Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A 'tall spine' is a healthy spine!

Poor posture is a common cause of a progression of spinal problems that start with intermittent back pain early in life.  If you stay in poor postural alignment for prolonged periods of time, pain will often become more prolonged and sometimes permanent. The essential problem is how the discs gradually narrow and degenerate so that there is a significant loss of height in the spine.

Posture Test
Try this right now:  Sit down in a chair looking in a mirror and notice how tall you are. Now sit up as straight as you are able... notice if you became taller, now round you back, noticing if you got shorter.

Remember this simple rule: A TALL SPINE IS A HEALTHY SPINE!  When your spine is shortened through rounding or flattening of your back... your discs are being compressed.

Here's another rule about spinal mechanics, if you keep your back rounded long enough... it will stay that way.  Like my mother said to me on more than one occasion while growing up: "If you keep making a face like that... it will stay that way!"  Well, that is how the spine works, plain and simple.


Sitting has become a 'way of life'
The three postures on the right side of the image above show common results of prolonged poor posture.  The point that I make to my back-pain patients is that thousands of years ago, our ancestors needed to be active, energetic and moving around (not sitting) simply to survive.  Since our backs were designed for upright function, with some bending, squatting, reaching, walking and running mixed in, the spine was certainly not designed for prolonged sitting.  Unfortunately sitting has become a way of life for many people.  Think about how much time you spend sitting... in a single day... eating breakfast, driving to work, at work, at lunch, driving home from work, dinner, watching television...  And for children, its not any better... with video games, email and the internet, some kids spend as much, if not more time sitting than adults do.

Why does my back hurt?
If I only had a dollar for every time I've heard that question...  The funny thing is that the answer is probably simpler than you think.  Poor posture in sitting is the #1 most common cause of back pain for many people, which can progress to worsening conditions such as disc bulging, disc herniation, sciatica, disc degeneration and eventually spinal stenosis.

Can I change my posture to help my back pain?
Visit the link above for an answer to this important question.

Contact a physical therapist to help you with your back problem or try a POSTURE BELT for Back Pain if you want to work on this at home.

1 comment:

  1. Ohhh.. now i know that there are four standing positions i thought it's only two.
    Thanks for proving me such a useful information about postural alignment.

    Chiropractic Bergen County

    ReplyDelete