Most people know that adopting the correct posture is a critical component to achieving good spinal health, but many people are worryingly unaware of the other important bodily functions that are influenced by posture. Blood pressure, headaches, pulse rate and lung capacity are among the physiological functions most commonly affected. Breathing and hormonal production are also at risk of being influenced.
City Chiropractic Clinic uses a painless procedure called a Digital Posture Analysis to accurately assess patients’ postures. Using the latest digital technology, two photos are taken of the patient, one from the front and one from the side. These images are then fed into a computer which quickly evaluates the patients’ postures. By using sophisticated mathematics, Digital Posture Analysis is able to accurately tell these Stoke on Trent chiropractors if their patients’ postures are adding any extra pressure on their spines.
Quick, painless and sophisticated diagnostic checks like this could potentially help to discover the cause of many patients’ back pain and go a long way into providing accurate corrective treatments.
But how do you know if your posture could be on its way to causing you future pain and discomfort?
1: A Change in Your Appearance
Quite often, people with poor posture tend to slouch and tilt their heads forward. You or those around you may also notice a “rounded” appearance in your upper back and arching of your lower back. All of these positions can irritate the natural curves of your spine.
But there is also another type of poor posture that occurs when your position becomes too upright. This may mean holding your head behind your centre of gravity and standing with your shoulder blades pulled back. You may also notice that your lower back is arched and your knees are often ‘locked’.
Other visible warning signs of poor posture include more wear on one shoe than the other and an irregular walking pattern. You may also notice that your head seems to tilt to one side, the angle of your neck is not vertical or your upper body tilts when you are in a sitting position.
2: You Have Painful Symptoms
Poor posture places an increased amount of pressure on your back and shoulders and can cause symptoms of neck and back pain to appear. But back and neck pain aren’t the only warning signs that your posture may be having a negative effect on your health. A problem within your skeleton system, such as poor posture, may cause pain in the hips, knees and ankles and the more pressure your alignment takes, the more susceptible to muscles strains you become.
Innovative evaluation tools such as the Digital Posture Analysis are often invaluable in correctly diagnosing the cause of certain types of pain. And it certainly makes you wonder where the real source of your problems may be coming from…