Chronic pain conditions can be caused and exacerbated by a variety of factors, but one common culprit that is often overlooked is a person’s posture. If you have bad seated or standing posture, it changes how stress is dispersed on your whole body. It can put additional pressure on certain areas like your lower back or neck, speeding up natural degeneration and contributing to chronic pain in these areas.
And while the problem of poor posture is obvious from a provider side, it’s oftentimes overlooked by patients. A recent study by Orlando Health found that only 47 percent of survey respondents were concerned about poor posture and its impact on their health. This is especially concerning when you consider just how frequently the average person puts their spine in an less than ideal position.
Depending on which survey you’re looking at, you’ll find that the average American spends anywhere from 2-4 hours a day on their cell phone, and much of this time involves craning their head and neck forward to look at a smartphone in their lap. If they work a desk job, it only gets worse, as they likely aren’t in a perfect spinal alignment for the 8+ hours they spend at the office. That means that for some people, their spine is in a less than ideal position for more than half of the day.
How Poor Posture Triggers Chronic Pain
Poor posture can trigger chronic pain in a variety of ways. We already touched on one above, which is that poor posture changes how stress is dispersed in your body. When your neck and back have to handle additional stress because you are out of a healthy alignment, discs can wear down faster and irritate nearby nerves. Nerve pain is a common underlying cause for a number of chronic pain sufferers, and it can oftentimes be traced back to poor posture.
Bad posture habits can also contribute to chronic discomfort in the form of frequent headaches. When you’re out of alignment, the muscles and soft tissues in your neck have to work harder to support your head. These muscles are constantly tensed trying to support this additional stress, and this muscle tension can trigger migraines or the aptly named tension headache. Chronic headache sufferers may notice a major improvement in symptoms by improving their diet and their posture habits.
Poor posture also means that inflammation is more likely to develop in certain areas of your body. An inflammatory response is your body’s natural reaction to stress and trauma, so inflammation can develop if certain areas are constantly being overstressed because your spine is out of alignment. Inflamed tissues can irritate nearby nerves and structures, making movement painful and triggering a chronic pain flareup.
We live in a world where it is easy to fall into bad posture habits. Laptops, smartphones and other electronic devices have us constantly looking down or in a hunched seated position, and if we’re not careful, we can end up overloading different areas of our spine. Over time, this contributes to tissue degeneration, muscle tension and inflammation, all of which can serve to make chronic pain problems worse. We’re not saying that improving your posture will address all of your chronic pain issues overnight, but bad posture can oftentimes stifle your progress and cause chronic pain to linger. If you improve your posture, adjust your diet and get more regular exercise, we’re confident that you will be providing your body with the right environment to overcome your pain condition.
To learn more about the connection between your posture and chronic pain conditions, or to talk to a specialist about a pain issue you’re experiencing, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today at (952) 738-4580.