Importance of good posture

Sit  straight! Do not sit like that or slouch! Many of us must have heard these correcting words many times from our mother when we were in school. And most of us always complied with her command having no concept of the biomechanical rationale behind her persistent pointing. And in fact she herself probably was not aware of all the implications of poor posture herself. But somehow, some way she always seemed to know best.

Bad posture, such as slouching affects the way we feel and can make us more prone to bones, joints and tissue injuries due to misusing them. Some occupations can put us at risk of structural disorders. Many of us work at a desk with computers, as cashiers, assembly workers or nurses, back and neck pain and pinched nerves. The strain on the backbone or muscles and uneven stress on the joints can lead to debilitating and permanent damage.

Back pain is the second most reported occupational injury in the U.S. and the U.K. Studies found 95 percent of lower and middle back pain is due to bad posture while standing, sitting and even exercising. Such disorders are treated by a special branch of medical science called Chiropractic. Chiropractic is a health care discipline that deals with diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system. It is generally considered as a complementary and alternative treatment, a characterization that many chiropractors reject. The treatment involves manual therapy which includes manipulation of the spine, other joints, and soft tissue; treatment also includes exercises using chiropractic tables, chiropractic equipment and health and lifestyle counseling. Spinal manipulation, which chiropractic professionals call spinal adjustment or chiropractic adjustment, is the most common treatment used in chiropractic care. Spinal manipulation is a manual passive maneuver during which a three-joint complex is taken past the normal range of movement, but not so far as to dislocate or damage the joint; its defining factor is a dynamic thrust, which is a sudden force that causes an audible release and attempts to increase a joint's range of motion.

Here are some techniques which are employed to fix such disorders.

Diversified technique (employing various techniques, full-spine manipulation), extremity adjusting, Activator technique (which uses a spring loaded tool to deliver precise adjustments to the spine), Thompson Technique (which relies on a drop table and detailed procedural protocols), Gonstead (which emphasizes evaluating the spine along with specific adjustment that avoids rotational vectors), Cox or flexion distraction (a gentle, low-force adjusting procedure which mixes chiropractic with osteopathic principles and utilizes specialized adjusting tables or chiropractic tables with movable parts), adjustive instrument, Sacro Occipital Technique (which models the spine as a torsion bar), Nimmo Receptor Tonus Technique, Applied Kinesiology (which emphasises  muscle testing as a diagnostic tool), and cranial.