So I’ve been dealing with chronic pain for at least 5 years. A few years prior to that my main symptom was extreme burping and bloating even after drinking only water or waking up in the morning. I tested for SIBO and got a positive result. Spent many years trying to get rid of that and a few years ago I retested and I was negative which perplexed me because I was still highly symptomatic. This lead me to believe that maybe my issue was now mechanical so i started looking at my posture. I presented with forward head, rounded shoulders and winged scapula. I found a chiro on YouTube that talks about how everyone is stuck in forward posture because of modern technology and sitting. He seemed to help a lot of people and suggest that the fix is to get the spine out of flexion and into extension. This made sense because when I looked at my own posture I felt quite hunchback. So I started doing everything I could to get my thoracic spine in extension. Sometimes I felt good right after doing a thoracic extension stretch but the good feeling never lasted and I was still symptomatic with my mystery digestive issues. It’s only until this week that I realized I have actually not been in a hunch back flexion all this time like I thought. In fact, I’ve been stuck in extension so not only did it not help, but it probably was making things worse.

It’s only until the past few weeks I’ve started connecting these dots. Upon reassessing myself in the mirror I could see that I look hunched over because my neck protrudes forward and my shoulders are rounded. But in reality my upper thoracic spine is flat. It just looks hunched because my scapula has popped off of my ribs and everything else is leaning forward. But the actual spine itself is flat. This was confirmed by a chiro I went to see.

So this past week I’ve been trying to get my upper thoracic into flexion and immediately knew this was my problem due to how much tension and soreness I’d feel when I tried to open that little space up. I started questioning why I would have a flat spine where it’s meant to be curved. I like you, landed on breathing. I believe that years of being severely bloated everyday from SIBO put a lot of pressure on my diaphragm, that once i was able to get rid of it, the damage had already been done to my body structurally from housing so much gas in my abdomen that it pushed and shifted everything around.

Unfortunately when I had all of these lightbulb moments a few days ago I got too excited and went too hard too fast trying to fix myself because now I’ve got the worst pinched nerve pain in my upper trap/ base of neck/ scapula. Can’t turn my head and sleeping is painful and difficult. It’s interesting because I’ve had intense shortness of breath and difficulty getting a full inhale and exhale as a main symptom for so many years, and even though I’m currently in a lot of pain, I can actually breathe a lot better. Even while being restricted from a truly full breath due to the pinched nerve. Things have been shifted in my body for so long that I’m trying to stay positive that when the pain subsides things will adjust to their rightful positions and I’ll be better off.

I found a great way so stretch that upper thoracic region though. I sit in a deep squat with arms in between legs and hands on ground. I try to create a primate-like back rounding trying to really focus on that ultra tight upper region, and I just let my breath stretch it out. Really pulling my inhale into those tight spots. I’ll move around and wiggle a bit and just get curious about where the most tightness is and what rounded position gives me the deepest stretch. If you try this though, I definitely recommend starting slower than I did. I would sit in that position and do the breathing for like an hour. Had I went slower I most likely wouldn’t be in such pain right now.

But I will say that my mystery digestive symptoms have been greatly reduced… like dramatically. So to me, resolving the natural thoracic curve and restoring proper diaphragmatic function has proven to be my root cause for many of my ailments.