How posture affects your digestion

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.