Poor Posture and Low Back Pain
Abstract
Clinicians frequently see patients who are obviously in poor health, but in whom no organic disease can be demonstrated. In a large number of these chronically ill patients, poor body mechanics may be playing an important role in the chronic disability, and beneficial effects may be obtained when the error in mechanics is improved or entirely corrected.
The White House Conference on Child Health1 defines body mechanics as follows: “Body mechanics is the mechanical correlation of the various systems of the body with special reference to the skeletal, muscular, and visceral systems and their neurological associations.”
In the following discussion the effects of poor body mechanics shall not be described in detail, but rather the emphasis shall be upon the essential changes that are produced and upon the methods for correcting faulty posture.
Every clinician has noted that the individual who stands with erect posture feels alert, looks alert, and portrays energy and a sense of well-being; whereas, the slumped individual with a marked forward curve of the cervical spine or increased lordosis makes the opposite impression. In our armed services where much attention is given to the posture of the fighting man, the value of good posture is recognized. If the civilian population were more posture conscious, they too would be benefited.
Because of the differences in body builds, each patient's problem must be individualized. Accordingly, no scale can be set up which will be adaptable to every patient. As Goldthwait2 has so aptly stated, when a mechanical engineer. . .
