Nutrition is the cornerstone of metabolism, and good eating means good bones, good muscles and good connective tissues. But what if your posture could affect your ability to absorb and digest food?

The way a person stands and moves can have an impact on the stomach and intestine and diaphragm. By optimising posture, effects can be seen on the stomach, intestine and diaphragm (while standing or sitting) and therefore digestion can actually be improved.

​A number of scientific studies speak of the effects of posture on digestion.

Firstly, a group of scientists speak about the effect of posture on digestion. Volloria et al. discovered that patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) that complained of bloating and gas had unusually relaxed oblique abdominal muscles, possibly caused by unusual diaphragm contractions. This study indicates that the positioning of the body during a meal can affect the parts of the body that aid in digestion. If the position of the body is not optimal, it can produce negative effects.

In another study, researchers compared lying down to sitting up after a meal . They found that the women who lay down digested their food more slowly and had much less malabsorption. Meanwhile, the women who sat up had significantly more malabsorption.

Another study by the same group found a similar result for milk sugar (lactose): lying down improved digestion of lactose and reduced malabsorption compared to sitting up.

​Of course we can't only posture. Poor nutritional habits are doing more than their fair share of harm today, but even what little proteins, good fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals are in the worst of food have even less chances of being absorbed properly if the person doesn’t have a good posture.

So as you can see, it’s not just a matter of what you eat, but what you absorb, and a body that’s been aligned and fine-tuned with better posture can be an integral part of a good metabolism.

As stated in the American CEO magazine, we all know that a sedentary lifestyle yields medical challenges like weight gain, heart disease and kidney failure. Did you know, though, how you sit can also jeopardize work performance? Poor posture affects productivity, by learning how to sit properly, you can boost brain function and accomplish more during the day.

​Body Language Affects Mood

The way you sit can make you happy, sad or depressed. It sounds strange, but researchers at Ohio State University found that nodding or shaking your head affects your attitude, even if it’s unintentional.

Erik Peper, a Dutch behavioral scientist also researched this topic. He found two key facts about posture that will help you on the job, today:

1. Sitting straight increases the likelihood that you'll think positively. The next time you struggle with a negative attitude or workplace drama, sit straight. Your mood and mindset will change, allowing you to focus on work and get more done.

2. Skipping during regular breaks increases energy levels, but walking while slouching or slumping drains your energy. During your next break, stand up straight and skip down the hall to the copy room, bathroom or lunchroom. Your co-workers might look at you funny, but you'll face all the projects on your desk with renewed energy.

Posture Affects Hormones

Difficult tasks, hostile clients or boring projects take the fun out of work. However, if any of these productivity killers affect you, use posture to your advantage. Simply stand up and extend your arms and legs. Stretching as tall and wide as possible expresses your power and tells your brain that you're ready to tackle anything.

Researchers at Columbia University and Harvard University concur that posture affects hormones. People who stand in powerful, expansive poses experience decreased cortisol and increased testosterone levels. This hormone combination increases leadership ability and disease resistance. A powerful pose can also help you take risks and land new clients, ask for a raise, or approach a problem resourcefully.

What does this all mean? When you need to do something you'd rather not do, like start a huge project, call a challenging client, or write a cumbersome report, stand tall or sit straight instead of hunching. Your expansive posture will assist you in doing the tasks that stand between you and success.

Get Moving!

To be more productive, get moving. Regular movement provides many benefits, physically and mentally. To stay moving when your job requires regular sitting, incorporate bursts of physical activity into your daily routine.

At least twice every hour, stand and walk. Move around your office, walk to the break room to refill your water bottle or walk down the hall and back. The break resets your posture and prevents you from sitting in one spot too long.
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Ready to be more productive at work? Keep your posture in check and enjoy the many benefits.

An article published by Harvard Medical School in 2021 states "While back and neck conditions top the list of potential posture woes, there are many others — such as poor balance, headaches, and breathing difficulties. Researchers are also looking into whether posture affects mood, sleep, fatigue, and jaw alignment."

​Three other problems linked to poor posture may surprise you.

1. Incontinence. Poor posture promotes stress incontinence — when you leak a little urine if you laugh or cough. "Slouching increases abdominal pressure, which puts pressure on the bladder. The position also decreases the ability of the pelvic floor muscles to hold against that pressure," notes physical therapist Meghan Markowski, who specializes in helping people overcome bladder, bowel, and pelvic floor problems.

2. Constipation. Poor posture on a toilet — hunched over with your knees lower than your hips — can promote constipation. "That position closes the anus somewhat and makes it harder for the abdominal muscles to help move feces out," Markowski says. Constipation is characterized by fewer than three bowel movements per week; hard, dry stools; straining to move the bowels; and a sense of an incomplete evacuation.
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3. Heartburn and slowed digestion. Slouched posture after a meal can trigger heartburn caused by acid reflux (when stomach acid squirts back up into the esophagus). "Slouching puts pressure on the abdomen, which can force stomach acid in the wrong direction," explains Dr. Kyle Staller, a gastroenterologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. "And some evidence suggests that transit in the intestines slows down when you slouch. In my opinion, it probably does play a small role."

What you can do...

We recommend seeing a physiotherapist or posture specialist if you suspect you have poor posture that is causing problems for you. The therapist will customize a program of exercises and stretches to improve your muscle strength and flexibility. The core muscles in particular (in the abdomen, pelvic floor, and back) support the spine.

The goal is a neutral, upright spine position — not flexed too far forward or backward.

A neutral spine is also important when it's time to move your bowels. "Keep your back straight and lean forward at the hips. Keeping your knees higher than your hips — by placing your feet on a footstool — mimics a squatting position, which is best for helping to open the anus so you can pass feces without straining," Markowski says.

To reduce the risk of stress incontinence leakage, Markowski recommends strengthening the pelvic floor muscles as well. "We teach people how to control their pelvic muscles when they cough," she says. "The proper neutral spine alignment will also help minimize abdominal pressure."

In a medically reviewed article from 2021, the website WebMD has listed commonly accepted benefits of having better posture. These are listed below. It also notes...
"Our modern lifestyles may contribute to poor posture. Looking down at our phones or sitting at a desk for several hours a day working on a computer changes the way we hold ourselves. You may notice that you are slumped forward when performing these activities, rather than sitting or standing up straight."

Benefits of Good Posture

Good posture isn’t just about how you present yourself. Having poor posture can actually affect your physical and mental health.
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1. Better mood and energy. 
One of the best benefits of good posture is the way that you feel about yourself. Improving your posture can help you stay focused and more energized throughout the day. This can help improve your mood too.
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Research also suggests that good posture can lead to more self-confidence. When you carry yourself well and feel good about yourself, you’re less likely to experience depressive thoughts. This can give you more self-esteem and a better feeling of pride and confidence in yourself.

​2. Bone, joint, and muscle health.
As mentioned, your posture depends on your muscles and bones. When you align your spine correctly, you put less stress on your joints and bones. This can lead to less overall pain or reduced chances of developing problems like osteoarthritis.
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Even though there are tons of exercises out there to help you improve your core muscle strength, doctors say that practicing proper posture is one of the best ways to help tone this muscle group.
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3. Better breathing and fewer headaches.
When you sit or stand up straight with your shoulders back, you’ll find that it’s easier to breathe. There’s more room to open up your chest for deeper breaths. Practicing poor posture, such as when you’re slouching over, can cause tension in your shoulders and neck. This can lead to headaches in your forehead or the back of your skull.
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4. Improved spine and neck health.
By practicing proper posture, you help reduce the risk of back and neck pain. Slouching or hunching at a desk can affect the way your spine grows. Back pain is actually one of the most common reasons why people miss work. If your job requires you to stand for long periods of time, standing properly can help you fight back against fatigue and leg pain or cramps.

Many of us are quite inefficient when it comes to how we breathe. It may come as no surprise that our increasingly sedentary lifestyle and slouched spinal postures would impact our ability to breathe well, but to what extent?
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The average Australian spends nearly 10 hours a day sitting. A sedentary lifestyle has been defined in research by less than 5,000 steps a day or sitting for more than 6 hours a day. Now if you factor in a daily commute, sitting down for meals, watching TV, we can easily hit 6 hours of sitting before even adding on the number of hours we have to sit at work, school or university. Our bodies are designed to be in motion and when we don’t move, we function inefficiently. We now live in a world that promotes this type of sedentary, dysfunctional lifestyle, and it comes with consequences.

So how are we designed to breathe?

To inhale, the abdominal muscles should relax for the diaphragm to contract downwards and push our organs out of the way. The intercostal (between the ribs) muscles should then contract to expand the rib cage and decrease pressure in the lungs to create a vacuum, drawing air into the lungs. To exhale, the diaphragm and intercostals need to relax to allow the abdominals to contract and push air out of the lungs.

If we sit in a slouched posture with our abdomen compressed, there is no room for our organs to move out of the way, limiting the ability of the diaphragm and intercostals to expand the lungs. This reduced expansion means a significantly reduced lung capacity (taking in less oxygen). Up to a 30% reduction in lung capacity has been observed in studies, which puts more stress on the heart and lungs, increasing the risk of an overall stress response in our bodies and our cortisol levels skyrocket. Elevated cortisol levels are linked with a wide range of medical conditions such as anxiety, weight gain, slower healing, high blood pressure, fatigue and headaches.

Movement is an acquired skill and if you’ve ever attended a yoga or Pilates class, you were likely  reminded to breathe by the instructor, regularly. At times you probably caught yourself holding your breath to help stabilise yourself in positions because the muscles meant to stabilise have lost their ability to do it themselves. If you’ve lost a skill it will take time to relearn and redevelop the correct technique. Practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. If we continue to down the path of inactivity, we are training ourselves to be less efficient and therefore placing more stress on our bodies in an already stressful environment.

Breathing Exercise

Keep it simple and start with the breath. Place one hand on the abdomen and one on your chest. Take a slow breath in, allowing the abdomen to press up into your bottom hand while the top hand stays relatively still. Breath out smoothly and feel the abdominals drawing the ribs down while imagining you are trying to make a candle flicker but not go out. Try this first lying down on your back and gradually progress to supported sitting, unsupported sitting, and standing. Add in more challenging functional movement patterns as your breath improves. You'll find that this abdominal breathing exercises is always easier in an upright posture.

Posture impacts the aging process.

Those who stand erect and move smoothly can look much younger than their years, while those who are stooped and have an unsteady gait often look older than they are.  Looks may be superficial, but there's no doubt looking better helps our self esteem.

Poor posture leads to pain.

Poor posture often contributes to back pain, neck pain, and headaches to name a few unpleasant conditions.  Our bodies are structures that must conform to the same physical laws as buildings or bridges and work against gravity on a daily basis.  Like any other structure there is an ideal alignment of the parts that reduces the stress on your joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons.  Unlike buildings or bridges, our bodies can adapt and compensate for poor alignment (posture),  but there is a price to pay for that.  The price is not only pain, but also the slow deterioration of the entire musculoskeletal framework.

Many call this “getting old”.  However, if we return to that shopping centre or busy public space, we can see that that is not the case.  One 60 year old, for example, may be mistaken for 45, where another may be mistaken for 75.  The calendar can be an unreliable way to determine a person’s age and appearance!

Posture exercises help you age well.

Posture exercises will strengthen key muscle groups that have weakened with injury or inactivity, as well as stretching those muscles which have become overly tight.  This helps maintain strong posture and smooth movement.  It also ensures full, deep breathing, better circulation, and proper nerve function.  So really, posture exercises are a crucial aid to a long, active, healthy life.

Not an athlete or sporty person? It still pays to have good balance. Just walking across the floor or around the block requires good balance. So does getting up from a chair, going up and down stairs, carrying things, and even turning to look behind you.
Poor posture isn't necessarily "just a bad habit", either. Physical reasons for poor posture include:

• Tight muscles that decrease range of motion (how far a joint can move in any direction). For example, overly tight, shortened hip flexor muscles tug your upper body forward and disrupt your posture. Overly tight chest muscles can pull your shoulders forward.
• Muscle strength affects balance in a number of ways. The "core muscles" of the back, side, pelvis, and buttocks form a sturdy central link between your upper and lower body. Weak core muscles encourage slumping, which tips your body forward and thus off balance. Strong lower leg muscles also help keep you steady when standing.

The good news is that you can improve your posture with a few simple exercises. Balance-specific workouts address posture and balance problems with exercises that build strength where it counts and stretch those tight muscles. Quick posture checks in the mirror before and during balance exercises can also help you get the most from your regular workout. And increasing your core strength and flexibility can help you improve your posture noticeably in just a few weeks.

We all know that good posture is an important part of being healthy, but it's something you often put off until later, like so many other aspects of our own self-care. You may not realise however, all of the ways in which having better body alignment can impact your life. Here are just a few changes that you can expect when you do get around to  working on your posture...

1. You feel more energetic:
"Standing with optimal posture allows your diaphragm to work more efficiently, which can make breathing easier and less labored," says Alynn Dukart, certified strength and conditioning specialist and wellness physical therapist at the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program. A forward, rounded posture (say, from hunching over your laptop) restricts the expansion of your rib cage as you breathe, compresses your diaphragm, and can even decrease lung capacity, making breathing more difficult. Efficient breathing, on the other hand, regulates the flow of oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout your body and keeps you energised.

2. You're less likely to experience headaches:
If you do suffer with headaches, your posture could be to blame. Tension headaches are most often caused by a tight neck, upper back, and jaw muscles, all of which are made worse by forward head and rounded shoulders posture. Over time, if the muscle tightness persists, trigger points and stiff upper cervical (neck) jointss can develop, causing radiating pain into your head. Being more mindful of your body alignment, combined with a regular, simple routine of stretching and strengthening your muscle groups, can reverse all of these effects.

3. There is less strain on your joints:
Bad posture is bad news for your joints. Put simply, our bodies are deigned to be "stacked" or aligned in a certain way. When this isn't happening, our muscles and joints are subjected to stresses that they aren't designed for.  "Tech neck", or forward head posture for example, places significant stress on your shoulder and neck joints and surrounding muscles, which can lead to pain and headaches. Research has repeatedly shown that for every inch of forward head posture, the weight of the head on the spine increses by 10 pounds. Another common thing we see is anterior pelvic tilt, which compresses your lumbar spine and can lead to back and hip pain.

4. You will feel less stressed:
Yes, really! A study from the University of Auckland found that sitting up straight can be used as a coping mechanism against stress. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups and asked to complete a stress-inducing task. The first group completed the task in an upright position, while the second group did so while being in a slouched posture. After the task was over, participants who used good posture reported feeling "more enthusiastic, excited, and strong." Meanwhile, slouched participants reported feeling more "fearful, hostile, nervous, quiet, still, passive, dull, sleepy, and sluggish." Researchers suspect that sitting up straight can stimulate physiological arousal such as a increase in blood pressure, and trigger a coping response to stress. When your body isn't aligned properly, it appears to alter your hormones and nervous system function, which then alters your mood.