Standing tall doesn’t just make you look better, it optimizes your health, too. Other studies have found good posture elevates testosterone and serotonin in the body, and also reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Good posture has even been linked to personality traits such as tolerance for risk-taking.
Humans were designed to stand upright. And yet in this modern world, too many of us spend our days with our heads slumped over for a simple reason: we’re staring at the tiny screen of a smartphone.
People spend an average of 2 to 4 hours each day with their neck bent at this unnatural angle while shooting off emails or texts. That’s 700 to 1,400 hours a year. The success of social media is has led to an epidemic of bad smartphone posture.
The average adult head weighs 10 to 12 pounds when it’s in the upright or neutral position. However, because of that pesky thing called physics — gravitational pull — the cranium becomes heavier the more you bend your neck. Several times heavier, according to research from Dr. Kenneth Hansraj, chief of spine surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, which will be published in…
View original post 389 more words
Health Secrets of a SuperAger 