頸椎痛，跟坐姿關(guān)系不大

If you suffer from neck pain, you're not alone. Spinal pain is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide and its occurrence has increased dramatically over the past 25 years.

如果你脖子痛，你并不孤單。脊髓疼痛是全世界致殘的主要原因之一，在過(guò)去25年中，其發(fā)生率急劇增加。

While most episodes of neck pain are likely to get better within a few months, half to three-quarters of people who have neck pain will experience repeated episodes of pain.

雖然大多數(shù)頸部疼痛的發(fā)作可能在幾個(gè)月內(nèi)好轉(zhuǎn)，但有一半到四分之三的頸部疼痛患者將經(jīng)歷反復(fù)發(fā)作的疼痛。

It's often said there are "good and bad postures" and that specific postures can contribute to spinal pain but this belief is not supported by scientific evidence. Indeed, research shows that poor sleep, reduced physical activity and increased stress appear to be more important factors.

人們常說(shuō)有“好的姿勢(shì)和壞的姿勢(shì)”，特定的姿勢(shì)會(huì)導(dǎo)致脊髓疼痛，但這種觀點(diǎn)沒(méi)有科學(xué)證據(jù)支持。事實(shí)上，研究表明睡眠不足、體力活動(dòng)減少和壓力增加似乎是更重要的因素。

So despite attempts by health professionals to correct your posture and the use of "ergonomic" chairs, desks, keyboards and other gadgets chances are so-called "lifestyle factors" – such as getting enough sleep, making sure you exercise and keeping stress to a minimum – seem to be more salient in relieving and preventing the pain in your neck.

因此，盡管健康專家試圖糾正你的姿勢(shì)，并使用“符合人體工程學(xué)”的椅子、桌子、鍵盤和其他小工具，但所謂的“生活方式因素”似乎在緩解和預(yù)防頸部疼痛方面更為突出，這些因素包括充足的睡眠、確保鍛煉和將壓力降至最低。

The posture myth

姿勢(shì)的神話

Although beliefs about posture run deep, science is telling a very different story – and there is a strong challenge to the long-assumed role of posture as a cause of neck pain.

盡管人們對(duì)姿勢(shì)的信仰根深蒂固，但科學(xué)卻在講述一個(gè)完全不同的故事——而長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)人們認(rèn)為姿勢(shì)是導(dǎo)致頸部疼痛的一個(gè)原因，現(xiàn)在這一說(shuō)法面臨著巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。

A recent high-quality study, of more than 1,000 teenagers, for example, showed no statistically significant relationship between spinal posture and neck pain – despite there being easily identifiable postural subgroups in the study, such as those who sat slumped or those who sat upright.

例如，最近一項(xiàng)針對(duì)1000多名青少年的高質(zhì)量研究表明，脊柱姿勢(shì)與頸部疼痛之間沒(méi)有統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)上的顯著關(guān)系，盡管在該研究中存在一些容易識(shí)別的姿勢(shì)亞群，比如那些坐姿頹然或坐姿挺直的人。

So yes, people do sit in positions that vary from person to person, but it appears to have nothing to do with pain. In fact, it appears from this particular study that the adolescent's "posture" has more to do with their mood.

所以，是的，人們坐的姿勢(shì)因人而異，但似乎與疼痛無(wú)關(guān)。事實(shí)上，從這項(xiàng)特別的研究來(lái)看，青少年的“姿態(tài)”更多地與他們的情緒有關(guān)。

Research has also shown that changing the way you sit while working – by altering your workstation – so-called "ergonomic interventions", have little to no impact on whether a person develops neck pain.

研究還表明，改變你工作時(shí)的坐姿——通過(guò)改變你的工作站——所謂的“人體工程學(xué)干預(yù)”，對(duì)一個(gè)人是否會(huì)出現(xiàn)頸部疼痛幾乎沒(méi)有影響。

Also, there is little high-quality evidence that ergonomic interventions can lead to a speedier recovery for someone with neck pain.

此外，幾乎沒(méi)有高質(zhì)量的證據(jù)表明，人體工程學(xué)干預(yù)可以導(dǎo)致頸部疼痛患者更快的康復(fù)。

In various studies, researchers have followed groups of people who don't have neck pain along with those who only experience occasional neck pain for periods. Some people in these groups developed troublesome neck pain and the researchers looked closely at them.

在各種各樣的研究中，研究人員跟蹤了一組沒(méi)有頸部疼痛的人，以及那些只偶爾經(jīng)歷頸部疼痛的人。這些人群中的一些人患上了麻煩的頸部疼痛，研究人員仔細(xì)觀察了他們。

Those with neck pain were found to be getting less quality and quantity of sleep and were working in jobs with high strain. They were also less physically active and had depressed mood.

那些頸部疼痛的人被發(fā)現(xiàn)睡眠質(zhì)量和數(shù)量都較低，而且工作壓力大。他們的體力活動(dòng)也較少，情緒也很低落。

Their bodies are essentially experiencing greater stress and they notice more "muscle tension" in their neck. Importantly, this is all before the pain has even developed.

他們的身體基本上承受著更大的壓力，他們注意到脖子上有更多的“肌肉張力”。重要的是，這些都是在疼痛還沒(méi)有發(fā)展出來(lái)之前。

Researchers have found that, even among children as young as nine years old, symptoms such as tiredness and sleep difficulties – along with headaches, abdominal pain and lower mood – were risk factors for both the occurrence and persistence of weekly neck pain when the children were monitored for four years.

研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，即使在9歲的兒童中，疲勞和睡眠困難等癥狀，以及頭痛、腹痛和情緒低落，都是監(jiān)測(cè)4年的兒童每周頸部疼痛發(fā)生和持續(xù)的危險(xiǎn)因素。

Sleep, exercise and relaxation

睡眠、鍛煉和放松

The flip side of this is that having a stronger neck, enjoying exercise – even simply walking a greater number of steps each day – have all been shown to protect against getting neck pain.

另一方面，有一個(gè)強(qiáng)壯的脖子，享受鍛煉——即使只是每天走更多的步——都被證明可以防止脖子疼痛。

This, along with making sure we don't become sleep deprived, less physically active and stressed will hopefully manage and prevent neck pain more successfully.

這一點(diǎn)，以及確保我們不會(huì)被剝奪睡眠，減少身體活動(dòng)和壓力，將有望更成功地管理和預(yù)防頸部疼痛。

So feel free to sit how you want to at your desk. If you find yourself sitting for long periods in one position make an effort to switch it up – as one of the key things to avoid getting pain in your neck is to change positions frequently through the day.

所以你想怎么坐就怎么坐吧。如果你發(fā)現(xiàn)自己在一個(gè)姿勢(shì)上坐了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間，試著換一個(gè)姿勢(shì)——避免脖子痛的關(guān)鍵之一就是在一天中頻繁地?fù)Q姿勢(shì)。

And if you do have neck pain, get a few early nights, consider doing something relaxing – and why not go for a walk at lunchtime. Importantly, you also need to stop worrying about how you sit or walk, because science seems to show that there may be no such thing as a "bad" posture after all.

如果你確實(shí)有頸部疼痛，那就提前幾個(gè)晚上，考慮做一些放松的事情——為什么不在午餐時(shí)間散散步呢?重要的是，你還需要停止擔(dān)心你坐著或走路的方式，因?yàn)榭茖W(xué)似乎表明，可能根本就沒(méi)有所謂的“壞”姿勢(shì)。