The Health Perils of E-Learning: Posture, Tech Neck & How Chiros Can Help | Podcast Ep. 247

Foreign hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I am your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. And on today's episode, we are talking about a timely topic. We're going to talk about kids going back to school, elearning, posture, tech, neck. We're diving into all of it because these are conversations that you can and should be having in your community through your social channels, through your email right now. They are impact points where you can literally make an impact on the health of the people in your community. Also an impact point for your practice where you can stimulate interest on who you are and what you do by generating, stimulating these conversations and most importantly, answering the questions that parents in your community have regarding the health of their children and the changes that have occurred over the past six to seven months. So we're gonna dive into that and more on today's episod. Before we get started, I will say thank you. If you have been leaving ratings or reviews for this podcast on itunes, that is awesome. Thank you so much for doing so. If you haven't, I'm gonna encourage you to do so right now. Scroll on down on your phone. You can leave feedback or a rating or a review right there from your phone. That helps more and more docs find out about this podcast. We have over 10,000 listeners each and every week, which is absolutely, absolutely insane though. So thanks for tuning in, thanks for caring, thanks for paying attention, and just thank you for being a chiropractor in your community. As long as you continue to do that, I'll continue to do this, which is try to give you the best information you can to market your practice, stay up to date on the research and really have an evidence, informed approach to who you are and what you do. So we are heading into Labor Day, I guess technically this is gonna be released on Labor Day. It's a couple days before it right now in the United States and children around the world are preparing head back to school. And this is really what we're focusing our Smart Chiropractor monthly campaign on is kids in Chiropractic growth and development. Because we know for a ton of families out there, school is gonna look a lot different this year, right? We have elearning, there's homeschooling, traditional schooling, all going on simultaneously depending upon who you are, where you live and how you're going about your business. And each route comes with its own unique challenges for both the students and for the parents. So this is, you know, these are, it's turbulent, it's crazy out there. This is a unique opportunity for you as a doc in the community to address these topics in real time with the people in your community. So what are a couple key stats? We're gonna do this podcast a little bit different. I wanna break down some key stats, then we'll talk about practical application. Because some of these stats we dove into research from really esteemed places. Harvard National Safety Council, Behavioral Neuroscience, Neuropsychopharmacology. Again, Harvard Health Pub. A lot of great resources here and listen to what they found. Over 50% of school age children present with posture disorders. Pretty wild. Over 41% of children experience back pain from prolonged sitting. That's pretty substantial to me because I don't remember particularly having back pain as a child. But over 40% of kids having back pain due to prolonged sitting is a really big deal. Low back pain is the third most common form of pain that interferes with schoolwork. It's really, really interesting in my mind. And over 60% of children have backpacks that weigh more than 10% of their body weight. Also there's the tie in here of movement, exercise and learning, which is exquisitely important. Somebody who's doing E learning, they're just getting like plopped in front of a computer for eight hours on end might be even less dynamic than being in the classroom. And we know that movement and exercise has the opportunity to enhance learning and memory. We also know that exercise movement can decrease stress and have an antidepressant effect and, and regular exercise can improve memory and thinking in both indirect and direct ways. These are very, really important things because sometimes a. I guess, what's the best way to think of it? A parent might think of exercise as a deterrent or a distraction, I guess I should say from learning. When really exercise and movement is an enhancement of the learning process, that minute shift is a really, really big deal. So students again, around the world, a ton of people are gonna be doing elearning for hours and hours each day on digital devices, laptops, tablets, some people, phones maybe. And these devices, you know, that can be great for education, for entertainment, you know, Facebook, Instagram, sign in, the DMs, TikTok, whatever it is crazy people do out there. But the postural effects are something that all parents need to be aware of because elearning has an opportunity to increase neck, mid back and low back pain. Again, we know historically 40 plus percent of kids are having, you know, back pain due to prolonged sitting. I'm gonna estimate that has an opportunity to go up throughout these next few months. Spending six or more hours on individual advice each day can profoundly affect mental, social, physical health. And it can result in posture disorders, it can result in back pain, it can result in interference to schoolwork. So being able to guide and direct. Here we go, practical application. Being able to guide and direct people in your community by showing them, hey, here are some stretches and exercises your kids can do each day. It's a good idea to look up to combat the effects of tech neck, quote, unquote. There's just so many opportunities for you to teach, for you to invite people to learn more and to do it consistently. As we say, teach and invite consistently. Within the smart Chiropractor, there's really an opportunity for you to do that, an exceptionally high level all month long because of the topic. And this is a topic that you should take advantage of. Again, those are for elearning, right? People at home. You have some kids in your community who are going back to school. And you know, we know the negative effects that backpacks can have, right? 60% of kids carrying one that has more than 10% of their body weight, that's really, really substantial. So you can showcase, you know, good ergonomics. You know, how do you select an appropriately sized backpack? How do you fit the backpack? How do you pack the backpack? These are all things that we unpack, no pun intended, with the smart chiropractor materials to make it super easy for our docs to get out there and have these conversations. But if you're not yet a smart chiropractor member, I want you to be thinking this because all of this is opportunity for you to have conversations with the people in your community. We went through some of the stats at the beginning, so there's no question there's the need for it. The only real question is, are you taking advantage of the opportunity to teach on it? And hopefully that's what today's episode is going to inspire you to do. And let's dive into a little bit of movement because empowering. You know, we have week four titled Powering youg Child's Brain with Movement. I think is a really important shift in the psychology of exercise and movement with learning. So, you know, years ago, we all know, researchers, people believed health benefits exercise were like limited to the body, right? You exercise for your body. But what we continue to learn more and more about is that regular physical activity, movement benefits both the body and the brain. So we're seeing that movement supplies the brain with oxygen, promotes the production of new cells, aids in creating synapses in the brain. All super, super important things. And when we see schools continually reducing physical education classes and even more students at home right now elearning, it's incredibly important that parents are encouraging their children to exercise each day. And also you have an opportunity through your Instagram channel platform, through your Facebook page, through TikTok, you have the opportunity to showcase how kids can and should move and why they should be moving each and every day. Movement triggers the release of many chemical substances of the brain that we know enhance brain function. So let me tie this together from a benefit driven standpoint for the parent. Movement will help make your child a better student. Like it is just foundationally factual, right? Brain function. Movement has the opportunity to protect your brain against degenerative changes. We've seen this in the literature. Stress reduction, as we touched on earlier, exercise and movement have been shown to decrease stress and have an antidepressant effect. And that's a really important piece of this as well. I mean, the stress associated with the changes, if you're at home, the children isolated from their classmates, that is stressful. They might not be old enough to be able to articulate that in a way that we understand, but you'll see the ramifications of it. So decreasing stress is a big deal, even with children. An antidepressant effect goes hand in hand with that. And then memory. What we see in the literature is regular exercise can improve memory and thinking in both direct and indirect ways. And obviously a big part of the current education system, at least in the United States and many places around the world, is remembering stuff. So memory is a key component of that. So in the past, as I said, many people consider exercise and physical education classes as a distraction from learning. But now we've really come to understand that movement and exercise play an integral role in learning and ultimately brain function. And if a child is struggling to get enough exercise due to pain, 40% plus, due to postural issues, 50% plus, this is your opportunity to get out there and have a strong call to action, to book an appointment with your practice today. If you can do a posture assessment, a movement assessment, and identify abnormal or let's say non ideal patterns, that is a huge value add. And I'm going to say that's probably more of a value add. Even as we sit and talk today, perhaps more than ever before, because of what we've discussed, because of the stresses and changes that have occurred in how we are going about our education, and really the revolution ultimately in how our children are being educated is really happening right now. And Being able to proactively address these concepts, to address the questions that parents have. How do I keep my child active at home? Great opportunity to showcase it. Ooh, my child is on the computer nine hours a day, but I don't really know what to do to get them to get up and moving again. Hop onto your Facebook page, talk about these topics, talk about the importance of exercise in motion. Show those resets, the stretches and exercises children can do throughout the day to sort of reset their posture, reset their body, to stimulate some motion, even if it's just range of motion, pulling those shoulders back. Again, huge opportunity here. From a telehealth perspective or just from an informational perspective, how do you set up a desk? Right. How do you set up a desk ergonomically in an affordable fashion? These are all just fantastic teaching opportunities for you to get out there and proactively generate, stimulate and engage with people in your community. And I'm gonna say there's no bigger why for who we are and what we do as chiropractors and than doing exactly that, doctor, as a teacher. Getting out there and educating people about what they can do to stay healthy is perhaps even more important in many ways than getting them relief. If you can proactively address these things, you're gonna put your community in better shape, you're gonna put your practice in better shape, and you're really gonna establish yourself as that healthcare expert. And I think that's an important part of what we have available with the tools that we have. We've touched on, you know, Facebook and Instagram, the in office screens that you have, your email, we various episodes on these platforms throughout time. But the question is, are you utilizing them? Because they're all assets for your practice, but they're all potentially huge missed opportunities if you're not really actively communicating through those channels and through those platforms. So hopefully this stimulates today's episode, stimulates the thoughts for the topics, the information, the education that you're able to put through those channels. And if you need extra help with that, head over to smartchiropractor.com we automate and Automate market your practice for you based upon monthly campaigns, weekly topics and daily posts. We'll get you covered via email. We'll automate all of your email. It's all personalized. All the call to actions are built in. We see docs typically generating three to four patient activations off their email list each and every week. So it's just a huge opportunity if you're not doing that we automate all the posting through social your Facebook page, your Instagram page, YouTube. We provide you with video scripts, blog posts to boost that SEO on your website, have those keywords and those links going outbound that helps drive more traffic inbound into your practice. It's a really comprehensive tool. I'm gonna be talking more about it as we dive into the fourth quarter this year because we've just seen so much impact in docs practices since everything happened with COVID But the bottom line is today's episode Kids in Chiropractic, take some of those stats and talking points, address them with the patients in your community and if you're feeling up to it, hop on your channels, relay those stats, give positive information, help people make informed healthcare decisions and have a great week in practice. I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. If you want to grow your practice, come back for next week's episode. If you want to grow faster, visit the evidencebasedchiropractor.com and join our MD Marketing membership today.