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Asthma is an inflammatory disease affecting the airways of the lungs. Patients commonly present with symptoms including episodes of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. The severity and duration of asthma related symptoms varies per patient, and may be worse at night, with exertion, and/or with exercise. Asthmatic patients experience an increase in airway resistance that overburdens both respiratory and non-respiratory muscles. This increased stress to the body often results in shortness of breath leading to hyperventilation.  The European Respiratory Society reports that asthma is frequently poorly controlled despite effective modern medication and that psychological factors can be as important as physiological factors in affecting symptom perception and disease impact.
It is recommended that asthmatic patients seek postural correction treatment due to the correlation of better posture and proper respiratory capacity. The literature demonstrates that poor posture is correlated with asthma. Asthmatic patients commonly present with the following postural distortion patterns:
Postural correction care is therapeutic for asthmatic patients and may help them reduce severity and duration of symptoms associated with asthma. Research Review:
Patients suffering from asthma should consider postural correction, breathing training and stress management as part of their management plan for the debilitating affects of asthma. Neglecting any of these three clinical protocols can decrease clinical improvement. Natural approaches to reducing symptoms of asthma are supported in the research and should be considered a high priority for management of asthma related symptoms, and for the prevention of respiratory disorders. (Thank you to the American Posture Institute for the above data).
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The way you breathe can impact your whole body, helping to regulate important functions such as heart rate and blood pressure. It can also reinforce proper body mechanics that put less stress on your body as you move. Deep breathing is also called abdominal or belly breathing. It involves inhaling slowly and deeply through the nose, causing the lungs to fill with air as the belly expands. This type of breathing is associated with many health benefits, from reducing stress to lowering blood pressure. While these benefits are widely known, the busy pace of life plus a sedentary work environment have conditioned many of us to take only quick, shallow breaths. Over time, this weakens the strength of our respiratory muscles. It also creates tension in the upper body that can alter our posture and undermine our health. If you’re a shallow breather, regular physical activity and brief sessions of respiratory muscle training can reverse these symptoms and help to improve your quality of life.  Breathing rate can vary with age, weight, tolerance to exercise, and general health. For the average adult, a normal breathing rate consists of 12 to 18 breaths per minute. However, several factors can impair respiratory function, creating a pattern of quick, shallow breathing.
Sudden or chronic pain can activate a section of the nervous system that governs many bodily systems, including your breathing rate, heat rate, and body temperature. Chronic stress and strong emotions such as rage or fear intensify your fight-or-flight response, which can impair your breathing rate. Poor posture also contributes to breathing pattern dysfunction. This is commonly seen in people who spend long hours sitting each day. Rounded shoulders and a forward head posture cause the muscles around the chest to tighten. That tightening limits the ability of the rib cage to expand and causes people to take more rapid, shallow breaths. A slow, steady breathing pattern enhances core stability, helps improve tolerance to high-intensity exercise, and reduces the risk of muscle fatigue and injury. Taking balanced, equal breaths should be your goal. A good way to practice balanced breathing is to take a deep inhale, count to four, and then release a deep exhale to the same count. If you’re unsure of whether you’re a shallow breather, place your palm against your abdomen beneath your rib cage and exhale. Take a deep breath and follow the movement of your hand. If your hand moves as your abdomen expands, you’re breathing correctly. If your hand only moves slightly but your shoulders elevate, you may want to consider practicing breathing exercises to strengthen your muscles and reinforce proper breathing patterns. Performing deep breathing exercises along with general fitness training can increase the strength of the respiratory muscles. Breathing techniques such as roll breathing can also be used to develop full use of the lungs while controlling the rhythm of respiration. A study done in 2018 by Erik Peper, a professor at San Francisco State University, suggests that when we’re feeling threatened, our natural reaction to fear is to hunch our shoulders down and curl into a defensive crouch. While this posture protects us from any physical threat or danger, it does the opposite when we’re confronted with emotional or social threats like a difficult conversation with your teenager, or being asked to explain why you’re late in handing in your monthly report, again. Not only does this hunched posture not protect you from the threat, research shows it can actually make your negative thoughts and the symptoms of your anxiety worse. A 2017 article in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry found fewer negative thoughts and lower anxiety in participants with erect posture. A 2012 study found that just two or three minutes of slouched walking increased depression and negativity. while two minutes of skipping caused an increase in energy and positive thinking.  Good Posture Changes How You Think
If you’re trying to fill out forms for a job application or taking a test, the last thing you’re thinking about is your posture. But if you can remember to sit up straight and take a few deep breaths, chances are you’re going to feel more focused and will do a better job in filling in those blanks. In a study done in 2018 by researchers at San Francisco State University, 125 college students were tested to see how well they could do simple maths problems while they were hunched over. They were then tested again while sitting up straight. 56% of those students reported that it was easier to do the maths while sitting upright. They determined that an upright posture gives better access to positive, empowering thoughts and memories. So, when you sit up straight, you’re able to think more clearly, no matter how difficult the task at hand. It Changes How You Feel About Yourself Sitting or standing up straight even for a couple of minutes can help you focus on your strengths, restore your self-confidence and help you speak up for yourself, even in challenging circumstances. In a study done by Pablo Brinol for the European Journal of Social Psychology, 127 students from Ohio State University were asked to list their best and worst qualities while sitting erect, then again while in a slumped posture. Participants sitting upright tended to see themselves in a more favorable light, while those who were hunched were less able to list their strengths. In her famous Ted Talk, Amy Cuddy shares an experiment that studied people asked to go through a simulated job interview. Before the interviews, some participants assumed a high power posture for two minutes while others were asked to take a low power pose for the same two minutes. Those who assumed a confident position were evaluated much more favorably, and were more likely to be hired by the judges than their slouching peers. So there you have it. Any time your boss calls you into his or her office, when you realize you’ve forgotten your notes for the presentation or you’re faced with any kind of “action anxiety,” lift your shoulders, straighten your back, breathe, and take positive action. 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. The correlation between posture and physical health is well known. However, posture also has a link with your mental health. Various research studies around the world have noted the importance of posture in affecting one’s relationship to people and the world. One study (Carney et al, 2010) has postulated that “power poses” lead to increased testosterone and decreased cortisol levels, which is then associated with social dominance and decreased threat perception.  Another study between Columbia and Harvard Universities argues that stress is increased by bad posture. The study showed that people who adopted powerful postures, open shoulders, and straight spines had a 20% increase in testosterone levels and a 25% decrease in cortisol levels, resulting in a lower feeling of stress. Those who slouched had a 10% decrease in testosterone and a 15% increase in cortisol, resulting in a higher feeling of stress.
As the brain-body connection rightly continues to permeate the wellness industry, more studies show the correlation between poor posture and a poor state of mind. So, if you spend increased periods of time sitting with your shoulders slouched (like looking at a computer) it's important to take note of the side effects of this as well as how to counteract them. Strong evidence points to poor posture as an exacerbating factor in various states of negative mood. Indeed, we now know that a slumped or collapsed posture increases people's feelings of anxiety or depression, while a straightened spine helps them feel more alert. Furthermore, the shoulders back position lowers the levels of anxiety as well. This phenomenon is also responsible for an increase in energy. With less compression, your muscles are better able to perform vital functions without the extra work. The science behind this connection may be surprising but sitting or standing in better alignment really can make a difference. If you’ve ever tried yoga, you may have heard of “power poses”, which are upright positions that help boost energy and confidence. If you haven’t done yoga, you’ve probably noticed how you feel more positive mentally when in a more upright posture. Turning again to science, a San Francisco State University study examined how students recalled and thought about past experiences, both good and bad. The group was told to recall both negative and positive experiences twice – once while sitting up straight, the other while slouching over. The results showed that 86% of the students who were in a slumped position found it easier to recall negative emotions or experiences. On the contrary, 87% of the students found it much easier to recall positive experiences when sitting up straight. These same principles can be applied to your everyday life. Remember, being slumped over can cause issues you may not be consciously aware of. Additionally, slouching is seen as a position of defeat. Sitting or standing up straighter can help positive feelings and memories emerge instead of more unmotivated/hopeless feelings. Anxiety, depression, and stress can all become serious issues. Being more aware of your posture can help. Making small changes like consistently sitting taller with your back straight can make a difference. Consider how you may be sitting right now, is your back straight and your head upright? We often spend hours slouching without even realizing it. Changing this is a process that takes practice and discipline but in the end, it’s worth it. I’ll leave you with a quote from Psychology Today… “If you have depression that’s causing serious distress and interfering with your daily life, good posture is no substitute for professional treatment. But as an addition to treatment, reminding yourself to sit or stand up straight can help you feel more upbeat and energetic.” |