Posture and Forms of Middle Back Pain

In cases of middle back pain a common cause is posture. Postural dysfunctions occur in one of two forms, functional or structural.

With functional cases of dysfunction, essentially the body teaches itself postural instability. An example of a functionally derived problem would be; a person doing a lot of desk work trains their body to be head forward with slight cervical flexion, and a raised and forward shoulder. They train their body to do these things because they are adapting to the desk at which they sit and the computer that they work on. Over time the functional adjustments they’ve made appear permanent and cause pain. These particular functional adjustments add excessive curve to the upper back (hyperkyphosis). The hyperkyphosis is the cause of the middle back pain between the shoulder blades. The upper body weight is thrown forward piling weight on the front of the spine fatiguing and crunching it.

In structural cases, injury, disease or physical defect has changed the anatomy. The onset of structural conditions can take seconds, not hours, not years. For instance if someone were to fall on their head and shoulders, the fall may damage the front side of the spine at the height of the rib cage. If the front portion of the upper spine is smashed it will curve more than it is supposed to. As we’ve said, a condition where the upper spine is overly curved is called hyperkyphosis. Again the hyperkyphosis can cause serious pain in the middle of the back between the shoulder blades.

Treatment of structural and functional issue can differ a good deal. Functional issues are easier to deal with because they lack a component of initial tissue damage at the onset. A functional issue has a much greater chance of complete resolution through habit changes and voluntary action on the part of the sufferer. Structural issues cannot be fixed through voluntary action and habit changes because the structure has been altered. Both conditions will respond positively to exercise that engages the the musculature of the back. If pain and inflammation occur with either condition the regular application an arnica based cream will help abate the symptoms.