The interesting thing is these postural issues cause a few of the symptoms often found in PD:
“The scalenes are often very weak, due to postural abnormalities such as slouching shoulders and forward head posture. In turn, they may greatly restrict the movement of the cervical spine, especially with regards to rotation and extension. When there’s severe restriction in rotation, this may cause excessive movement to occur between the A-A (C1/C2) or axiocervical (C2/C3) joints, ultimately leading to ligament laxity and instability of the upper cervical spine, as I touched upon earlier.
Additionally, their tightness may entrap the nervous and vascular bundles of the thoracic outlet, causing thoracic outlet syndrome. An especially relevant point to note is that the vertebral artery that supplies the brain, is a branch of the subclavian artery. When the scalenes compress this artery, it may compromise the brain’s blood flow, and lead to many different problems such as vertigo, fatigue, migraines, and similar symptoms of vertebrobasilar insufficiency. So far I have yet to see a patient with noteworthy atlas misalignment who didn’t also have TOS, but fairly I have indeed seen many patients with TOS who did not have atlas misalignment.”
“Dizziness, vertigo, headaches, vomit, diplopia, blindness, ataxia, imbalance, and weakness in both sides of the body are the most common symptoms. 7 8 9
Some authors advocate that weakness of the lower limbs associated to imbalance and ataxia of the legs, palsy of the oculomotor nerve, and/or oropharynx dysfunction are the most prevalent symptoms of VBI. 7
(Oropharyngeal dysphagia arises from abnormalities of muscles, nerves or structures of the oral cavity, pharynx, and upper esophageal sphincter. Swallowing disorders can occur in all age groups, resulting from congenital abnormalities, structural damage, and/or medical conditions.)
I guess the summary would be try and improve your posture so your neck and spine stay in proper alignment or it affects blood flow to parts of your brain and creates symptoms, a lot of which are common to PD.
Your post is so relevant to me. After becoming quite alarmed at my general lack of endurance and muscle strength, rigid/painful back and shoulders, I started a fairly aggressive walking regimen. Going up hills caused Left jaw, shoulder, and arm pain that sent me to a dentist, GP, cardiologist. After lengthy and expensive evaluations, I was told I had a "super-efficient" heart, and that the pain was not cardiac in origin. They sent me out the door saying "You probably just have a pinched nerve". I read some articles re: posture, especially as it relates to the forward lean so common in Parkinsons and realized that mine was much more severe than I had thought. I decided to consciously correct my posture as well as I could. At first I used a shoulder brace as a reminder to stand up straighter, put my chest out, and pull my chin in. At the same time I started core strengthening exercises. My first "AhHa" moment was when I experienced going up and down stairs in a new way. With my head not leaning forward, my body weight was OFF my neck - My calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, hip muscles were doing the work they should have been doing all along; no wonder they were atrophying and my neck/shoulders were hurting! The Left-sided arm and shoulder pain I was experiencing when I went up inclines (with my head leaning even further forward) occurs rarely now and ONLY when I absent -mindedly hunch forward. I'll be paying attention to the strengthening exercises in the article, too. Thank you!
I notice my husband gets worse when he sits for hours playing bridge at the computer with his head leaning forward.
I don’t have PD but I have had a year with troubling head symptoms which I also put down to dentistry. I seems to have blockages of fluid in my ears, sinuses, and saliva glands and when I lie down my head feels under pressure and I feel like there is something crawling around in my head! The dentist sent me to a physio who specialises in TMJ jaw therapy and he says I clench my teeth and has given me massages and stretches to do. I think I spend too much time bending over my IPad with a stiff posture and clenched jaw which has put my neck out of alignment. I was just struck by how similar the symptoms are to some of the PD ones.
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