How posture affects your health

by Dr Paula Moore, the Posture Doctorback laptops

What is Posture?

Posture is your body’s position against the effects of gravity and the everyday stresses and strains you place upon it. Human beings are bilaterians, meaning that we are symmetrical – your left side is the mirror image of your right (two kidneys, two eyes, two legs, two ears etc.). Symmetry is nature’s clever design.

What is Poor Posture?

We can think of ‘poor posture’ as a loss of ideal symmetry. A small loss is probably no great concern, but a large difference left to right and front to back will often result in muscular aches, back pain, joint stresses and strains and premature ageing, in the form of osteoarthritis.

Medical studies continue to show the direct correlation between poor posture and poor health, including reduced lung capacity, headaches, poor digestion, neurological changes and a decline in confidence and self-esteem.

Reduced Lung Capacity

One sign of bad posture is reduced lung capacity. Slouching can reduce your vital lung capacity significantly, affecting your body’s oxygen levels, specifically breathing, concentration and the ability to handle stress.

Headaches

Frequent headaches can be another sign of poor posture and in particular, forward head posture. A low grade constant muzzy head, sinus trouble and pain in the back of the head, are fairly typical due to the constant strain of overworking neck muscles and joints.

Poor Digestion

Sluggish digestion may also be an indicator of poor posture, as ongoing slouching begins to reduce your lung capacity and compress the internal organs and colon.

Musculo-skeletal and Neurological effects

Posture is critical to our musculo-skeletal and neurological health. Health care professionals understand the axiom: ‘Structure Dictates Function’. When the structure of the bony spine is altered by poor postural alignment, the function of the central nervous system, which coordinates the activity of the entire body, must certainly be altered.

Watch out for one-sided musculo-skeletal symptoms – pain occurring in one shoulder, one leg or one side of the low back – this may be a sign of a long-standing body imbalance.

Confidence and Self Esteem

How we hold ourselves is a reflection of how we feel about ourselves, so good posture can improve confidence. Not only do we look more attractive with upright posture but science is beginning to show us that our brains are more capable of positivity when in an upright stance.

Posture is the key to maintaining a healthy, youthful body and regaining good posture should be the goal of anyone who wants to slow the effects of ageing.

Dr Paula Moore (Posture Doctor)

With more than a decade of clinical experience in Chiropractic, Dr Paula Moore teaches posture correction in a truly unique manner. She in internationally trained, holds three degrees, is the author of ‘The Posture Doctor’ (£12.99 Panoma Press) and is a fellowship in the physics of posture correction.

Website:  www.posturevideos.com Twitter: @drpaulamoore Facebook: PostureDoctor

Read our article Back Pain.