Is Your Posture Bringing Your Organs Down?

One of the last things people coming into my office think about is organ health. But the truth is the more immobile you are the and poorer the posture, the more likely your organs are being suffocated. Although you may be focusing well on diet, stress, and managing organ issues with medications or supplements, you are likely ignoring the structural forces on your organs.

Most directly, I use Maya Abdominal Therapy to open up the abdominal and pelvic regions to improve blood, lymph and nerve flow to the organs in that area. But there are others ways to improve organ function. For example, your brain may experience lower functioning due to neck tension and suboptimal head and neck position, limiting blood flow to your brain and decreasing mental functioning. If your ribs, diaphragm and other torso muscles are not moving well, you may be getting less oxygen to your whole body. Further, when you can't take a full breath, the massage that your organs get during respiration, and the relaxation effect of deep breathing, is lessened. Structural integration can drastically improve these things. So much so that people often say, "Now I finally feel blood flowing to my brain, hands, etc."

As we age not only do our organs naturally start to decline in function but we start to structurally collapse, particularly in our abdomen. This puts additional strain on the organs through pressure of many organs in a shrinking space. They can become adhered to other tissues in an abnormal position. Their channels of inflow of nutrients and immune cells and removal of toxins can become partially blocked. And as we age, increasing immobility causes us to exercise less, further impairing the flow of lymph (immune system fluid). The lymphatic system depends of active movement or massage to function as it doesn't have a forceful pump of a heart muscle, like the circulatory system (even that needs some exercise to avoid problems).

We wonder why things like prostatitis and constipation are so common even though as men age in America, sitting all the time, their pelvises become locked and into a suboptimal position for inflow and outflow. We wonder why women have painful periods and difficulty getting pregnant. There can be many factors, but muscular and fascial issues are rarely considered by Western medicine.

It's not rocket science to imagine that slightly starving an organ of blood, oxygen and lymph might have an impact. I hope you don't start thinking now "Oh my organs are dying!" but instead start to bring some gentle consciousness to your organs. Are you taking a full breath, is your pelvis moving or does it feel locked and congested, does your brain feel foggy? If you take active steps to keep your organs flowing, they may support you better for the long haul. It's a two way relationship - maybe your organs want more support and some room to breathe in exchange for giving your vitality. Its something to chew on if you want to age well.

If you want to learn self organ massage, schedule a Maya Abdominal Therapy session and I will teach you a simple way to take care of your body for the rest of your life.