If you suffer from chronic back pain – you know, the kind that makes it hard to get comfortable sleeping, or standing, or even just sitting – new research may be able to cure you of your pain, naturally. An acupuncturist and “posture guru” says that bad posture could be the cause of many back pain sufferers. To relieve your pain, says the guru, all you need to do is stand up straighter.
Esther Gokhale spent years researching the postures and spines of people all over the world. According to her findings, indigenous people in less primitive countries do not experience the kind of back pain that is so common in modern society. In fact, it is virtually nonexistent. Gokhale set out to find out why, and all signs pointed to the “regal posture” of people living in the small villages of Brazil, West Africa, Portugal, and India.
The S-shape of our spines is what we consider to be normal, but Gokhale suggest that we should try to stand more like Greek statues, thus promoting a J-shaped spine. According to Gokhale, if you just fix your sitting and standing posture, you will “reposition and reshape your shoulders, arms, neck, torso, pelvis, hips, legs, and feet the way they were designed to be.” How can we do this? She recommends a series of exercises to help people fix their spines, that can be downloaded free from her website.
Although there is no scientific evidence to back up the acupuncturist’s claim that bad posture correlates to chronic back pain, many experts agree that the modern American lifestyle certainly contributes to our poor posture and backaches. Statistically speaking, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle create weaker abdominal muscles, which most likely pulls your back forward causing – you guessed it – poor posture.
While standing like a Greek statue may not cure your back pain, it certainly can’t hurt. AC Spine & Wellness Center, an advocate of good posture, recommends that you get regular spinal adjustments, as well as proper exercise for optimal spinal health. You can click here to make an appointment for a free consultation, or click here, to find out more about our comprehensive services and techniques.
