Our focus this month is on posture.
Every day we see patients with terrible posture.
Some don’t even notice, some are embarrassed, some are oddly proud of how bad it has become and some feel guilty (they must be the ones who had nuns or yoga teachers nagging them).
Why is it so important?
Posture is vitally important and here’s why:
- 90% of the stimulation and nutrition to your brain is generated by the movement of your spine.
- Poor posture decreases the vital capacity of your lungs.
- Hunching decreases nerve flow to your stomach, liver, pancreas and gallbladder.
- Flattening of the neck curve decreases endorphin production which causes an increase in pain, discomfort and depression.
- Forward head posture generates headaches, neck pain, ruptured discs and arthritis.
Posture Screening
Since posture is a window into your overall health and vitality, the main objective of the posture screening is to show how your brain deals with stress.
Checking posture is more important than having your vision or blood pressure checked.
Ideal posture from a side view would be the skull lined up with the neck. From the back the shoulders and hips need to be aligned. Since the head weighs as much as a bowling ball, a forward head will cause the muscles, ligaments and tendons in the neck and shoulders to be constantly tight. It also keeps you in fight or flight mode all the time.
The posture screening identifies areas in the posture that need to be addressed and improved.
After a posture screening is done we email a detailed report to the patient so that we can work together on a plan to improve it.
Let us do a computerized posture scan for your family and friends.
As you can see in the pictures above, it’s only a little bit of adjustment to improve your posture.
It just takes a few minutes and may save so much time in the future.
I hope to see you soon,
Dr. Julia Keiser
