Ergonomic Tips (10/01)
Posture from the ground up
by John R. Chait D.C., drchait@home.com
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Good Posture
All your life, you have been told to "stand up straight. watch your posture." Hopefully, you have taken that advice. You will look better AND have more energy if you do.
Actually, there is much more to posture than most people realize. Your posture is the position of your ligaments, muscles, and spinal bones, and the condition they are in. Your spine is the most important factor affecting your posture. In order to have the best possible posture (and health), your spine has to be in the best possible condition.
That means that-from a rear view your spine should be perfectly straight, with each of the 24 spinal bones stacked precisely on top of each other (see figure 1). Looking at the spine from the side, you should see three curves, each having a 60? arc (see figure 2). It's been observed in nature, engineering, physics and geometry that a 60? arc offers the strongest defense against the destructive forces of gravity and motion.
Spinal Misalignment
Any spinal imbalance, where one or more bones have shifted out of position, will cause areas of the spinal column to work harder in order to compensate for the area that is out of balance. This leads to spinal degeneration.
Sitting at you computer for long hours can significantly contribute to spinal misalignment.
The Three Phases of Spinal Degeneration
When your spinal column is misaligned it is only a matter of time before gravity and motion take their toll on your health. As time passes, your spinal column, if neglected, will progressively get worse and progress to a higher level of degeneration. Unfortunately, this can often go on for years without any outward physical symptoms.
In PHASE 1, there is a loss of normal curve in one or more areas of your spinal column. This means your nerves are being restricted, choking off your vital life energy to your body. Soft tissue damage begins and affects your (joints, discs, nerves and posture.
In PHASE 2, the damage noticed in the first phase is more advanced. There is a great deal of decay, disc narrowing, and bone spurs. Postural changes are much worse.
In PHASE 3, all of the damage noted in the previous two levels is again obvious. In addition, postural imbalance is severe and motion is limited because of joint immobilization caused by bone fusion, nerve atrophy, and permanent scar tissue. Chiropractic care works to realign the position of the spine to prevent the misalignment and imbalance that leads to spinal degeneration. :
Copyright 2001. This article is from the October 2001 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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