Unlocking the Secrets of Posture: Stand Tall, Live Strong

 In this episode of the Stance for Health podcast, Dr. Rodney and Karen Wirth discuss the often-overlooked significance of posture. 

Highlighting the transition to remote work during the 2020 shutdown, they examine how poor posture and sitting for extended periods have increased back and neck issues. 

Dr. Rodney, a certified postural neurologist, delves into the role of chiropractic adjustments in reversing flexion dominance and the negative impacts of 'head forward posture.' By incorporating daily habits like stretching and eye exercises, listeners can tip the balance from fight-or-flight to a restful, digestive state, unlocking the secret to healthier aging. 

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Transcript

Dr. Rodney: Welcome to Stance for health podcast with Dr. Rod and Karen Wirth, where becoming healthy is not complicated. Control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age.

I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor and Karen is an author, speaker and longevity coach. We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your Stance for Health.

Karen: Welcome to Stance for Health - I'm delighted to be here with Dr. Rodney. We want to talk about the topic of posture because posture has become so significant. About eight years ago,

as we were starting stance chiropractic, you became a postural neurologist. Tell us about that journey and your most important lesson you've learned in that journey.

Dr. Rodney: I love the subject of posture. And when you consider posture and most of the time you probably just want to sit up straight as soon as you hear somebody talking.

Karen: You just did that, didn't you? As soon as I said the word posture, I saw you. You went back kind of almost in a military. If you're in our age group, we've had our mom tell us sit up straight more times when we were kids than we even want to can count.

Dr. Rodney: And so neurology has been a subject of mine that I've enjoyed since really first hearing about it in chiropractic school and and getting around some friends and some other colleagues that studied it and actually focused on it and became not just certified but diplomates in neurology through the chiropractic discipline. But mine was really more on what I could do and focus on how it could help the everyday patient. Sort of a practical neurology of sorts. That's how posture gets fleshed out.

And especially in people where it's come as a result of habits. It had to do with the results that I saw almost immediately in freeing up the way that the neck or the low back felt simply by eye movements and convergence, like looking down your nose. And I know that sounds a little funny at the start, but it has to do with using the parasympathetic nervous system or getting the body out of that fight or flight.

I just became fascinated on it. And then of course, you encouraged me to just go for it first. It was a little intimidating because of my background and all the friends that I knew that were super smart in neurology pulled the trigger and did the certification in postural neurology.

Now I Haven't looked back since. I'm really glad that we do it. It's become part of what we do here.

Karen: Basically our name is around taking a stance, a power stance and having done all stand do everything you can for your health. And so that focus on posture has changed the way you adjust.

Dr. Rodney: Absolutely. Anytime you get an adjustment for me, it's, I'm going to be much the same way. You wouldn't necessarily want to do full flexion related, in other words, sit ups or things where you're doing lat pull down your pull downs on a machine and you're bending forward at the waist,

bending your head and in order to lift that weight any more than you'd want to stare at your computer looking down or your phone looking down, those

Karen: Are all getting personal because you're describing what we found, particularly in 2020, where people were coming to us and there was the shutdown, they were working from home and they were experiencing so many different senses of problems in their back and in their neck. And part of it was possibly because they weren't taking breaks. In fact, tell us about sitting disease.

Dr. Rodney: That's where it gets really interesting is, is if your vertical height has changed and you're, you're, you're a woman and you're perimenopausal, let's say you’re 40s or 50s, most likely you're okay on bone density, especially if you've done some exercise and some weight bearing and things like that. Most of the time women aren't going to have that bone loss that's noticeable on X ray or any of those tests.

Karen: Dexa scan.

Dr. Rodney: Exactly. They're not going to notice that perhaps until they get into their 50s or even 60s or 70s, it's less likely. But in those early stages, in the 40s, 50s and even 60s, a lot of times we still can see soft tissue changes. It might take a little bit longer. I've heard you say this recently, like braces to the teeth when it comes to stabilizing the base of the spine and the sacroiliac joint.

But I'm talking more about the flexibility of the muscles just under the collarbone. You've got the pectoralis major, everybody can see that, but you can't see the one underneath it which stabilizes the shoulder is known as a pectoralis minor. Due to flexion dominance, we tend to have shoulders that are rolled forward and because of sitting in that same position, the shoulders rolled forward, we have these shortened muscles at the hip, we call them hip flexors. And so those Are the two things that get tested anytime somebody comes to the office. Oftentimes that'll be a lead in to, well, what can I do to participate in this? And that's the soft tissue element now, the bony element and the ligament element. As you get older, that can become a little bit more chronic and just more challenging to treat.

Karen: So let's back up with what you're saying is that in the early stages you come with head forward posture and basically you are not as tall as you were simply because your head is forward.

That is connected to aging, isn't it? If you came in to do improv and I said, Be a 120-year-old man, what would you do?

Dr. Rodney: Yeah, just bend over,

Karen: start shaking a little bit, have a cane. That's because we've associated that is normal, that everyone as they get older would do that.

Dr. Rodney: But is that normal so common that it seems normal? Right. Those common things occur commonly, but you don't have to. No. And any more than you must be necessarily satisfied with crooked teeth. And so it just, it'll just like my late wife it took four or five years for her to straighten her teeth. And in about two years our youngest daughter had her teeth straight.

So, it was two or three times longer by the time it was all said and done. There was.

Obviously, it gets more complicated as you age because it's been there so much longer, there's so much more to reverse and there's so many more tissues involved. And if inflammation is involved now you've got these white blood cells that encourage scar tissue and other almost like spider web like substance around your soft tissues. That's the end product, as we call it scarring or fibrosis. Another layer. And on average it's every three weeks you get something like another spiderweb on top of joints that are already stiff.

Karen: So when people get up and they're feeling all stiff and they go, oh, well, I'm just getting older, what do you expect? And then they sit down, what happens then?

Dr. Rodney: It accelerates it. You're signaling to your brain and to your bones, the osteoclasts and osteoblasts that you're really setting up more for non-weight bearing. And you're telling your brain, and you're basically telling your brain and your body, let's kind of ease into the next life. Right.

Karen: Wow. So, what we're saying is that while it's common, it should not be considered inevitable.

Dr. Rodney: No, it should not.

Karen: So, let's talk about solutions because if there's anything that bothers me is beating the, the dead horse. I think we're all recognizing posture and, and poor posture as a problem.

So, let's talk about some things that we've already talked about coming to see us. Because we have, as a measure, when people first walk in the door, their very first appointment evaluation with us, we do a posture scan. Can you tell me more about that?

Dr. Rodney: Posture scan is simple. Basically, it's almost like a mug shot. You know, turn to the left. Okay. Turn to the right. You know, look straight front to back and then back to front.

So four different views. And so in essence, what we're seeing is that person's head forward posture.

We're seeing how your body twists and turns along the gravity line. And likewise, things kind of change a little bit. And so we look for this average of flexion dominance, and sometimes even we'll see flexion in the knees, we'll see flexion in the hips.

If that line, that is your body's line against gravity, is a red line and it's way out front, we say that's flexion dominance or flexion dominant posture.

Karen: So that means head forward posture and everything that goes with it. You have a bowling ball in your office and people ask, why is that there? Can you give us more on that one?

Dr. Rodney: I'm so glad you asked that. And it's such a great conversation piece.

Karen: Everybody's like, well, hopefully they have enough proprioception to not trip over.

Dr. Rodney: Right?

Karen: I mean, awareness of their surroundings.

Dr. Rodney: I think I've backed into it a time or two myself, depending on how long ago I moved it. The average weight of the human head is about 13 pounds. And that's how much my bowling ball weighs.

So what I tell people is, let me hold it close to my body. And you go bowling, you don't want to hold the bowling ball out in front of you because it feels heavier, right? Well, it feels. Your head, therefore,

feels heavier. The whole rest of your body and those little cytoskeletons inside your cells think the same thing. In fact, all the cells of the respiratory system, the cardiovascular system, really your bony system, it starts to compensate for that. And these tight muscles in the back of your head, these tight muscles that are designed to move with motion, to sense motion, start to scar up.   And that partly we talk about that as being part of the subluxation complex or that dysfunctional complex that just exacerbates, makes everything worse when it comes to the. What we call the effective weight of the head.

Karen: So what's the heaviest one you've seen in the eight years.

Dr. Rodney: It was a little tough to take and believe, but the guy actually had almost like another person on top of his shoulders. It was somewhere between eighty and a hundred pounds as I recollect.

Karen: And he was miserable. So next to the bowling ball where this when you come to see us, beware, There is a 50-pound kettlebell.

Dr. Rodney: Yeah. And so for those of you who don't know what a kettlebell is, it looks like a,

an old-fashioned weight like you'd see in black and white photos. Yes. And so it just has a handle and you're just basically picking up that weight and slinging it. So that's what a kettlebell is.

Karen: Wow. So I'm sitting here listening to this podcast and you've described me maybe not the 50 pound weight or the a hundred pound weight, but I do have problem with head forward posture because I'm on my phone, I'm on the computer, I sit all day. So what do you recommend for me? 

I'm going to start you off. Why would you need chiropractic adjustments?

Dr. Rodney: It's reverse engineering the typical scenario that I just mentioned to you throughout the podcast so far. It's that scar tissue component, it's that flexion component. And so the way that we adjust people here is faster than the blink of an eye adjustment. It's safe and effective for all ages.

So it's that adjustment that's stretching muscles in an extension stimulating sort of way along with the stretching that we recommend. Very similar to what physical therapists and orthopedists recommend.

Karen: And you make those a daily habit a hundred percent so that you do that at least once a day.

Dr. Rodney: Yes.

Karen: And so that's stretching. You're stretching tight areas and your basic core.

Dr. Rodney: The initial examination includes the basic core flexibility tests. It's no secret that your eyes, your ears play a role in sympathetic or parasympathetic dominance. If your eyes are all rounded like saucers, you're probably in sympathetic mode. 

Karen: So sympathetic is fight or flight.

Dr. Rodney: Yeah. We want to widen the gaze somewhat and give you a wider gaze, almost like a figure 8 motion. And take breaks every once in a while from devices to broaden the horizon, to converge your eyes to stand on one foot to stimulate those things that have shrunk in terms of their stimulation in the brain. So not only are you experiencing those areas stimulated more like they should, that signal then goes from sympathetic dominance to a more balanced parasympathetic balance.

Karen: Parasympathetic is rest and digest Right.

Dr. Rodney: So somebody that has difficulty sleeping, maybe they have difficulty with even digestion, oftentimes it's because their body is locked in to a higher level of sympathetic mode,

Karen: high cortisol and things like that.

Dr. Rodney: So it's those eye exercises in part then, that are actually going to bring back the body, saying, aha, we do have an inability to get back into parasympathetic mode or rest and digest mode, or get out of this fight or flight mode. So I don't feel like I'm walking on eggshells, so to speak.

Karen: That's awesome.

Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

Karen: You also have better proprioception, which is awareness of where your head is in space.

Dr. Rodney: Yeah. Let's face it, the eyes, when you remove the eye component, you still have proprioception, like you just mentioned. That's basically all the information coming from your joints,

as well as grid cells inside your head. And the vestibular system, which is part of The Cranial Nerve 8, which plugs into what we call the vestibular system. It's part of a system of where are you in space?

Karen: Love that.

Dr. Rodney: It heightens that.

Karen: Love that. Practice good posture. How do I do that? I mean, you did it again. I saw you.

Dr. Rodney: I did. I totally did, too. It's an awareness, really. It's reorienting yourself with what we were taught when we were younger. Right. Sit up straight and being nice to yourself that way. Don't treat it as a whip to yourself. But also being aware that your body does need breaks about every 15 minutes on average.

Set a timer. And, you know, because of that, you maybe you get tired of sitting because your feet are hurting so much. It's time to sit down and then just go back and forth. And I think that's more natural.

Karen: I do too stand on one foot. Why that?

Dr. Rodney: Absolutely. Because you're stimulating the vestibular system in part,

but also you're bringing balance back to that mini brain in your body, too. You're stimulating flexion and extension. Balance, too. And the core of the body or the vermis of the cerebellum.

There's this little middle part of the cerebellum that helps to coordinate at the core.

Flexion and extension. You're stimulating that all over again, too, in part.

Karen: For those of you that are competitive, and if you live in the North Dallas area, we're here for you for sure. That you can come and be part of a contest is who can stand on one leg for the longest. You have a champion, usually of the week.

Dr. Rodney: Yeah. And I usually make them aware of that, you know, toward the end of the week, because we've got to get all the contestants in.

Karen: You don't have to come here to do that. You can do that while you're brushing your teeth. And it's so important, important to your posture and to your longevity.

Let's wrap up this podcast talking about the final suggestion to improve posture.

What about extension exercises?

Dr. Rodney: There are two of my favorite ones. One is what we call affectionately butt kickers,

and that's one of the first and most favorite is rocket reaches.

Rocket reaches are like you're trying to dive in toward the ceiling and then just in essence, just one leg, one leg at a time and one arm at a time. Opposites. You're pulling your arm back at the while you push your opposite leg backwards without bending your knee. And you'll feel it in your back. If you're not used to doing them, you will really feel it.

And you'll feel the extensor muscles, the muscles of support and movement. Those are the very same things that are stimulating good posture. The other one I mentioned is butt kickers.

Hey, show me your muscles. What do you do? You look like Popeye. You push, you show em your biceps, right?

So this is the opposite of that, the opposite direction. You're actually working those muscles behind your thigh, the hamstrings, and trying to keep your hip as straight as possible, in other words, perpendicular with the ground while moving your hip, your heel back towards your back and that'll work those muscles. At the same time,  you'll be stimulating

Karen: your hip flexors and it's important to use the opposite arm up at the same time. And that's because of the cross crawl.

Dr. Rodney: These last eight years have been great

Karen: and I think we are at least right now sitting up straighter.

We are delighted that you joined us for today and we want to continue to help you take your stance for health.

Dr. Rodney: Thanks for listening.

Thank you for joining us at Stance for Health podcast, where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think. Subscribe now and discover steps and small changes, changes that can increase your energy and open the door to vibrant health and longevity.

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