9 Side Effects of Bad Posture

Woody Short

7 years ago

Did you know about the long term effects of bad posture on your health?

We may not stop to think about this often, but the effects of bad posture can actually be considered a health hazard, according to the experts, because we are not allowing for the proper functioning of our bodies.

Growing up our parents always tried to instill in us a sense of good posture, but we never truly understood that this is something that goes beyond simply appearance.

It turns out that the effects of slouching are actually many, and have a lot more to do with how our body performs and how we feel after a certain amount of time, and little to do with how we look.

The long term effects of bad posture can actually be prejudicial to our overall heath, as they affect everything from our head, to our digestive system, and – of course – our spine and the alignment of our skeleton.

Have you ever stopped to think about the true effects of slouching? Sure, you may feel comfortable and more relaxed, but what are you truly doing to your body?

Turns out, slouching or adopting a bad posture for long periods of time can trigger a number of health hazards, the simplest being the appearance of pain and discomfort.

The effects of bad posture can be far more complex and serious than you may have imagined. For example:

Change in your spinal curve: adopting an unnatural position causes a great pressure on your spine. With time, this prevents your spine from being able to absorb shock normally and interferes with your balance.
Back pain: probably the most common consequence of bad posture, you can experience anything from mild discomfort, to chronic back pain and even reach the point of suffering from disc degeneration.
Constipation: probably one of the least known effects of bad posture is how your digestive system is affected by slouching or poor back support. Bad posture has a direct effect on your intestines and the way food travels through your system.
Headache and jaw pain: a normal reaction to slouching is clenching your jaw. While we may not be aware of this, our facial muscles tighten as a response to the bad posture, thus leading to discomfort and pain.
Circulatory problems: abnormal pressure on our spine leads to decreased blood flow throughout our bodies. Adopting this bad posture for a long period of time can lead to the appearance of spider veins and spots of poor circulation.
Causes stress and deepens depression: as unbelievable as it sounds, the discomfort created by a bad posture leads to stress – not only mentally – but all over our body. This creates a sudden feeling of desperation and sadness, contributing to longer episodes of depression.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: with the existent connection between the nerves on our neck, back, arms, wrists and hands it is logical that bad posture has an effect on these limbs, tightening and numbing the nerves, causing a tingling sensation and even pain.
Fatigue and less motivation: when we adopt a bad posture, our body’s natural reaction is to fight back to regain a normal state. This causes a significant amount of stress, uses a lot of our energy and leaves us feeling tired. Feeling motivated under these circumstances seems almost impossible.
Longer times of recovery after a workout or a strenuous situation: because our muscles are in a certain way overworked trying to fix the bad posture, whenever we work out and spend time doing a strenuous job, it takes double the time for our body to recover.

In addition to these effects, adopting bad posture for a long period of time also leads to inflammation and irruption throughout our system.

Paying close attention to how we sit, walk and stand is important in order to fix a bad posture problem. Moreover, there are many back relaxation exercises that are focused on providing a much needed relief to this important part of our body.