Stand Tall: The Surprising Health Risks of Poor Posture

 In this episode of the Stance for Health podcast, Dr. Rodney and Karen Wirth explore the critical role posture plays in overall health. 

They delve into the neurology of posture and discuss the evidence linking poor posture with increased mortality rates, especially in cases of kyphosis. The hosts offer practical advice on how to maintain good posture, emphasizing the importance of awareness and small, consistent changes. 

They also highlight the harmful effects of technology on posture and the need for regular posture scans, likening posture correction to the long-term process of wearing braces for dental alignment. 

Transcript

Dr. Rodney: Welcome to Stance for Health podcast with Dr. Rodney and Karen Wirth, where becoming healthy is not complicated. Control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age. I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor and Karen is an author, speaker, and longevity coach. We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your stance for health.

One of my favorite topics is posture because of what we can do here at Stance. Do you want to tell us more?

Karen: We're going to talk today about posture and many of you may not know that Dr. Rodney is a posture neurologist. The methodology by which he adjusts and the balance and all of these things.

So they've become such second nature to us that we haven't talked about them because we feel like we're just on a cycle repeating over and over the same thing. But define good posture.

Dr. Rodney: Good posture is simply as you look in a particular plane at someone from the side, an imaginary line, let's say, that extends from the ears down through the shoulder, basically the seam on the shoulder, and then down to where the elbow bends down to the hip, also known as the acetabulum or greater trochanter. That's fancy for the hip bone, down to the fibula, also known as the bone that doesn't bear weight. It lies about bearing weight.Then all the way down to that malleolus, also known as the ankle.

Karen: What you've just described is what we give every health partner that comes in. It's a posture scan. And the bottom line is the posture is your position in which you hold your body upright against gravity, whether you're standing, sitting, or lying down.

Dr. Rodney: That line that I just spoke of, that's an imaginary line that's drawn perpendicular to that person as you look at them from the side. Anytime any of that bends forward on that gravity line, that's what we consider a challenged posture. And I can get upwards to inches beyond that line into what we call the red zone, or really challenged posture. And effective weight of the head and flexion dominant.

Karen: I'm so glad you said that about the weight of the head. What is the significance of that to your back?

Dr. Rodney: There's several things going on at once. Some of it is bad messages or nociceptive or noxious input to the brain, and that clouds the normal message of ease. So it is by itself a message of threat, like you're being pushed underwater. It's that kind of a feeling, right? It's a challenge. Feeling of flexion is the neurological message that's in the spindle cells and tendon organs that says it's being stretched, which then in turn has a tendency to inhibit the muscles in front. And we call that reciprocal inhibition. Now if those muscles then get stimulated, let's turn that around and let's say that someone wants to change that scenario. Then you have to do the opposite. You have to stretch the front and activate the muscles that oppose those muscles in the front. In other words, the antagonists. There's protagonists and antagonists.

Karen: I love that so much because there is research out there that showed that a person with hyperkyphotic posture, kyphosis, head forward, have 144% greater rate of mortality. All cause mortality, not just falls. And it happens because this type of postural distortion pattern doesn't allow the organs to work properly.

Dr. Rodney: Yes. So that's the other part of this is that I was just kind of touching on the neurology of it and the noxious information that's being sent to the brain. That doesn't even talk about the crowding of organs, internal organs. Let's say it's harder for the heart to work, it's harder to pump it in that direction. It's harder for the nervous system to work, it's harder for the GI tract to work, it's harder to swallow, it's harder to breathe. It's so many things. And then on top of that, you're actually cramping the normal movement of the organs so that they don't get massaged as well, they don't detox as well. The fascia starts to change. I mean, there is a cascade of events that happen as a result of this. No wonder it's 144% all cause mortality.

Karen: And that I think is something to get your attention because we want to talk about that rounded upper back because that signals muscle weakness and more fragile bones, breathing problems, early death, like we're saying.

So let's talk about it while it's fixable, because that's another area that we need to look at.

Dr. Rodney: What's alarming to me, since you mentioned that was just something that we touched on as we were talking about reversible kyphosis. And I think about people that are, let's say before you close, what are known as the growth plates, epiphyseal plates. What if someone has that same three in posture in in terms of like in front of the gravity line that we were talking about earlier, and their bones start to take the shape, they actually change the epiphyseal growth plate.

That is a problem that becomes one of the irreversible issues. The other one we'll talk about later, I suppose, is fractures.

Karen: So think about the, the amount of time that youth today spend on their devices, on their phone, playing video games in that position and then entering the workforce and the hours spent at the computer, hunched over, tensed hours in that position.

That is something that we really need to look at because like you said, that kind of solidifies that early. What are the kids today going to look like when they're 60, 70, 80?

Dr. Rodney: It'll be an uphill battle for sure. No question about it. We, what we're saying is that there is a bony shape that's hard to overcome, if not impossible to overcome. Then there are the people that have really poor posture, but their bones are shaped okay. That can actually reverse it. If you're not like over 60 or.

Karen: Let’s say 70, or have osteoporosis.

Dr. Rodney: That's why we start talking about the, the front of that bone, the vertebra, we'll call it in, the spine actually gets fractured, and it gets fractured in a wedge position that supports horrible posture.

Karen: That, to me, is something that should be a wakeup call to every single one of us. Of course, we recognize that. As soon as you saw the topic.

Dr. Rodney: Here of posture, you probably sat up.

Karen: I'm sitting up. So strict.

Dr. Rodney: No, me too.

Karen: So, so. But that is what we have. Every time we have someone new come in, we began to talk to them about that. Is it possible to reverse that dowager's hump or that curved spine?

Dr. Rodney: So glad you asked that. I, I really think it depends on those two factors that we just mentioned. Was it something that happened as a result of a spontaneous fracture or recent fracture in the vertebrae as a result of osteoporosis or even some kind of trauma?

Or is it something that's then reversible because the shape of the bone is okay, and they've just had some poor posture habits.

Karen: And so changing habits is easier and imperative for every single one of us.

We do have one of our health partners who has this kyphosis and she's been able to improve somewhat.

Would you agree?

Dr. Rodney: Definitely. Yeah.

Sometimes it just takes millimeters for people to make enough changes to feel better and to start functioning better. You know, instead of looking at the ground, now they're looking straight ahead.

That can Be a game changer. To coin a phrase from earlier today. We've been doing this now for. In this office for, what is it, eight years now. And it's like you said, it's just become so part of us.

I think that one of the questions that I asked someone about why they were doing what they were doing and what they get the most out of with the visits, the answer was a consistent awareness.

Being reminded is half the battle. Having that awareness, having someone that just basically is your kind of hired friend to walk alongside you and be the posture police.

Karen: Let's call us a posture coach.

Dr. Rodney: Posture coach. Yes.

Karen: That alliteration is.

Dr. Rodney:  I like the alliteration.

Karen: Well, that's because I try to be the coach, but sometimes I can back people into the corner. I know when we first started with this, you were still studying to become a posture neurologist.

And we were sitting at a restaurant waiting for our kids to meet us for brunch and holding our phone up. And this guy says, what are you doing? Taking my picture.

So that is something that is not customary, but it is important.

So awareness is number one.

Dr. Rodney: Oh, definitely. Awareness. And when that awareness may lead you to this place or a place like this, because you're going to need some help, it may not simply be exercises and stretches to help you get over the hump. (The double entendre.) Oh, goodness. Did I really say that? That was an unintended double entendre. But. So a lot of the style of adjusting that I do has changed over the years. I won't go into a ton of detail at the moment. We're stimulating extension, the extension impulse.

And basically you get four different looks at the same issue. You're face down, you're face up, you're seated.

We're trying to basically exploit any part of your body in those various positions that will let us know what area needs to be adjusted.

Karen: So do I hear you saying that you have people coming to see you who are not in pain?

Dr. Rodney: Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's probably what I would say. Better than 50% of the office right now that's coming to us is people that are maintaining and pain is no.

Karen: Longer the issue, because that usually goes away pretty quickly. But they begin to realize I need to improve my posture.

Dr. Rodney: If awareness is part of the equation, then the idea that I need to for a lifetime maintain my posture, even if I'm not going to the chiropractor all the time, then it's worth it. It's totally worth it.

Karen: And we also give a posture Scan and do that regularly at intervals so they can see the improvement. We do tell people that it's like braces to the teeth. It doesn't happen quickly because they've had that head forward for so long. It's awareness.

So what is one thing that if they don't take anything else away from this Dr. Rodney that they could do at work if they become aware that, oh, I'm hunched over my computer.

What is one thing they could do that could help with this issue?

Dr. Rodney: I'm thinking of what position are we in and what are we doing to our bodies all day? In the seated position, we're promoting flexion at the hips. There's a muscle literally aptly named the hip flexor.

It's one of the most unique muscles in all the body in that it crosses three joints. It goes from the one lumbars go down to the sacroiliac down through the actual hip joint.

So it's affecting a lot of joints. You get a big bang for the buck just to stand up and practice ideal posture. In other words, put yourself in the opposite position.

Put your palms facing out like say toward the window. Kind of level your head, your chin and push your chin back. Whilst in essence do isometric exercises standing there. Just put yourself in an ideal posture like Superman or. Wonder Woman. Yeah, and you know, flex your glutes, turn your toes in slightly and all of a sudden you have reset your body.

And how often should somebody do that? Let's just say that you've lost track of time and it's. And you've been sitting there for an hour. Well, that's probably almost long enough for you, if you're in the middle of sleeping, to want to turn over and change your position. So let's change the position consciously. Put yourself on a timer and just do that every, let's say 20 minutes to break the cycle rather than letting your body settle into that.

Because in essence what's happening is you're telling your body that's how you want it to be. It'll obey you. You're giving it non verbal cues, that's one thing. And if you didn't do anything else, and that's what you did, and you change position every 20 minutes, look at how many times you will have interrupted that cycle throughout the day. Just count, just do the math.

Karen: I love that. And the thing is you don't have to spend an hour in that position.

Dr. Rodney: No, you don't. And that's the thing. It's a little bit over time. It's little things over time that got you there. It's going to be little things over time, perhaps a little bit more than you'd like for a while to kind of have to go out of your way to do it. It's worth it.

Why is it worth it? What does all-cause mortality look like? Well, it's everything that's cardiovascular, it's lymphatic, and those are just two systems that you just don't want to mess with, not to mention your nervous system, that's basically the master system. And you mess with cardiovascular, you've messed with endocrine system too. That's the why. And I don't know that a lot of people understand the power of posture.

Karen: I don't think they do because if they did, we would see more changes. And most people today just go, oh, I've got terrible posture. And they just keep on going. I guess I've just got everybody else.

Dr. Rodney: As though they didn't have any choice.

Karen: Exactly. And that's why we're here to challenge you with that and see what the best exercises would be to fix.

Dr. Rodney: That's a great question. Because it's twofold. If you can change it, in other words, if you don't have irreversible bony changes, wedge shaped bones, then it's twofold. It's partly stretching. In other words, you're stretching your upper chest at the correct angle. You'll find it on the stance for health stretches or stance stretches. We do actually have a YouTube channel.

Karen: You can DM us and we will send you that link.

Dr. Rodney: Yes, super easy to do.

Karen: It says STRETCH in the dm.

Dr. Rodney: That's fantastic. I don't know if I actually said it in so many words, but I want to describe it again. Is it muscles that are too short will typically be underused muscles. Doesn't mean they're weak, it just means they're underutilized. There's something else at play there. There are muscles of extension that should be stimulated.

And let's just face it, there are way more muscles behind your shoulders than in front of your shoulders. You really only have pec minor and pec major on the front side, whereas you have numerous other muscles in the back. You've got the, the trapezius, you've got the rhomboid major and minor, you've got the rotator cuff muscles, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, teres major and even levator scapulae. So all these different muscles of the back of the shoulder that have to do with Posture. And when you're working those muscles, they will be obviously shorter, but they'll be in their proper place. Back behind that plane I was telling you about earlier.

Karen: That is so good and so important that you do those on a regular basis.

Are there any other exercises that I can do that are going to help with my posture?

Dr. Rodney: That's a great question. I would recommend actually doing more rowing exercises. In other words, pull ups or bent rows or rowing exercises, or just reverse dumbbells of a sort, or half squats, things that will stimulate the glute muscles or the backside muscles. These folks come in all the time that their shoulders are rolled forward, and I can guarantee what they've been doing. And they haven't been stretching, for one. They've been shortening their muscles through bench press.

Karen: And we've seen that when we went to the gym that one time and there was a gentleman with his head move forward and he's pulling the weights up and you're thinking, oh, dude.

Dr. Rodney: So you're listening to this today and you might be almost wanting to nudge somebody, that imaginary someone next to you, if they're open to this, say, hey, I heard something today. This could literally change someone's life. And it could add years to their life or life to their years, too.

Karen: We need to begin to avoid exercises such as crunches. You see, most people that are doing crunches, they've got terrible head forward posture when they do that.

Dr. Rodney: Yes. So I like to try to tell people that whatever you're already doing, let's just start from ground zero and do it from a neutral place. Let's imagine that you're keeping your back straight while you're doing it.

Karen: One of the most revealing exercises that I get to teach here is up against the wall.

Dr. Rodney: Ooh. Yeah.

Karen: Because people do not realize until they do that they stand up against the wall, their heels up against the wall, their backside and their shoulders, and then they bring their arms up. They do not realize how far off that is.

Dr. Rodney: So you're referring to snow angels.

Karen: Yeah.

Dr. Rodney: Or sand angels if you're in West Texas.

Karen: Wall angels.

Dr. Rodney: Wall angels, yes. That is such a good point. I love that exercise. I love that.

Karen: And the best place to do it when you're starting is on the floor.

Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

Karen: Gravity to your advantage, because the gravity is at your advantage. So these things are really working or.

Dr. Rodney: Even on like a thera ball kind of thing.

Karen: Absolutely. What about posture braces or taping?

Dr. Rodney: There's definitely some benefit to that as a sense of awareness and a sense of a stimulus to remind your body to be in the right place long term. I have seen some folks speak well of them in terms of being a tool may not be the only answer, but it is a tool. I would definitely put it in my arsenal.

Karen: I think it's to make you more aware, but not to make the muscles dependent on it. For example, we have a serola belt that helps so much with alignment of the sacroiliac joint.

Dr. Rodney: Yeah. So if you have weak posture muscles or core muscles and they're chronically weak, you may need to stabilize the sacroiliac joint temporarily with a sacroiliac belt that we can actually send a link to that too as well. And then obviously with that there, it comes with a simple test that you can do to see if that's the issue.

Karen: We also want to give a shout out to posture pump. Tell us a little bit about that.

Dr. Rodney: Oh yeah, in other words, ergo disc rehydrator has an effect on both your We've mentioned hyper kyphosis, but in essence the opposite curves of to that is lordosis. It is a lordosis rebuilder and disc rehydrators. If you're suffering from disc issues in in your neck or your low back, it's proven to help to rehydrate those discs and re give them some height.

Karen: And if you are in the Dallas area, we would love for you to come by and see our posture clinic because we have an arsenal of exercises and tools to help you with your.

Dr. Rodney: Posture and in essence what we've been talking about. And that's why we do this. It's to help you take your stance for health.

Talk to you soon.

Thank you for joining us at Stance for Health podcast, where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think.

Subscribe now and discover steps and small changes that can increase your energy and open the door to vibrant health and longevity.

If this podcast has been helpful, please write a review. We'll see you next time.