head and neck. It will be lower than those who sleep on their sides.

If you are a side sleeper the width of your shoulders determines how high the pillow needs to be.  The broader you are the higher the pillow needs to be as the gap between the side of your head and your shoulder is greater. There also needs to be a contour to maintain the correct alignment of the spine as there is a difference in height between the side of your head and your neck.

Avoid sleeping on your stomach. If you’re finding the habit hard to break, you will need either no pillow or a very thin pillow as a higher pillow will turn your neck further to the side and produce more strain.

How hard is your bed?

With a soft bed you need a lower pillow as your shoulder sinks into the bed. Therefore you need a higher pillow with a firmer bed.

How much do you weigh?

Your weight also effects which pillow is correct for you as it effects how far you sink into the bed.  The heavier you are, the lower the pillow needs to be.

Get someone to check you out

A great way to check if your pillow is the correct height is to get someone to look at you lying on it! If you are a side sleeper, from behind your neck should look straight - not bent up or down. If you are a back sleeper then your neck should look like it does when you are upright with your chin a good distance from your chest. If you’d like me to check your pillow/sleep positioning, feel free to bring your pillow in with you to your next osteopathic consultation.

Disclaimer: Information provided in this post is of a general nature and should not be used solely in place of individual advice from either myself or another medical professional. Pascoe Vale Osteopathy and Dr. David Howard will not take responsibility for any injury resulting from following information in this post.

Pascoe Vale Osteopathy provides osteopathic services to patients from a wide number of suburbs such as Pascoe Vale, Essendon, Essendon North, Moonee Ponds, Strathmore, Niddrie, Keilor, Coburg, Brunswick, Oak Park, Glenroy, Airport West, Travancore, Melbourne, Australia.

Written by Dr. David Howard – B.Sc. (Clinical Sci.), M.H.Sc. (Osteopathy), B.App.Sc (Human Movement) from Pascoe Vale Osteopathy located in Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

With technology being a big part of our lives these days many people spend long periods of time at a desk or in front of a computer, whether it be at work or at home. Poor desk set up and poor sitting posture are huge contributing factors to the many and varied symptoms of a large percentage of my patients.

Some symptoms of poor desk posture:

Headaches
Neck pain and tightness
Shoulder tightness
A feeling that you can’t sit up straight
Pain in between the shoulder blades
Shoulder and arm pain

If left for too long, these symptoms can develop into more serious issues such as:

Rotator cuff tendonitis (inflammation of the tendons of the shoulder muscles)
Bursitis of the shoulder (inflammation of the lubricated balloons between muscles)
Numbness, tingling, weakness and pins and needles in the arm.

Correct sitting posture:

Your butt should be right up against the back of the chair, as you can’t slump in this position. Your knees should be a bit lower than the height of your hips. Your arms should be hanging at your side with your elbows at 90 degrees. The wrists should be straight. Both feet should be flat on the floor. This position may feel quite uncomfortable to begin with because your body is likely to be ‘stuck’/used to your previous poor posturing. You may need to work up to sitting properly for long periods gradually.

If you are a leg crosser, the habit will be hard to get rid of but just regularly check in with yourself and uncross them. Hopefully you can kick the habit quickly!

Correct desk setup:

Move anything from under your desk that stops you from sitting straight and facing forward (i.e. filing cabinet, rubbish bin).

Adjust your chair height so that the top of the desk is at elbow height.

You should position the items on your desk so that you are not reaching too far for anything (i.e. phone).

Correct computer setup:

Your computer screen and keyboard should be directly in front of you. The top of the computer screen should be in line with your eye level.

The mouse should be right next to the keyboard. You shouldn’t have to reach far to use it. The top of your arm should be hanging straight down from your shoulder, not slightly forwards or backwards. If your arm if not hanging straight down, you are unnecessarily using muscles in your shoulder which can cause tightness and strain.

If you are typing from a paper document, it is best to place it between the screen and the keyboard.

A wrist support can greatly take the strain off you hands and wrists.

Correct Laptop setup:

If you are often using a laptop, I strongly suggest getting a separate keyboard so that you can place the laptop on a stand to get the screen to the correct height and distance. Looking down at a laptop screen for long periods can cause many problems in the neck and shoulders.

How can I help you?

If you have been sitting at your desk for many months/years with poor posture, your body would have been compensating for this and no doubt there will be both primary (strains/sprains/disc irritation) and secondary issues (scoliosis/twist in the spine). Osteopathic ‘hands-on’ treatment can help to undo all the hours, weeks, days and years of sitting badly and help return you to good posture. I can also give you specific stretching and strengthening exercises to help you maintain your good posture.

Disclaimer: Information provided in this post is of a general nature and should not be used solely in place of individual advice from either myself or another medical professional. Pascoe Vale Osteopathy and Dr. David Howard will not take responsibility for any injury resulting from following information in this post.

Pascoe Vale Osteopathy provides osteopathic services to patients from a wide number of suburbs such as Pascoe Vale, Essendon, Essendon North, Moonee Ponds, Strathmore, Niddrie, Keilor, Coburg, Brunswick, Oak Park, Glenroy, Airport West, Travancore, Melbourne, Australia.

Written by Dr. David Howard – B.Sc. (Clinical Sci.), M.H.Sc. (Osteopathy), B.App.Sc (Human Movement) from Pascoe Vale Osteopathy located in Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Headaches are one of the most common issues seen at Pascoe Vale Osteopathy. Headaches can range from a dull ache to debilitating migraines requiring hospitalisation.

Headaches affect 66% of men and 80% of women. 5% of adults actually experience a headache every day. Headaches may not be a serious disease but they greatly affect our everyday life, work and play.

What can cause headaches?

There are many different types and causes of headaches:
Eye strain
Toxic
Hormonal/menstrual related
Alcohol induced
Post traumatic (i.e. after a  bump to the head)
Migraine
Sinus headache
Jaw/Temporomandiubular joints (TMJ)
Whiplash
Dehydration
Due to serious disease such as a brain tumour (rare)

But the most common is the ‘cervicogenic’ headache (meaning from the neck) or ‘tension’ headaches.

Tension headache

This is due to a build up of muscle tension at the base of the skull otherwise known as the suboccipital area. Patients experience pain both at the base of the skull and as a headache in the forehead, eyes and temple areas. The reason why this occurs is due to tight muscles, inflammation and joint restrictions in the area irritating nerves and blood vessels resulting in local and referred (travelling) pain of a headache.

Migraine

Patients can experience both headaches and migraines as there is a definite difference between the two. A migraine happens due to inflammation of the nerves and blood vessels in the head causing symptoms such as nausea, blurry or distorted vision, numbness and a severe headache. The triggering mechanism is still not widely understood by the field of medicine/science. Migraines may be triggered by such things as tiredness, red wine, chocolate, preservatives or even something minor like consuming tomato-based foods. For some patients migraines can be a random event with no discernable trigger.

So what can you do about it??

Try and find out the reason why your headaches are happening in the first place:
Do you need your eyes checked for glasses or a change in your script?
Are you drinking enough water (minimum 2 litres a day)?
Were you drinking alcohol the night before?
Are your sinuses infected?
Are you clenching or grinding your teeth? Waking up with a headache in the morning
What is your pillow and/or mattress like? Sleeping on your stomach with head twisted to one side?

Osteopathic treatment for headaches and migraines

The most common cause will be the neck and this is where an osteopath can assist you.

Treatment for headaches involves improving joint mobility and reducing muscle tension resulting in improved blood supply and drainage from the head and reduced nerve irritation.  The second part of the treatment is providing you with stretches and strengthening exercises to assist in reducing the headaches occurring again. Another important factor is improving ergonomics such as the position you sleep, sit and work – Dr. David Howard will be able to advise you on the correct things to do.

Most people that have headaches experience them chronically (constantly, or intermittently for more than 3 months) so treatment is most commonly not just a one off, it involves improving the symptoms quickly and then moving to more maintenance treatment to keep them gone/diminished/controlled. The frequency of maintenance treatment varies for each individual patient. Everybody is different, some people require treatment once a month and others every 3 months.

Disclaimer: Information provided in this post is of a general nature and should not be used solely in place of individual advice from either myself or another medical professional. Pascoe Vale Osteopathy and Dr. David Howard will not take responsibility for any injury resulting from following information in this post.

Pascoe Vale Osteopathy provides osteopathic services to patients from a wide number of suburbs such as Pascoe Vale, Essendon, Essendon North, Moonee Ponds, Strathmore, Niddrie, Keilor, Coburg, Brunswick, Oak Park, Glenroy, Airport West, Travancore, Melbourne, Australia.