What is posture?
Every living being adapts to the environment in which it finds itself to survive and carry out its static and dynamic motor activities. “Posture” can be defined as a general concept of body balance intended as “optimization” of the relationship between the subject and the surrounding environment. In essence, it is that condition in which the person assumes ideal body attitudes and positions with respect to the environmental situation. The Tonic-Postural System (TPS) is that set of structures and organs that communicate with each other and perform this very important function.
The resources that the body uses are:
• exteroceptors : they position the body in relation to the environment (touch, vision , hearing);
• proprioceptors : they position the different parts of the body in relation to the whole, in a pre-established position;
• the higher centers : they integrate the strategy selectors, the cognitive processes. They re-elaborate the data received from the two previous sources (exoreceptors and endocereceptors).
Posture and visual defects
Numerous studies have shown that there is a very important correlation between the visual system and posture. An uncorrected or imprecisely corrected visual defect induces a postural bias that can be more or less rooted. In fact, we know (J. Baron; PM Gagey; B. Bricot; RJ Bourdiol and G. Bortolin; R. Roll and JP Roll; et al.) that tone asymmetries in the oculomotor muscles generate postural adaptations that are projected up to the plantar support on the ground. The induced adaptations can be well compensated (and therefore asymptomatic) or can in turn generate local, locoregional and distant disorders.
They interact on the postural tonic system: astigmatism, myopia, hyperopia, the inability to converge or diverge since non-optimal binocular vision produces postural compensation. Incorrect postures often turn into painful manifestations including headaches, cervical tract blocks, dizziness and vertigo.
Just as our way of seeing influences posture, visual function is extremely adaptive and plastic. An incorrect postural attitude can therefore induce negative effects on vision, on accommodative performance, on binocular coordination. The balance of the visual system is therefore degraded and phorias (disorders of the oculomotor system) can appear.
The signs to recognize
Cervicalgia
Alterations in the visual system can cause high or low neck pain, back pain and even lumbar pain, monoarticular peripheral pain, insertion pain or tendonitis.
Heachache
It is very common for an uncorrected or poorly corrected visual defect to cause unilateral headaches (migraine), temporal headaches (orbital or retro-orbital). Then there are occipital headaches that can evolve and become general (headaches). They are characterized by the presence, often of phenomena of photophobia (annoyance for light), tearing, tunnel vision, dizzy sensation.
Dizziness
Dizziness and vertigo are also signs to be aware of. They are often characterized by heaviness of the head at the occipital and/or cervico-scapular level, a feeling of intoxication. Frequent bumps against objects, a feeling of instability, the need to hold on to go down stairs, ease of falling, ease of getting caught in handles due to measurement errors, must all put you on alert.
Tiredness
General disorders, such as excessive tiredness and/or fatigability, computer fatigue, falling asleep easily in front of the television, difficulty concentrating and memorizing, and a decline in intellectual performance.
General malaise
Fear of emptiness, going out or open spaces. Discomfort while driving, fear of speed, feeling of skidding to one side, poor judgment of distances and reliefs.
The visual-postural examination
Our optometric-postural examination analyzes sight as a postural receptor, evaluating how the subject receives and processes information from the outside. This examination allows us to understand if postural problems are linked to vision disorders and evaluate the type of interference that exists. The patient's history and the symptoms that emerge from the anamnesis are of great importance for a complete evaluation. Through the optometric examination, the necessary compensation and the relative optical device (glasses, contact lenses) are provided to keep the subject in good balance.
Postural memories can last over time (even beyond two years) a period in which the subject can fall back into previous adaptations. For this reason it is advisable that the subject be checked regularly and, if necessary, treated again based on the situation found. An adequate optical prescription is essential to maintain the results obtained from the manipulations.
Bibliography:
- Bourdiol R. J., Bortolin G. – CefaleEMIcraniE – New nosological classification and multidisciplinary therapeutic approach – Edizioni Gemmer Italia – Rasai di Seren del Grappa (Bl), 2000
- Roncagli V. - Evaluation and treatment of functional visual disorders
- Ugolini D. – Eye and posture – AIOC – Journal of contact lenses and optometry of the Italian Academy of Optometrists Contact Lenses – vol. XXXIII – n. 2 – 2009
- Ugolini D. – Oculomotor skills and cognitive-behavioral processes in developmental age – AIOC – Journal of contact lenses and optometry Italian Academy of Optometrists Contact Lens Specialists – n. 3 – 2010