Chiropractors Relaunch Straighten Up Campaign

Chiropractors Relaunch Straighten Up Campaign As Back Pain Cases Among Children And Adolescents Continue To Rise

This month, The New Zealand Chiropractors’ Association (NZCA) relaunches its nationwide Straighten Up New Zealand (SUNZ) campaign to coincide with World Spine Day and raise awareness of the growing prevalence of back pain among children and to provide advice on how to prevent it.

A recent Australian study which followed 434 young people from age 13 to 17 years over five years revealed that low back pain was common and increased with age for both girls and boys. Each year they were 40% higher than the previous year. Girls reported having pain more often than boys, with almost twice as many girls reporting regular pain compared to boys. In a Tunisian study , lifetime occurrence of low back pain for 622 nine to 11 year olds was 28.4%. It was responsible for 23% of school absenteeism and 29% of sport absenteeism.

Campaign organiser and chiropractor, Dr. Dean Carter explains:

‘Back pain was once seen purely as an affliction of older people. However, it is becoming more and more common amongst children and adolescents. There are a number of potential reasons for this including increased use of computers, watching television and playing computer games, which have been linked with neck and back pain and headaches. Poorly designed school furniture and inappropriate backpack use, carrying weights of more than 10% of body weight, could also be to blame.’

Fortunately, there are a number of things that can be done to reduce the risk of suffering back pain.

‘First, I highly recommend having children checked by a chiropractor because we help the spine and nervous system to function at an optimal level,’ explains Dr. Carter. ‘Doing the three minute set of simple exercises recommended by Straighten Up New Zealand every day will help improve posture, stabilise core muscle groups, enhance health and prevent spinal disability, ‘It is also important to encourage children to stand or sit straight and to take frequent breaks to walk around and stretch if they have been sitting down for a while. This will help to stop muscles getting tight and strained.

‘Many of our local schools in Franklin do SUNZ exercises daily and teachers have reported to me that the children are more alert and happier, they sit with better posture and concentrate better in lessons,’ adds Dr. Carter. So SUNZ is far more than helping with back and neck pain, the health of a child’s spine and nervous system are key to optimal health and performance for their lifetime.’

Straighten Up New Zealand is a simple, engaging spinal exercise programme, designed to promote spinal health. The Straighten Up campaign was originally developed in the US and is now being adopted by countries all over the world. It is endorsed by the World Health Organisation and the World Federation of Chiropractic. The NZCA has produced brochures and posters, and developed a website to support the campaign. Remember that is always advisable to have any pain that is severe or not improving checked out promptly by your family chiropractic doctor.

For more information on the Straighten Up campaign, visit www.straightenup.org.nz. Further details on the New Zealand Chiropractors’ Association can be found at www.chiropractic.org.nz.

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