The Role of Body Posture In Musculoskeletal Pain Syndromes

Editor's Note: New postural devices can be found for the neck, spine, hips, knees, ankles, and feet. The Internet offers numerous commercial offerings of postural products that help the patient and practitioner select an appropriate device. The authors of this paper are particularly enthused about devices that stretch or elongate the spine, since many if not most painful spine conditions result from, or are aggravated by, contraction or shrinkage of the spine components. This compression puts pressure or nerves, discs, or other anatomic structures. At this time, there are essentially no controlled studies comparing devices against no devices or comparing one device against another. For this reason, practitioners must develop their own posture recommendations and select commercial postural devices on anecdotal reports and clinical experience.Forest Tennant, MD, DrPH [2] Volume 11, Issue #3