Health Tip The Importance of Good Posture
It can help you feel better
Posted February 11, 2009
(HealthDay News) -- Posture is important in everything you do. Bad posture can lead to back pain, and even
make you feel more tired than usual.
The American Physical Therapy Association offers these guidelines to help you maintain good posture:
 When standing, your body should be vertically aligned, with a straight spine and head, and a straight
line from your ankles to your knees, hips, shoulders and ears.
 Keep your shoulders and hips level, and knees facing straight ahead when you walk or stand.
 There should be a slight inward curve to your lower back when standing.
 Stand with your abdomen flat.
 When you sit, use the back of the chair for support, and keep your feet on the floor.
 Sit up straight, with your head up. Don't lean forward.
Health Scares Reduce Smoking but Not Waistlines, Survey Finds
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Smokers are three times more likely to quit if they get a wake-up call in the form of a heart attack,
stroke, lung disease or cancer diagnosis, a new study has found.
But obese and overweight people lose two to three pounds at most after being diagnosed with a serious
illness like heart disease or diabetes, according to the same report. The study, which looked at weight loss
only in people under age 75, was published on Monday in The Archives of Internal Medicine.
It’s not entirely clear why heart disease would motivate patients to quit smoking but not to slim down, but
the author of the paper noted that many health plans don’t cover weight-loss programs, with the exception of
bariatric surgery, while many businesses and local health departments offer free or low-cost smoking
cessation programs.
“People really are open to changing their behaviors after a health event, and this could really be a window of
opportunity,” said study author Patricia S. Keenan, assistant professor of health policy at Yale School of
Medicine. “I’m not sure the health care system is capitalizing on it, in terms of giving people the support they
need to make these changes as they go forward.”
To do the study, Dr. Keenan analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, a survey containing
detailed health information about middle-aged and older adults collected every other year between 1992 and
2000. The data included information about 20,221 overweight or obese people under age 75 and about 7,764
smokers.
While only about one in 10 smokers who hadn’t been diagnosed with a serious illness quit cigarettes, almost
one-third of smokers who had had a stroke or were diagnosed with cancer, heart disease or lung disease quit,
the study found.
When smokers were diagnosed with two serious diseases, they were six times more likely to quit than other
smokers, the study found.
Obese people lost very little weight after most diagnoses, though they lost up to half a point from their body
mass index after finding out they had diabetes, the study found.
“One of the reasons they may not have found a big weight loss is because physician counseling alone is not
going to impact weight loss,” said Sherry Pagoto, an assistant professor at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School who co-wrote an editorial accompanying the paper. “The evidence for
behavioral weight loss treatment suggests an intensive program is necessary.”
She added, “If there is a window of opportunity for weight loss, we’re missing it.”