The Chasm between Posture &
Chiropractic Education and Treatment

by Dr. David Seaman

Abnormalities of posture are common cause of pain and disability often overlooked by practitioners who treat patients suffering from acute and chronic musculoskeletal complaints.1-5 Kendall states: "Postural faults that persist can give rise to discomfort, pain, or disability. The range of effect from discomfort to incapacitating disability is related to the severity and persistence of the faults."6

Believe it or not, in 1947, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) had a posture committee. According to Kendall, the AAOS definition of poor posture is ". . . a faulty relationship of the various parts of the body which produces increased strain on the supporting structures and in which there is less efficient balance of the body over its base of support."6

Addressing poor posture is an important issue, and it is typically neglected in chiropractic education and clinical practice. Do you remember the class you had in chiropractic college that was exclusively devoted to assessing and restoring normal posture? We don't.

Despite this lack of formal education, most DCs still acknowledge the importance of good posture, as did the AAOS in 1949 with this definition: "Good posture is that state of muscular and skeletal balance which protects the supporting structures of the body against injury or progressive deformity irrespective of the attitude (erect, lying, squatting, stooping) in which these structures are working or resting. Under such conditions the muscles will function most efficiently and the optimum positions are afforded for the thoracic and abdominal organs."

What Constitutes Good Posture? To be able to recognize the attributes of bad posture, one must first have some standard of what constitutes good or normal posture. Fortunately, many authors have discussed the importance of normal posture.1,4,5,7,8 In the lateral view, normal postural alignment is defined as balance about a coronal line of reference or gravity line that passes through the external auditory meatus, acromioclavicular joints, greater trochanters and lateral malleoli. (more)