Perfect Posture
Perfect posture is what your body does in a relaxed state. Perfect posture is the position with the least amount of tone. Meaning that if you cary a certain level of stress, perfect posture cannot exist. Sure there are things that can help like stretching or adjustments. Dry needling or other soft tissue therapies can be game changing for opening up tissues to allow for more relaxation to occur. Your body can most definitely be pushed to “perfect posture” based on X-rays, pictures, or plumb line progress, however none of these strategies account for the relaxed or excited state of the tissues.
I look at posture as the overall energy state of the client. Meaning that if someone has very slouched shoulders and a forward head posture, I might assume this person could have significant nutritional deficiencies, a job they don’t like, or a large burden of stress. If another client has a very erect posture with overactive paraspinals keeping them upright, I might assume this person is very rigid with their lifestyle and that probably includes lots of gym time, supplements, nutritional structure... and is also under a large burden of stress. Both of these clients will present with an excess of tone in their tissues, so correcting a slouched person's posture may show static improvements, but the tone rarely changes. Rather than looking at posture as something that needs fixing, I think we should view it as just another symptom. A symptom that may need attention every so often, but still a symptom. To get to the cause of the symptoms, we need a larger canvas.
Stress
The word stress can mean many things to many people. We are all familiar with various types of physical, mental, and emotional stressors. Some of these we can control and some we cannot. Most would say some stress is good and too much is bad. Unfortunately, we are taught that stress should be something we adapt to and overcome, because “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” What we are not taught, is that stress is cumulative and stress is nonspecific. Stress hormones elevate whenever there is an unmet need for energy and can stay elevated in a low energy state. We must understand that the stress from eating a bad meal is the same as the stress from exercise and the same as stress from a rough day with your spouse. When these stressors accumulate, our stress hormones become further out of balance, leading to symptoms that can include pain, headaches, muscle tension, anxiety, depression, digestive issues, high blood pressure, rash, weakened immune system, drug/alcohol abuse, the list goes on.
Many behavioral stressors exist and there are plenty of people speaking on them and offering strategies to combat them. I’ve been down the rabbit hole on many treatment approaches to stress like meditation/mindfulness, diet strategies, exercise, cold plunges, medications, etc. They all have their beneficial moments, but many add to the stressed state, so their temporary effects are fleeting. What I’m really trying to say here is that adding in more “beneficial” things can still add stress to your system and what many praise to be “good for you” may not actually be good in your situation.
Be aware of the stressors in your life. This includes the obvious stressors as well as the ones that are not so apparent. Digestive complaints, over hydration, caloric restriction, over exercise, food quality, bad supplements, environmental toxins, and mineral deficiencies are all stressors that are often not acknowledged but can significantly contribute to the stressed state. Once identified, strategies can be formulated to help physiologically oppose the stressful situation and move to a more healthy, relaxed state.
Sodium & Nerve Physiology
Let’s consider a nerve cell that is causing pain or other neurological symptoms. An injured nerve cell will present in a stressed, excited state, characterized by the retention of sodium and calcium inside the cell. Water flows in the direction of sodium, so the nerve cell tends to swell, causing symptoms. When we ingest sodium, we are increasing the osmolarity of our blood, which will pull the water away from the cell and back into the blood, reducing swelling. If we are not intaking enough sodium in our diet, this swelling process goes unresolved and symptoms persist. The symptoms can include numbness, tingling, burning, or shooting. Nerves can express themselves in many different ways, so the symptoms can also be hard to pinpoint, hard to explain, and often chronic in nature.
Salt should not be avoided. And in many cases it is the substance that resolves pain that is neurogenic in origin. Drinking too much water without adequate minerals contributes to this process just as much as avoiding salt. The combination of too much water and not enough salt leads to the worst outcomes.
The majority of my clients are not eating enough salt. The reasoning for that is often from bad science in how we understand cardiovascular disease. The main theory for avoiding salt from a medical standpoint is that increased salt consumption increases blood pressure. That is absolutely true, however the increase in blood pressure is temporary and begs for more context.
In Defense of Salt
This entire system is tightly controlled by the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System (RAAS). Aldosterone is a stress hormone, that is formed in the adrenals in response to low blood volume. It tells your cells to hold on to sodium, tells your kidneys to lose magnesium, and increases your blood pressure. Having low blood volume is a stressed state. When blood volume is low, we need to have a way to elevate blood pressure so we can get appropriate nutrients to our tissues. It's a wonderful protective system under times of stress, but long term it carries major consequences. Aldosterone contributes to fibrosis, inflammation, and chronic exposure is linked to heart disease. Until blood volume normalizes, it will raise blood pressure and is generally elevated along with other stress hormones like cortisol and glucagon.
Aldosterone, in addition to the rest of the RAAS, will normalize with the intake of sodium. As the concentration of sodium in the blood increases, water will start to follow the sodium ions into the blood, which will raise blood volume. Once blood volume has normalized with a steady diet of sodium, aldosterone levels can normalize. This leads to lower blood pressure, less wasting of magnesium, and the ability for excess sodium to be freely excreted in the urine. With sodium not being stuck inside the cell, the cell can move away from the excited/stressed state into a more relaxed/ready state. This may result in better sleep, less muscle tension, or even improved posture.
Strategies
Increasing sodium consumption in isolation can be a quick and easy fix for some. Others might need to increase intake of calcium or vitamin D along with sodium. The great thing about adding more salt into your diet is that it’s easy, inexpensive, and can have dramatic impacts on your stress levels. The RDA for sodium is only 2.3 grams, which would equate to about 5 grams of table salt (NaCl). My recommendation is to salt to taste (actually taste it - salt is the best!), which for some may end up being >10 grams of salt/day. If you have been avoiding salt for a long period of time, it may take several days to appreciate the taste of salt again. If salt doesn’t sit well with you, baking soda can be a useful alternative. 1-2 teaspoons at a time can provide the needed sodium and may be more approachable for some. For many, neurogenic symptoms, swelling issues, and even high blood pressure can be improved or resolved in a few days to a few weeks.
Dr. Jon Denning
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