Slouching and poor posture can gradually lead to a number of detrimental health issues. According to MayoClinic.com, poor posture has been associated with fatigue, injury and a spinal condition known as kyphosis. While practically everybody has been advised to practice good posture at some point during their life, not everyone is familiar with the muscular and skeletal damage chronic poor posture can inflict.
Contact Injury
The human spine has three distinct curves that allow it to maintain integrity in the event of a contact injury. These curves -- the cervical, thoracic and lumbar -- form a natural S shape that poor posture gradually erodes. If you slouch while standing and sitting, the lower lumbar curve gradually rounds and loses its ability to resist and recover from injury.
Subluxation
Poor posture places undue stress on your back by exaggerating its natural curves and potentially causing a spinal subluxation over time. Subluxations are slight dislocations and misalignments that occur when the muscles around your spine pull a vertebrae out of sequence. Subluxations can irritate the nerve roots and blood vessels of your spine and can lead to chronic pain and lack of strength and mobility when turning or lifting.
Kyphosis
Kyphosis is a spinal condition that results in the appearance of a hump on the back. The combination of poor posture and aging increases the compression of the vertebrae and causes a collapse within the bone's structure, resulting in a compression fracture that causes both stiffness and pain. Good posture reduces the pressure that causes the kyphosis curvature to form while maintaining the integrity of the muscles around your spine.
Chronic Back Pain
Poor posture is one of the contributing factors to chronic pain in the back. Individuals who spend many hours at a time in a seated position -- at a desk job or other inactive job, for example -- are particularly at risk for chronic back pain. If you find yourself being sedentary for prolonged periods, place a reminder nearby or set a timer to help remind you to correct your posture throughout the day, and take occasional breaks to stretch your neck and shoulders.
