Is school bad for your health?

Well it might be damaging your back for a start.

We all understand the importance of looking after ourselves especially as we get older; it’s better for our quality of life and it will reduce the strain on the NHS.

But, says Melanie Soomro of Essex-based Cliffs Chiropractic Clinic, there’s a far worse problem just waiting to happen unless we take care of our children’s health.

"Over the past four years we’ve been treating more and more cases of back, neck and shoulder pain in children and teenagers and it all seems to start at school.

"Poor school seating, heavy rucksacks and our children’s near-addiction to mobile devices, is having an impact on the spine, creating bigger problems for future health," says Melanie.

She believes it’s imperative we all understand the important role the spine plays in every aspect of our lives.

It holds us upright, supports our weight and, most importantly, protects the spinal cord, the vital communication channel between body and brain.

The spine gives us the ability to bend and twist, so when the spine is injured, mobility is limited.

Every time we slouch at our desks, crane our necks forward to read text messages or listen to a conversation, we’re injuring our spine explains Melanie.

But what can we supposed to do about it?

Melanie says it’s all about adopting the correct posture;

"As we age there will be natural wear and tear on the spine, but correcting your posture and keeping active are vital to spine health and it’s never too soon to start."

But it is not quite so easy at school.

Every pupil sits on the same height chair and desk, but we all know that some children grow faster than others, so we’re helping them adopt poor posture habits while they’re learning.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard: Melanie Soomro with a patient

It’s unlikely schools will have the money to invest in chairs and desks which can be adapted to cater for height so Melanie believes teachers need to do their bit to encourage good posture in the classroom.

She adds: "Heavy backpacks play their part too, causing back and neck pain in children and teenagers.

"According to research conducted by the British Chiropractic Association, 87 per cent of the weight in a backpack is down to text books so, if you’re carrying the books in a one-strap bag this will put undue pressure on one shoulder; it’s better to have two straps to distribute the weight evenly and you should put the heaviest books at the top, not the bottom, to prevent the bag from pulling the shoulders backwards creating discomfort and imbalance."

But the biggest issue is modern day living, where children in the UK aged five to 16 spend an average of six-and-a-half hours a day in front of a screen.

Screen time is made up of time spent watching TV, playing on games, using a mobile phone, computer or tablet and is leading to “text neck”.

This term was coined by Dr Kenneth Hansraj, head of Spine Surgery at New York Spine Surgery & Rehabilitation Medicine, after the research he was conducting revealed spinal damage caused by using our mobile devices was reaching epidemic levels.

Our heads weigh between 10lbs and 12lbs but, as we angle them down to look at our mobile devices, the effective weight on our necks increases from 27lbs at a 15-degree angle to 60lbs at 60 degrees, which means you could be carrying the equivalent of a two-year-old toddler on the back of your neck virtually every time you read or send a message.

This pressure leads to early wear-and-tear on the spine and spinal degeneration, so experts advise lifting your phone up to eye-level to read and send messages.

It may not look cool, it will support all those memes about older people and their phones, but it’s a habit worth getting into right now. But how can we help our kids?

Melanie, a chiropractor, medical acupuncturist and medical herbalist, thinks it should start with parents.

“Parents should start paying attention to their children’s posture when they’re sitting, standing and on their phone.

"It’s important that their head is over their shoulders, the shoulders aren’t hunched and the chin is tucked in.

"When sitting, there’s always a tendency to slouch, especially as the day wears on and you get tired, but that puts greater pressure on internal organs and can lead to rounded shoulders.

"Poor posture will also put years on you and the greatest motivation for some of us to sit up and stand tall, should be to take a look at actors Charles Dance and Joanna Lumley.

"They have great posture and who’d believe that they are both going to celebrate their 72nd birthdays this year?”

Cliffs, which has clinics in Hatfield Peverel aqnd Southend, has created a series videos demonstrating easy-to-do exercises to help improve posture.

These have been specifically designed for those of us who spend a lot of time sitting down.

* cliffschiropractorsouthend.co.uk/back-to-business