Posture Exercise as an Anti-Aging Tool.
Anti-aging is all the rage in health care today. Everyone wants to detoxify, or take antioxidants or eat organic food. Exercises of all types from Yoga to mountain biking are promoted as anti-aging methods. All are positive lifestyle changes that will help. No one is talking about posture and its vital link to good health.
In his book Stand Taller ~Live Longer; Steven Weiniger, D.C. gives this statistic: People who are hyper-kyphotic (bent over posture) have a higher mortality rate than people without bent over posture. The inference is even if you do all the ‘right’ things but ignore your posture you can still have a shortened lifespan.
As we age, the impression is we get old and stiff. We get stiff because of poor posture. Poor posture leads to using the body in incorrect ways. This is a normal compensating factor but, it causes a great deal of stress to the body. We use our muscles to balance our body. With poor posture some muscles are underused and some overused. This leads to stiffness and degeneration. Stiffness is associated with aging.
So as part of any anti-aging strategy, Posture Exercises should be an integral part of any routine.
Dr. Scott Stratton, DC
