Your Posture is Killing You

Most people have poor posture and just assume that it doesn’t impact them.  It is just something that happens and they will deal with it later.  They don’t know when it started and often think that exercise and stretching will fix it.  This blog will examine where posture comes from and how it’s impacting you.

One of the most common misconceptions about posture is that I can just sit straighter and it will go away.  Poor posture is a result of poor habits over a lifetime.  It starts when you are little and put in front of a t.v.  It continues in today’s society when you are sitting in front of a computer, texting, driving, sitting in chairs at work, at home etc.  Once you start to lean forward, flex your head in front of your shoulders, gravity takes over.  Now gravity is pulling you down and your postural muscles are struggling to counteract this.  Over a short period of time, in some cases weeks the nerve system learns that this is normal posture and starts to reinforce this pattern.  If nothing is done to counteract this posture then our nerve system stores this image as normal and then we battle it for the rest of our lives.  We try to sit straighter, work out, change our chairs, and still have poor posture.  Chiropractor’s and our office Discover Life Chiropractic are postural specialists.  We work with the nerve system to reprogram your nerve system back to its factory settings (head over the shoulders when viewed from the side, head over pelvis when viewed from the front).  With a combination of chiropractic adjustments and postural exercises we can retrain your nerve system back to proper posture.  Then we provide a support system called wellness care because you are going back to the lifestyle that created this so patients get periodic check ups to make sure they are staying at optimal posture alignment.

Why is posture important?  Here are some stats from our posture class we teach.  You are 50% more likely to die sooner if you have a jutting head posture, the more height you lose in life the faster you die, if you lose 3cm then you increase your risk of dying 64% and heart attack risk 43%, you increase your risk of stroke, decrease your oxygen intake and since your brain uses 20% of your oxygen you negatively affect it, potentially leading to dementia etc.  At Discover Life Chiropractic we have patients in their 70’s regaining height, decreasing blood pressure, gaining mental clarity,  improving posture scans, and normalizing paraspinal muscle activity.  We continually monitor these tests to make sure you are maximizing your ability to live a longer more productive life.