颈椎痛，跟坐姿关系不大

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，你并不孤单。脊髓疼痛是全世界致残的主要原因之一，在过去25年中，其发生率急剧增加。

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.

虽然大多数颈部疼痛的发作可能在几个月内好转，但有一半到四分之三的颈部疼痛患者将经历反复发作的疼痛。

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.

人们常说有“好的姿势和坏的姿势”，特定的姿势会导致脊髓疼痛，但这种观点没有科学证据支持。事实上，研究表明睡眠不足、体力活动减少和压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，尽管健康专家试图纠正你的姿势，并使用“符合人体工程学”的椅子、桌子、键盘和其他小工具，但所谓的“生活方式因素”似乎在缓解和预防颈部疼痛方面更为突出，这些因素包括充足的睡眠、确保锻炼和将压力降至最低。

The posture myth

姿势的神话

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.

尽管人们对姿势的信仰根深蒂固，但科学却在讲述一个完全不同的故事——而长期以来人们认为姿势是导致颈部疼痛的一个原因，现在这一说法面临着巨大的挑战。

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，最近一项针对1000多名青少年的高质量研究表明，脊柱姿势与颈部疼痛之间没有统计学上的显著关系，尽管在该研究中存在一些容易识别的姿势亚群，比如那些坐姿颓然或坐姿挺直的人。

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，人们坐的姿势因人而异，但似乎与疼痛无关。事实上，从这项特别的研究来看，青少年的“姿态”更多地与他们的情绪有关。

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.

研究还表明，改变你工作时的坐姿——通过改变你的工作站——所谓的“人体工程学干预”，对一个人是否会出现颈部疼痛几乎没有影响。

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

此外，几乎没有高质量的证据表明，人体工程学干预可以导致颈部疼痛患者更快的康复。

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.

在各种各样的研究中，研究人员跟踪了一组没有颈部疼痛的人，以及那些只偶尔经历颈部疼痛的人。这些人群中的一些人患上了麻烦的颈部疼痛，研究人员仔细观察了他们。

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.

那些颈部疼痛的人被发现睡眠质量和数量都较低，而且工作压力大。他们的体力活动也较少，情绪也很低落。

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.

他们的身体基本上承受着更大的压力，他们注意到脖子上有更多的“肌肉张力”。重要的是，这些都是在疼痛还没有发展出来之前。

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.

研究人员发现，即使在9岁的儿童中，疲劳和睡眠困难等症状，以及头痛、腹痛和情绪低落，都是监测4年的儿童每周颈部疼痛发生和持续的危险因素。

Sleep, exercise and relaxation

睡眠、锻炼和放松

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，有一个强壮的脖子，享受锻炼——即使只是每天走更多的步——都被证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.

这一点，以及确保我们不会被剥夺睡眠，减少身体活动和压力，将有望更成功地管理和预防颈部疼痛。

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。如果你发现自己在一个姿势上坐了很长时间，试着换一个姿势——避免脖子痛的关键之一就是在一天中频繁地换姿势。

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.

如果你确实有颈部疼痛，那就提前几个晚上，考虑做一些放松的事情——为什么不在午餐时间散散步呢?重要的是，你还需要停止担心你坐着或走路的方式，因为科学似乎表明，可能根本就没有所谓的“坏”姿势。