Chiropractic and postural correction

Imagine the following two people; The first is a 75-year-old lady who walks 30 minutes every day at a brisk pace, looking straight ahead. The second is another 75-year-old lady, hunched over and walking slowly with a hesitant step.

How do you think good posture affects your health?

To fully understand the impact of good posture on health, keep this principle in mind: “Structure = Function”. Every living being (and even object) has a design of its own, based on how to accomplish a specific task. The same principle applies to your spine. When our vertebral alignment is optimal, it allows:

1. The vertebrae to move without restriction according to normal biomechanics;
2. Better load distribution on the vertebrae (on the articular pillars and not on the intervertebral discs);
3. To be able to stand straight while looking forward without effort.

However, this natural posture is currently being put to the test by the many bad postures that we adopt on a daily basis. Think about it; the car to get to the office, the computer for 8 hours at work, the cell phone during breaks in the office and the tablet to relax in the evening when you get home… Carefully observe your posture during these activities. How is it? Probably far from being optimal, let’s be real; rounded back, rounded shoulders with forward head carriage. The perfect combination to develop that unwanted buffalo hump!

Postural assessment; an indispensable tool for the chiropractor

In humans, poor posture is often a reflection of the overall health state (physical and emotional) of the person. Furthermore, several studies show links between posture and a wide range of health conditions, both physical and emotional. Depression and fatigue (1) are conditions largely linked to poor posture, among others. Physically speaking, spinal misalignment is likely to lead to accelerated degeneration of spinal structures (2) as well as pain and loss of functional abilities (3). Several conditions such as headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain and trapezius pain are very common for people with poor posture. For the trained eye of our chiropractors, the visual assessment of your posture is therefore an essential tool to assess your state of neuro-vertebral health. À l’aide d’imagUsing diagnostic imaging (X-rays), our chiropractors are able to adequately analyze your posture and thus target the problem areas of your spine, if needed.

Patient chiropractic report

Once the X-rays have been analyzed by your chiropractor, he will meet with you to help you understand your condition. During this meeting, you will get your diagnosis as well as the appropriate recommendations for your problem. This appointment is essentially focused on understanding your problem and is also intended as an information session to give you tools and advice, applicable on a day to day basis, in order to guide you towards better healing. In light of these explanations, a decision will then be made by you and your chiropractor together in order to initiate the appropriate care.

Treatments

Using a chiropractic approach that represents the reference in the field of postural correction, the Chiropractic Biophysics (CBP) technique, your chiropractor is able to provide the best treatments available to restore the optimal alignment of your spine. Treatments are a combination of chiropractic adjustments, neurological rehabilitation,in clinic tractions as well as home postural rehabilitation exercises. This is a completely personalized process, which should be carefully tailored to each person’s abilities.

Prognosis

As each case is unique, the prognosis varies greatly from one individual to another. As a general rule, the more chronic the postural problem and the greater it is, the more time and effort it will take before regaining normal alignment. This is why it is essential to favor a preventive approach by adopting beneficial postural habits daily before reaching a point of no return.

Do not wait to develop chronic symptoms before consulting; the earlier the problem is addressed in its development, the easier it is to correct and the less you will be incapacitated by it.

References :

1 C. Wilkes et al. / J. Behav. Ther. & Exp. Psychiatry. 54 (2017) 143-149.

2 Li et al. Journal of Pain Research 2017:10 2041–2045.

3 Antonelli-Incalzi et al. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2007 June ; 19(3): 207–212.