How Poor Posture Misaligns Your Spine

In this health video you will learn how poor posture misaligns your spine.

Raena Morgan: Hello, I’m visiting with Dr. JaDean Anderson who’s a chiropractor. Habits, things like posture do they really affect your spine and cause misalignments? Dr. Anderson: Yes, they’re very much so do. In the cases of people that sit at a desk or at a computer station for long periods of time they’ll tend to notice that as they’re sitting there, the longer they’re sitting there, the more they kind of slouch in their chair and they come forward and their head slides forward even more, that puts more strain on the muscles and their spine. So it’s best to sit straight as possible to keep a straight line between your head and your hips while you’re sitting and that takes more stress out of the muscles for trying to keep you upright and once again, it’s just a repetitive stress of sitting there for a long periods of time and your body starts to breakdown a little bit because it fatigues. So the better posture you have the less fatigue your muscles would be and the better your spine will be able to stay in alignment. Raena Morgan: When the head comes forward that pulls the neck out of alignment? Dr. Anderson: Yes. Lots of times when the head comes forward more it takes more energy and more effort for the muscles to be able to keep the head upright. How I explained it to people is if you have a weight in your hand and you keep it closer to your body, it’s easier as opposed to you bringing it further away from your body it’s harder to hold it up. So the same thing with your head or the further your’ head starts to slide forward with your bad posture, the more your muscles have to work, the more stress and strain it is on your lower neck. Raena Morgan: That’s a very good analogy of holding something close to you. It’s like your head. What about getting up and walking around or just practicing some good posture. Dr. Anderson: Yes. What I recommend to people that are doing jobs in a seated position for a long periods of time is to get off and take breaks even a five-minute break where they’re up and they’re walking and moving a little bit just to kind of reset their body for the next session of sitting down and working. Raena Morgan: Sitting is a hard work isn’t it? Dr. Anderson: Yes, it is. Raena Morgan: Thank you Dr. Anderson.