Poor Posture: How it Affects You

You may have gotten used to the fact that you have poor posture. You sit in a slouch position because it feels uncomfortable to sit up. When you stand up, you walk with your shoulders raised or your back slightly rolled. You accommodate the issue by resting when necessary or repositioning your body once you feel pain. You may wonder what’s the big deal. You can continue like this. But, at PCH Chiropractic, we’d like to take a moment to explain why addressing posture is crucial.

Stressing Your Body

That pain you feel in your lower back just might be the result of your poor posture. When you don’t sit or walk with your spine in perfect alignment, you stress the ligaments, tendons, and muscles in your back. It even affects the nerves, blood flow, and how your brain communicates with your whole body. You’ll then feel the wrath in your neck and back.

Possibly Will Cause Osteoarthritis

When you have poor posture, the soft tissue and other areas of your body feel unnecessary stress and pressure. You’re causing additional wear and tear on your joints and soft tissue. Having poor posture can even contribute to conditions like osteoarthritis, which stems from wear and tear on your joints.

Potentially Will Contribute to Decrease Blood Flow to the Brain.

When you have poor posture and continuously sit or stand a particular way, you’re putting your body in an unnatural position. It causes your spine to move forward, ultimately leading to your spine in your neck changing shape and this can easily affect blood flow to the brain. This can lead to decreased oxygen to the brain as well as stress on the brain stem.

You probably heard from your parents not to keep looking a certain way because your face will freeze that way. While this isn’t necessarily true, your body will remain that way if you continue with poor posture.

Could Affect Your Breathing

Your lungs are in your chest, as you’re already well aware. But, did you realize that your poor posture could also limit the amount of space your lungs have when they expand into the chest cavity? Ultimately, this will limit how much air you can take in at once.

May Contribute to Incontinence

When you slouch, you’re increasing the amount of pressure on the abdomen. Then, in return, you’ll experience pressure on your bladder, making it more difficult for you to hold in urine. The pelvic floor muscle also will struggle to hold up against the pressure. Slouching particularly contributes to stress incontinence — when you urinate when you cough or laugh.

Might Have Heartburn Because of It

When you are slouching, it can also put pressure on your upper digestive tract and interfere with producing the right amount of acids and other factors that enable digestion.   Slouching after you eat can cause stomach acid to flow in the opposing direction. Not only will you experience heartburn, but if you have heartburn already, you could be making it worse by slouching.

How We Help

While you can adjust yourself to ease some of the pressure on your body, it won’t help in the long run if you continue to have poor posture and merely try to adjust to it to stop the pain.

At PCH Chiropractic, we get to the root of your posture problem and reduce the pain associated with it.  Most of the time, you are not even aware of the impact your posture has on your health. In most cases, they can’t be corrected consciously, but also need help to stretch the ligaments and muscles to keep the optimal posture. Plus, in the process, we can also reduce your risk of the aforementioned problems, along with others that are associated with it. We’ll create a customized treatment program for you.

Part of your treatment will include lifestyle advice, such as ways to reduce slouching when you’re sitting at a desk for a prolonged period if you have an office job.

PCH Chiropractic, serving Capistrano Beach, San Clemente, and the nearby region, stresses the importance of posture on your spinal health and even overall health. At our practice, our goal is to help you with your overall health along with your back pain.

Book an appointment at our office today if you have poor posture that’s affecting your life or are worried it one day will. Call us at 949-503-2691, or use our online contact form.