Northwestern Peak Performance Health Care Ltd

How does Posture have to to with your health?

The last 15 years have been the worst in history on our posture. Computers, texting, backpacks, compact car seats – add that to each person’s accumulated thousands of childhood injuries, hundreds of sport injuries, slips strains and a few car accidents, and we have a new epidemic.

Have you heard of FHP? The majority of our population right now has FHP. Go check your spouse, check your children, and your friends and most will have this condition called FHP (Forward Head Posture). When you stand or sit, from the side, the center of the shoulder should line up with the hole of the ear. If it’s forward, you have FHP. If left uncorrected, your shoulders will then start to roll forward and eventually if uncorrected you will develop the “hump” at the top of the back. (The medical name for this is a Dowenger’s Hump).

“The more mechanically distorted a person is, the less energy available for healing, metabolism, and thought". - Roger Sperry Ph.D. Nobel Prize in Physiology Medicine

The unsightly image is not as ugly as what’s below the skin. Forward Head Posture (FHP), does its most damage by compressing the spinal cord, brain stem and other nerves. These are the nerves that go to the heart, lungs, thyroid, down the arm into the hands and control vital organs and muscles.

A banana has a curve – that is normal. If you forcefully straighten out that curve what would happen? It would crush the banana! The same thing happens when you get Forward Head Posture – it forcefully straightens out your normal neck curve and crushes your spinal cord.

"Posture affects and moderates every physiologic function from breathing to hormonal production, spinal pain, headache, mood, blood pressure, pulse and lung capacity ." - American Journal of Pain Management

The damaging effects of forward head posture in most cases will not always show up as neck pain or upper back pain as you might think. It can actually show up years later as headaches, sinus problems, sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, fatigue, high blood pressure, back pain, shoulder pain, fibromyalgia and many other symptoms. And what is the typical treatment for these? If you guessed drugs, you are right. Drugs that will make you more comfortable as your health continues do decline because the underlying problem has not been addressed.

Not only did Mayo Clinic coin the term FHP, it dedicated their entire November newsletter to covering the topic. Spine Journal in 2005 published a study which concluded “the mortality of patients can be predicted by their posture. The more severe the hunching forward of the mid-back and neck, the sooner the patient died.”

Two years later a similar study, published in the Journal of Geriatrics, confirmed these findings.
We learn to eat right and we are taught to exercise, but what is commonly missed in healthcare is the maintenance of the spine. In order to maintain your spine, you need to have regular adjustments and spinal rehab to line it up and keep it stable and strong.

We have been taught to maintain our teeth. We’ve been taught to maintain our car. We’ve been taught to maintain our hygiene. Life is maintenance. So how is it possible, if that maintenance is so important, that we have not been taught to maintain our spine, nervous system and posture? The research has proven it will determine if you get pain, disease, live long or die prematurely.

The most frightening thing about FHP is that it is silent. FPH does serious nerve damage silently and the symptoms are felt mostly at distant organs and muscles. Few health professionals make the connection.

The good news is that research is starting to catch up with health care. Chiropractic’s primary goal has always been to align and maintain the spine, nervous system and posture. Though in the last 15 years a very powerful spinal and postural rehab program has emerged. The Pettibon spinal molding rehabilitation system works to restore spinal alignment and healthy posture, removing years of accumulated injuries and reversing the inevitable postural strains we get each day. Our patients have been thrilled. We see every day what this new research states, that If you improve your posture you will improve your health. Our clinical team has gone for advanced training on the Pettibon system and we are seeing results correcting FHP and restoring spinal alignment in months which used to take years. Come in and we’d love to give you a show-and-tell on this exciting new addition to our center, or go on line at www.Pettibonsystem.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 9:08 am and is filed under Pettibon Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.