Your Posture is your window to your spine by Dr. Craig Brady

Posture, how does it affect your health?
As a child, my parents were always telling me to sit up straight! They never gave me a reason as to why? As times and roles have changed, I find myself correcting my parent’s posture from time to time. I can however explain why poor posture may adversely impact your health!

Good posture is the ear over the shoulder, the shoulder over the hips and the hips over the ankle in a vertical imaginary line. With our modern day life style and the stresses of life on the body, many of us do not have good posture.

Poor posture may often indicate the presence of vertebral subluxations or misalignments in your spine which may place pressure on the vital communication network, the nervous system. This interferes with the normal communication which occurs between the brain and all of the muscles, organs, tissues and cells of the body. Like a kinked garden hose, you are not going to get a good supply of water to your garden. If poor posture places pressure on your nervous system, you may not get the right messages to all the vital organs in your body. Not only may you not function as well as you should, you are more likely to also suffer also from back pain and neck pain as muscles easily fatigue holding the poor posture .B As well as placing pressure on the nervous system, poor posture may also compress vital organs such as the heart and lungs which may contribute to respiratory and or blood pressure issues.

Try this – bring your head as far forward as you can, simulating poor forward head posture, which a lot of the younger generation have these days exacerbated with the use of iphones and tablets!

Now in this position take a deep breath in. More than likely this is difficult to do! Now bring your head back over your shoulders and take a deep breath in. Much easier isn’t it?, there is less stress to your spine, nervous system and organs. It consumes a lot of energy having poor posture. The muscles, the heart and lungs also have to work harder. Breathing capacity can be reduced by up to 30%! For many people, correct posture is difficult to sustain. The reason being, that the spine in that area is subluxated or misaligned. If this is the case, you are definitely in need of Chiropractic care. Good posture promotes the natural position of your joints, muscles and organs and reduces the risk of wearing. Good posture can also help with self confidence!