How your posture could be affecting your health without you knowing it

Tessa Haanstra, owner of Chiropractie De Pijp in Amsterdam, explains why a poor posture could lead to serious health problems.

Did you know that your posture is more than just the way you look and that it could actually be affecting your health and quality of life? If you think having poor posture is not a serious health problem, keep reading.

Postural problems could negatively influence your health

Research shows that 90 percent of the population has postural problems that will negatively influence their health. If these problems are left uncorrected, they usually get worse over time.

Your posture is the way your spine holds you upright. Unlike what a lot of people believe, your spine holds your body upright - not your muscles! Of course, having strong muscles helps support an already good posture, but it doesn’t create one.

If you already have a bad posture, you can try and strengthen your muscles as much as you want, but doing so won’t permanently fix your postural problems.

How to determine if you have postural problems

Let’s look at the key to an optimal posture: your spine. When your spine is properly aligned, you should be able to stand and sit upright without any effort. The best way to determine if you have a poor posture is to stand up in front of a mirror, breathe in, breathe out, relax and let your body slump.

If you don’t notice a difference, you might still be doing ok. If you notice that your head and shoulders go forward and that your posture collapses, you have postural problems. Other signs are an inability to sit or stand without pain or discomfort, and pain or fatigue after sleeping.

The connection between postural problems and your health

So, what is the connection between your posture and your health? As you now know, your posture depends on the alignment of your spine. Your spine protects your spinal cord, which makes up your central nervous system together with your brain.

Your nervous system controls all functions of your body. Your brain sends messages that flow through your spinal cord out to your spinal nerves, going to every organ, tissue and cell in your body.

Spinal bones can misalign due to stressors in your everyday life, such as falls on your back, prolonged sitting, or standing and sleeping in bad positions.

When this happens it can cause interference in the messages that flow from your brain to your body and back. Since your body needs 100 percent communication to function optimally, this interference can have consequences for your health.

Spinal bones that have misaligned in a forward direction create the biggest problems for your body. Your body is capable of self-correcting misalignments in all other directions, but when a spinal bone moves forward, there are no muscles to pull it back.

As a result, your spine loses the leverage to keep your body upright, and your posture collapses forward. When your posture collapses forward, on top of putting stress on the spinal nerves and interfering with the nervous system function this way, it also creates stress on your spinal cord and brain stem.

Health problems linked to poor posture

Poor posture is linked to a variety of health problems. Some examples are neck and back pain, headaches, spinal degeneration, arthritis, sciatica, herniated discs, chronic fatigue, respiratory issues, concentration problems, and on top of that, a decreased lifespan by up to 14 years!

Last but not least, a poor posture is also linked to a poor mental state and a decreased level of self-confidence. However, most of these problems are late signs of postural dysfunction.

Usually, people have been aware of their bad posture for a long time, and problems like the ones described above could have been prevented.

Chiropractie De Pijp in Amsterdam uses a unique method that is guaranteed to improve posture. This way you will be able to look better, feel better, and move better.

If you think you might have posture-related problems, you are welcome to contact Chiropractie De Pijp for a free 20-minute consultation during the month of April to discuss your specific health concerns.