Good posture is a habit that will help your body to fight disease. Optimum health is almost impossible without good posture.
Benefits of Good Posture
The body has 206 bones almost all of which are involved with other bones in movable joints. As the bones and joints move, fluids bathe the tissues, the lymph flows around every cell providing nutrition and removing waste. For every joint to have equal benefit the body must move in a balanced way.
Someone with poor posture will not move in a balanced way; there may be more movement on the left side and less movement on the right, for example. Many people sit in such a way that the natural curves of their spines become flattened which not only reduces the movement between some of the vertebrae, it also reduces the ability of the spine to act as a shock absorber.
A normal spine
The normal spine is seen from the left side in the illustration (click here). It has three important curves; the neck is curved in a gentle arc so that--starting at the skull--the vertabrae curve forward slightly to the left. Proceeding down the spine to the chest, the spine curves to the right, then further down it curves again to the left. Each of these three curves cause the spine to act like a shock-absorber.
The Effects of Bad posture
As a child you may have been told to stand up straight and pull your shoulders back. That was good advice. If we allow the shoulders to slump forward, we increase the curvature of the thoracic spine adding pressure on the disks and increasing the chance of a herniated disk--what some people call a slipped disk.
Slumping into a comfy chair where the hips aren't fully back will lead to lower back problems. I often see teenagers actually sitting on the backs of their hips as if they were lying flat on their backs before raising their head and chest to watch TV. This extreme posture destroys all three spinal curves at the same time; the lower spinal curve is flattened, the thoracic spine is curved too much and finally the neck is straightened.
Young people are so flexible that they are able to sit in incredibly unhealthy positions and still feel well afterwards. But what happens is that over time the ligaments, tendons and other connecting tissues in the spine are over-stretched and the protection of the spinal curves are lost.
Damaged Nerve Supply
Nerves exit the spinal cord between each two vertebrae. If the vertebrae are not in a natural position the nerves will be slightly compressed and nerve function will be diminished. To whatever extent the nerve function is diminished, organs will malfunction. Since all the organs in the body depend on this nerve supply, any disease can result.
When the spine is misshapened, either through the curve-destroying postures described above or through accidents, the nerve supply to the various organs is affected. Restoring the three natural curves and correcting side-to-side misalignments is what chiropractic is about. Unfortunately correcting the curves is as time-consuming as straightening teeth. Just as the orthodontist puts braces on the teeth and sees the patient regularly to make small adjustments until the teeth are straight and settled into their new position, the chiropractor must also see the patient numerous times in order to align the vertebrae which tend to return to their old position after each visit. Thankfully the vertebrae eventually settle in and the chiropractor then asks the patient to come in on a monthly or quarterly schedule to have the alignment rechecked.
People often start going to a chiropractor in their 30s or 40s. It's usually around forty that we start to feel the aches and pains from the bad posture we had as a teenager or from an accident that we didn't do anything about because the pain went away after a few days.
How to sit
Look again at the diagram of the spine and imagine a healthy naked person standing and facing left. You should see a nicely rounded bottom behind them and a gentle lower-back curve curving to the left. The vertebrae of their chest curve to the right in another gentle curve. Finally their neck arcs to the left and meets their skull.
Now imagine that same person sitting down while maintaining all those curves exactly as if they are standing up. The only difference is their legs are now bent at the knees so their bottom is on a chair. They do not slump into the chair. They do not even touch the back of the chair.
This is how to sit, exactly as if you are standing straight--shoulders back just like your mother told you--only your legs are bent at the knees.
Benefits of Good Posture
The body has 206 bones almost all of which are involved with other bones in movable joints. As the bones and joints move, fluids bathe the tissues, the lymph flows around every cell providing nutrition and removing waste. For every joint to have equal benefit the body must move in a balanced way.
Someone with poor posture will not move in a balanced way; there may be more movement on the left side and less movement on the right, for example. Many people sit in such a way that the natural curves of their spines become flattened which not only reduces the movement between some of the vertebrae, it also reduces the ability of the spine to act as a shock absorber.
A normal spine
The normal spine is seen from the left side in the illustration (click here). It has three important curves; the neck is curved in a gentle arc so that--starting at the skull--the vertabrae curve forward slightly to the left. Proceeding down the spine to the chest, the spine curves to the right, then further down it curves again to the left. Each of these three curves cause the spine to act like a shock-absorber.
The Effects of Bad posture
As a child you may have been told to stand up straight and pull your shoulders back. That was good advice. If we allow the shoulders to slump forward, we increase the curvature of the thoracic spine adding pressure on the disks and increasing the chance of a herniated disk--what some people call a slipped disk.
Slumping into a comfy chair where the hips aren't fully back will lead to lower back problems. I often see teenagers actually sitting on the backs of their hips as if they were lying flat on their backs before raising their head and chest to watch TV. This extreme posture destroys all three spinal curves at the same time; the lower spinal curve is flattened, the thoracic spine is curved too much and finally the neck is straightened.
Young people are so flexible that they are able to sit in incredibly unhealthy positions and still feel well afterwards. But what happens is that over time the ligaments, tendons and other connecting tissues in the spine are over-stretched and the protection of the spinal curves are lost.
Damaged Nerve Supply
Nerves exit the spinal cord between each two vertebrae. If the vertebrae are not in a natural position the nerves will be slightly compressed and nerve function will be diminished. To whatever extent the nerve function is diminished, organs will malfunction. Since all the organs in the body depend on this nerve supply, any disease can result.
When the spine is misshapened, either through the curve-destroying postures described above or through accidents, the nerve supply to the various organs is affected. Restoring the three natural curves and correcting side-to-side misalignments is what chiropractic is about. Unfortunately correcting the curves is as time-consuming as straightening teeth. Just as the orthodontist puts braces on the teeth and sees the patient regularly to make small adjustments until the teeth are straight and settled into their new position, the chiropractor must also see the patient numerous times in order to align the vertebrae which tend to return to their old position after each visit. Thankfully the vertebrae eventually settle in and the chiropractor then asks the patient to come in on a monthly or quarterly schedule to have the alignment rechecked.
People often start going to a chiropractor in their 30s or 40s. It's usually around forty that we start to feel the aches and pains from the bad posture we had as a teenager or from an accident that we didn't do anything about because the pain went away after a few days.
How to sit
Look again at the diagram of the spine and imagine a healthy naked person standing and facing left. You should see a nicely rounded bottom behind them and a gentle lower-back curve curving to the left. The vertebrae of their chest curve to the right in another gentle curve. Finally their neck arcs to the left and meets their skull.
Now imagine that same person sitting down while maintaining all those curves exactly as if they are standing up. The only difference is their legs are now bent at the knees so their bottom is on a chair. They do not slump into the chair. They do not even touch the back of the chair.
This is how to sit, exactly as if you are standing straight--shoulders back just like your mother told you--only your legs are bent at the knees.
