How Poor Posture Affects your Health

Lets face it, everyone either has knows they have poor posture or knows someone very close to them that does.  It is a nationwide problem and most people take it for granted!  What is not realized is that poor posture can have a devastating affect on your health and if not corrected can lead to many chronic problems in the future.

Poor Posture and Neck, Shoulder, and Low Back Pain

Poor posture is commonly seen in the lower neck region and lower back.  In the neck region it is characterized by a forward head, aka “vulture neck”, also called forward head carriage or anterior head carriage.  In the lower back it can be characterized by a curve that goes toward your belly button too much, or too little.  Since your muscles attach to your bones, any deviation from the normal posture forces your supporting muscles to work harder to keep you from falling over.  This is why poor posture commonly results in tension or sore muscles in the neck or shoulder region and or lower back region.  Does this sound familiar to you?

Poor Posture and Headaches

Remember that muscles attach to bones?  If your poor posture is causing your neck muscles to continuously tense up, it can lead to headaches due to a reduced flow of blood to the head.

Poor Posture and Arthritis

Since poor posture is causing the increased muscle tension and since the muscles are attached to your bones, the joints of the affected muscles loose the normal flexibility since the muscles are holding them in place.  This is when a joint becomes “stuck” or subluxated as chiropractors would call it.  Loss of joint mobility begins the arthritic or joint degeneration process.  This can begin with a reduction of the natural curves of the spine.  Soon the bones will actually begin to deform due to the repeated stress of the musculature.  The bone deformation degenerates your joints and spinal discs and decreases the space where your nerves exit your spine.  The deformation of the bones and joints is exactly what arthritis is and once your bone has changed there is not getting it back to normal, even with surgery!  The most common spinal vertebrae to become degenerated or arthritic in the spine are C6 and L4, the sites most commonly associated with poor posture.

Poor Posture and Nerve Damage

Once the bones and joints become deformed, it can greatly impact the nerves that exit the spine causing them to degenerate.  Whenever there is nerve degeneration, it is always linked with joint degeneration.  What most people think of when they think of nerve damage is a pinched nerve.  While it is possible that the nerve is actually being compressed by a bone or disc, it is not usually the case.  Instead it is usually an increase in pressure that is inflaming the nerve, but it is basically the same idea.  A very common example of nerve damage due to poor posture is carpal tunnel syndrome.  Most people think of carpal tunnel syndrome as coming from the wrist, which is where it may be coming from.  What they may not realize is that the median nerve (the nerve associated with carpal tunnel syndrome) can also be injured in the elbow, shoulder, or neck, causing carpal tunnel symptoms.

Poor Posture and Organ Dysfunction

As mentioned above, nerve degeneration is linked with joint degeneration.  Joint degeneration is another word for arthritis.  A famous study done in the 20th century  followed autopsies of people that died of chronic conditions called the Windsor Autopsies.  It was found that in 97% of all people that died from a due to an organ problem (ie. heart disease or lung disease), the nerves that powered those organs were degenerated.  When the nerves were traced back to the spinal joints, the joints were arthritic.

In a more recent study done in the 21st century, it was found that individuals with forward head carriage (poor posture of the neck and upper back) were 3 times more likely to die from a heart attack due to arteriosclerosis (plaque in the arteries).  In general, the nerves that power the heart are located around T2 or the second thoracic vertebrae.  If you have forward head posture, that vertebrae is definitely affected.

Getting Better Posture

While maintaining a good posture is not the secret to a healthy lifestyle and long life, it is surely a valuable component to health and wellness in general.  There are many things you can do to resolve poor posture including yoga, massage, proper exercises, and of course chiropractic.

Related Articles:
What is Good Posture?
What is Vulture Neck?