Posture can be a serious issue, let alone cause some serious health issues as well. The fact is that along with back and neck problems, poor posture can also cause your internal organs not to function properly. Some of the more serious problems that poor posture can cause is GERD. That’s right. GERD or acid reflux is caused by bad posture. First, if you’re not familiar with GERD, it’s heartburn. Have you ever had heartburn? If so, you know how it can be a problem, especially when it happens on a chronic scale. Little did you know that your posture can cause that. How?
Well, as your posture gets out of alignment, it moves your stomach into a position where the digestive acids you have naturally inside can regurgitate up into your esophagus. It can get worse. GERD, if not treated can cause even more serious problems. The acids in your stomach are designed to be in your stomach, not to travel up the esophagus. Your esophagus is also not designed to handle the corrosive nature of your stomach acids as the stomach lining is able to. This means that the acid can eat at your esophagus and cause it to have holes, or even worse, cause esophageal cancer.
How can you correct this? Well, yes, there are medications to ease the chronic heartburn associated with GERD, but most importantly, your posture can play a big role. If you have good posture, you are less likely to suffer from GERD or any other health issues that are caused by poor posture. For this reason, you need to learn how to fix your posture. This may seem like a daunting task, but it is not as difficult as you think. Correcting your posture can be done with either a regiment of exercises, wearing a brace or other type of posture corrector, or a combination of the two. The thing you need to keep in mind is how bad your posture really is.
For minor posture issues, a daily exercise regime can do the job, but for more serious posture problems, you need to use both a brace and a regime of posture correcting exercises. What exactly does a brace do? Well, your posture brace helps you hold good posture by forcing you to sit or stand in the right posture position. This means that you may experience some discomfort wearing your brace, as it makes you keep in a good posture position.
If you have not been accustomed to that type of position, obviously you will not feel comfortable. However, with time, you will get used to the brace and the posture position. That’s how you can fix your posture with a brace. Keep in mind, however, that the brace alone is not how to correct your posture. In fact, if you use the brace too much, you end up using it as a crutch. This is a serious problem. This can actually cause the muscles that support your posture to atrophy all together and then you will lose your posture permanently.
For this reason, you should use your brace together with an exercise regime. There are many different exercise regimes available that can help you improve your posture. Some of these regimes are on DVD and there is even computer software that gives you instructions on how you can improve your posture right on your computer screen at home or at the office. The exercises work on strengthening the muscles that hold your posture. That in combination with your brace can help you fix your posture.