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9 surprising ways bad posture can mess with your health

<h2>You can have bad posture at any age</h2> <p>Posture is an issue for older people, right? Not at all, say experts. “It’s a concern for everyone,” says Dr Eeric Truumees, director of spine research at Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, Austin. In fact, health conditions that affect the spine also impact your brain and nervous system, and can have a huge effect on your wellbeing. “While some conditions are more easily understood and treatable, spine and posture issues sneak up on you and can be hard to manage once they appear,” Dr Truumees says. Here’s what you need to know about keeping your posture, and your overall health, in great shape.</p> <h2>What is posture, anyway?</h2> <p>There are two types of posture: dynamic posture (your body position when moving) and static posture (your body position when sitting, standing, or sleeping). Good posture means that your head sits above your shoulders and your shoulders are over your hips, a position that maintains a neutral spine.</p> <h2>Thanks, electronic devices</h2> <p>Our phones and tablets aren’t going away, but “the problem is that as we become more and more dependent on these devices, we are getting used to sitting or standing in a hunched-over position that contributes to poor posture,” says sports-medicine doctor Dr Stacy Spivack. While electronics use tends to affect your neck and shoulders, your spine also can be harmed.</p> <h2>Bad posture can trigger muscle spasms</h2> <p>It’s hardly surprising – but worth a reminder – that if you sit while slouched over, which drives your head and neck forward, you may be left with significant neck pain and spasms, says Dr Spivack. Correcting bad posture may offer a significant source of relief for the nearly 20 per cent of the population with neck pain, according to a 2018 study in the Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy.</p> <h2>Bad posture can make it hurt to move</h2> <p>The body likes to be in alignment. But when you’re sitting and standing with poor posture day in and day out, your body gets used to it. It accepts it as the new normal – something that can spell trouble for you. “When your muscles become accustomed to being in a shortened position, it may hurt to move,” says Dr Spivack. Getting ahead of these bad posture habits now can help prevent nerve damage, osteoarthritis and musculoskeletal problems later in life, says Dr Truumees.</p> <h2>Bad posture can make you weaker</h2> <p>Even if you’re not feeling it, stand tall. In one 2016 study on 33 people published in the journal Biofeedback, people took turns standing erect or slouched. When they stood with better posture, they had greater arm strength during a strength test than when they stood in a saggy position. Studies published in 2016 in the Journals of Gerontology, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, suggest body-weight workouts such as yoga that improve flexibility as well as body strength are best to keep the spine strong, supple and pain-free.</p> <h2>Bad posture can contribute to rib pain</h2> <p>If your shoulders remain rounded for much of the day, your body will compensate. “The chest wall will become tight, causing rib and sternal [sternum] pain,” says Dr Spivack. Rib pain can also be a sign that something else is going on – including shingles or costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage between the ribs), notes physical therapist Dr Szu-Ping Lee. Shingles is a reactivation of the chicken pox virus that can cause pain and blisters on one side of the body that has nothing to do with posture.</p> <h2>Bad posture brings you down</h2> <p>A droopy body leads to a droopy mindset. While research shows upright posture improves self-esteem and mood in just about everyone, a 2017 study published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, suggests adopting an upright posture may also help depressed people feel happier and less fatigued, and self-conscious. The lesson? Instead of letting the day get you down, sit up and see how you feel.</p> <h2>Bad posture can exacerbate arthritis</h2> <p>If you’re suffering from arthritic changes in your shoulders, hips, or spine, poor posture can worsen the pain, says Dr Spivack. Plus, if you’re dealing with arthritis in your neck, the head-forward position can pinch a nerve, resulting in tingling that radiates down your arm, she says.</p> <h2>Bad posture can make you tired</h2> <p>Feeling as if you’re not breathing easy these days? It might be due in part to your phone usage. For a 2016 study published in Journal of Physical Therapy Science, researchers compared people who used their smartphones for less than four hours a day with those who used their phones longer. They found that people who spent more time on their phone had worse posture, which may compress the lungs and compromise respiratory function.</p> <h2>Bad posture may trigger heartburn</h2> <p>If you’ve ever been saddled with stomach symptoms, check your slouch. Sitting slumped over, especially after eating, can give you a belly ache and even trigger acid reflux and heartburn.  “If you slouch too much, you put pressure on your abdomen and can eventually affect your digestion,” adds Dr Truumees. “It’s better to take a quick walk.”</p> <h2>How you can improve your posture</h2> <p>Yes, you’ll need to straighten out, but first, one powerful habit that combats bad posture is getting up more. “Avoid sitting in one position for a prolonged period of time,” says Dr Spivack. She suggests standing every 30 minutes for at a minimum of a few minutes at a time. If you need a reminder so that you don’t get lost in work to-dos, set a timer.</p> <h2>Switch up your space</h2> <p>If your works allows it, talk to human resources about the possibility of getting a sit-to-stand desk. “This is a newer change we’re encouraging patients to take advantage of,” says Dr Spivack. “This allows you to stand for parts of the day and alternate as needed with sitting.”</p> <h2>Make changes</h2> <p>An ergonomic desk setup that addresses the height of your computer screen, keyboard, and chair is necessary for improving your posture while you sit, says Dr Spivack. Every time you sit down to work, take time to make sure your setup is correct.</p> <h2>There’s an app for that</h2> <p>There are a slew of apps and trackers that help with all your health goals, including those that send an alert when you’re slumping. Dr Truumees says people who enjoy technology seem to respond well to these features, but notes that no one should spend a lot of money on a high-tech solution to what is usually a low-tech problem. “It may just as effective to have someone in your life remind you to stand up straight,” he notes.</p> <p><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/healthsmart/9-surprising-ways-bad-posture-can-mess-with-your-health?pages=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>.</strong></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Body

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Dinner to die for: how fish use their spines to fend off hungry seals

<p>What price are you willing to pay for food?</p> <p>For most of us, that’s a question about money. But what if the cost were actual pain, injury and death? For some seals and dolphins, this a real risk when hunting.</p> <p>We took a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/dao03473">close look</a> at a New Zealand (or long-nosed) fur seal that stranded at Cape Conran in southeastern Australia, and discovered it had numerous severe facial injuries. These wounds were all caused by fish spines, and they show the high price these animals are willing to pay in pursuit of a meal.</p> <p><strong>Victim or perpetrator?</strong></p> <p>When the unfortunate seal was first spotted dead on the beach, it was clear something was amiss: the animal was emaciated, and had a large fish spine stuck in its cheek.</p> <p>A team of scientists from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), Museums Victoria and Monash University decided to investigate, and took a CT scan of the seal’s head. The results were striking: fish spines had penetrated not just both cheeks, but also the nose and jaw muscles.</p> <p>On closer examination, we also found ten stab wounds, likely from further fish spines that had been pulled out. The wounds were spread all over the face and throat, and at least some appear to have festered. They may have made feeding difficult, and ultimately may have caused the animal to starve.</p> <p>These wounds were likely not the result of unprovoked attacks. They were probably inflicted by prey that simply did not want to be eaten.</p> <p><strong>How to fight off a hungry seal … or at least teach it a lesson</strong></p> <p>Many fish species have evolved elaborate defence systems against predators, such as venomous spines that can inflict painful wounds.</p> <p>Our seal appears to have been done in by two species of cartilaginous fish. One was the elusive <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_ghostshark">Australian ghostshark</a> (also known as elephant fish), a distant relative of true sharks that has a large serrated spine on its back.</p> <p>The other was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urolophidae">stingaree</a>: a type of small stingray with a venomous tail barb that can be whipped around like a scorpion’s tail. Its sting is normally aimed at would-be predators, but sometimes also catches the feet of unwary humans.</p> <p><strong>How to eat a spiky fish</strong></p> <p>Until recently, most of what we knew about the diet New Zealand fur seals was based on bony remains left in their poo. This technique largely overlooks cartilaginous fish, whose skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bone. As a result, we didn’t realise fur seals target these creatures.</p> <p>New <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12686-016-0560-9">studies of the DNA of devoured prey</a> in the seals’ scats now suggest they commonly feed on ghostsharks. Stingarees and other rays are less common, but evidently still form part of their diet. So how do the seals handle such dangerous prey on a regular basis?</p> <p>It all comes down to table manners. Ghostsharks and rays are too large to be swallowed whole, and hence must be broken into smaller chunks first. Fur seals achieve this by violently shaking their prey at the water’s surface, largely because <a href="https://theconversation.com/sharp-claws-helped-ancient-seals-conquer-the-oceans-92828">their flippers are no longer capable of grasping and tearing</a>.</p> <p>Fur seals can eat small fish whole, but need to tear large prey into edible chunks.</p> <p>Shaking a fish in the right way (for example by gripping it at the soft belly) may allow seals to kill and consume it without getting impaled. Nevertheless, some risk remains, whether because of struggling prey, poor technique, or simply bad luck. The wounds on our seal’s cheeks suggest that it may accidentally have slapped itself with a ghostshark spine while trying to tear it apart.</p> <p><strong>Fish spines – a common problem?</strong></p> <p>One of the challenges we face as scientists is knowing how to interpret isolated observations. Are fish spines a common problem for fur seals, or was our individual just particularly unlucky? We don’t know.</p> <p>New techniques like analysing DNA from scats means that we are only just beginning to get a better idea of the full range of prey marine mammals target. Likewise, medical imaging techniques such as CT scanning are rarely applied to marine mammal strandings, and injuries like the ones in our seal may often go unnoticed.</p> <p>Nevertheless, fish spine injuries have been observed in other ocean predators, including dolphins, killer whales, and rays. One wedgefish described in <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.170674">another recent study</a> had as many as 62 spines embedded in its jaw! Now that we know what to look for, we may finally get a better idea of how common such injuries really are.</p> <p>For now, this extraordinary example vividly demonstrates the choices and dangers wild animals face as they try to make a living. For our seal, the seafood ultimately won, but we will never know if the fish that killed it got away, or if the wounds they left are evidence of the seal’s last meal.</p> <p><em>Written by David Hocking, Felix Georg Marx, Silke Cleuren and William Parker. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/dinner-to-die-for-how-fish-use-their-spines-to-fend-off-hungry-seals-133627">The Conversation.</a> </em></p>

Cruising

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Leaked video reveals Alex McKinnon's inspiring recovery

<p>Inspirational footage of Alex McKinnon has emerged just weeks out from his wedding, as the former NRL star continues to recover from a devastating spinal injury.</p> <p>The video, posted onto Instagram by McKinnon’s fiancée Teigan Power, shows the ex-Dragons and Knights player walking with the help of two crew members.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media"> <div style="padding: 8px;"> <div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 62.5% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"> <div style="background: url(data:image/png; base64,ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaacwaaaascamaaaapwqozaaaabgdbtueaalgpc/xhbqaaaafzukdcak7ohokaaaamuexurczmzpf399fx1+bm5mzy9amaaadisurbvdjlvzxbesmgces5/p8/t9furvcrmu73jwlzosgsiizurcjo/ad+eqjjb4hv8bft+idpqocx1wjosbfhh2xssxeiyn3uli/6mnree07uiwjev8ueowds88ly97kqytlijkktuybbruayvh5wohixmpi5we58ek028czwyuqdlkpg1bkb4nnm+veanfhqn1k4+gpt6ugqcvu2h2ovuif/gwufyy8owepdyzsa3avcqpvovvzzz2vtnn2wu8qzvjddeto90gsy9mvlqtgysy231mxry6i2ggqjrty0l8fxcxfcbbhwrsyyaaaaaelftksuqmcc); display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BZVXCd1HJae/" target="_blank">So PROUD of all the hard work @alexmmckinnon puts into his rehab! We are back at @makingstridesau and he is smashing out the walking again🏃🏼 so grateful to have such a determined man by my side.</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Teigan Power (@teiganpower) on Sep 21, 2017 at 11:46pm PDT</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The footage shows just how much hard work McKinnon has been putting into his recovery, after sustaining serious spinal injuries in a game three years ago.</p> <p>McKinnon has said his goal to walk long-term partner Teigan down the aisle is “physically not possible”, but if this video shows he’s determined to break the odds.</p> <p><em>Hero image credit: YouTube / CarersAustralia</em></p>

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