The Health Effects of Bad Posture
By Sara Butler
Posture is about more than how you look. The reason you may get a lecture from your chiropractor about your posture is because of the impact it can have on the rest of your health if you make a habit of doing it wrong! Here are just a few of the health effects that poor posture can have on you.
Jaw Pain and Headaches
When you tilt or lean your head forward when you’re sitting down, this can cause you to clench your jaw. Clenching your jaw is bad for your teeth and it can cause tightening of the facial muscles and the jaw muscles, buying you a one-way ticket to Headache Town. If you continue to hold this posture, then over time it can start to impact your jaw joint, also called the temporomandibular joint. This can lead to much larger problems in your jaw, neck, and even your upper back.
Back Pain and Shoulder Pain
If you find yourself slouching a lot (are you doing it right now??) it can lead to muscle tension and pain in your upper back and shoulders. On the flipside, if you overcorrect your posture and pull your shoulders back, this can create muscle tension, pain, and stiffness in your back. Shoulder pain and bad posture can eventually lead to health conditions that can permanently round your shoulders and even contribute to disc and joint degeneration in your spine.
Lung Function
If you think about your skeleton like the frame of a house where your organs live, it can put a different perspective on how you view posture. If the frame of your house isn’t as supportive as it should be, it can start to impact the function of the things inside, and your lungs are one of them.
Hunching over or leaning forward too much can impact the capacity of your lungs – as much as 30 percent! If your lungs aren’t performing as they should, then it can have an impact on the function of your brain and your heart since they aren’t getting as much oxygen as they need. This leads to cloudy thinking, shortness of breath and maybe even more serious problems such as cardiovascular disease.
If you want to learn more about the ways you can try to correct your poor posture, discuss it with your chiropractor during your next visit to The Joint Chiropractic! Your chiropractor will be happy to give you suggestions to help keep you on the straight and narrow!