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To wear or not to wear a “posture brace”? Alex Beeston, registered osteopath at Shoreham Osteopathy Centre, explains… As an osteopath, this is a question that I receive often in clinic. It is very tempting after developing lower or upper back pain, to consider purchasing an expensive back/ posture brace to help ease the symptoms. This may provide temporary relief, but it is likely that individuals may become dependent on them, and after time become lured into a false reality, believing that without the brace they may do further harm to their back, which is very often not the case. Additionally, if we rely on a brace to provide postural support, we run the risk of exacerbating any muscular imbalances that may be present through lack of normal unrestricted movement. Especially with acute episodes of pain, our smaller, supportive postural muscles “switch off” and the larger muscles which usually are responsible for movement tighten up. It’s then important to recondition those postural muscles to support you again. If you rely on a posture brace, this process may take longer, as there is no need for them to work so hard.
amount of research backing up the prescription of movement and physical activity for relieving lower back pain, and experience has taught us that braces can often hinder the body’s own recovery process, if excessively used in the long term.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ posture, and everyone is built differently - your posture is unique to you. A posture brace may pull you into a unnatural, possibly uncomfortable, position, and as a result cause you to move less which is a stronger predictor of pain than posture alone.
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As osteopaths, our two fundamental goals are to deliver effective pain relief through hands-on treatments, and also to encourage better quantity and quality movement in the long term. There is an overwhelming
Whether you have recently developed a back-pain issue, or have struggled with pain for years, don’t hesitate to contact our team for an in depth assessment and to gain a short and long term plan for management of all musculoskeletal pains, on 01273 567654, info@shorehamosteo. co.uk
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