Posture Diagram

Posture Diagram

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Foot Recovery Update Before/After


During my research about PE I also found out that flat feet are linked to the condition and after strictly using only professional barefoot shoes (zero drop) my feet have recovered in an almost miraculous way. Today my “ex-torture feet” are healthy and almost completely healed, no pain at all. My philosophy is to not use any support, which I believe makes the muscles in the feet to work in a natural way. The more I walk the more healthy my feet gets. When I put my feet on the ground the arches falls a little down but that is the type of feet I have. Now compared to then; they are not extremely flattened and deformed anymore.
It is tree months between the two pictures. The first one was uploaded here on my blog after some progress in December 2013.



This proves to me that ordinary shoes can cause a lot of damage to the feet.
 
 
Note: During the healing process it may occur some pain when they are being transformed to normal. I recommend to strictly not running during the healing process.    


Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Nuss-procedure vs “Do-it-yourself-procedure”


The Nuss-procedure forces the sternum out with a metal-bar and because of that also forces the rest of the upper body into a correct position.

The Do-it-yourself-procedure, developed by me (B. RL Åkerström) forces the surroundings of the sternum (the rest of the upper body) by natural ergonomics, towards a correct position and as a consequence of that forces the sternum towards a correct position.

People whom have undergone the Nuss-surgery (I have followed forums) in general complains about pain in the upper back. The reason is of course the fact that the ribs that are attached to the sternum also are attached to the shortened kyphotic upper back. The lift of the sternum will cause an enormous stretching in the upper back when the ribs moves forwards together with the sternum.
A little pain may occur during the Do-it-yourself-procedure as well (in the upper back) at some points in time. From my experience; the pain is very mild (like doing weight lifting). You will slowly move the sternum and the rest of the body towards a correct position (like moving teeth). From my experience the recovery process is very fast in the beginning if it is followed 100%, and it will be more and more slow the closer to full correction one gets. My record for now is:  A little more than 90% corrected.


The illustration shows that the "Do-it-yourself-procedure” is a non-surgical “mirror-image-effect” of the Nuss-surgery.


Nuss

1.       A force under the sternum push it out (a metal-bar).

2.       The ribs moves in the direction of the lifted sternum.

3.       The spine straightens.

Yourself

1.       The spine straightens because of natural ergonomics.

2.       The ribs are pushed in the direction of the sternum because

the spine straightens.

3.       The sternum is forced out by the ribs with help from the
                “natural metal-bar” the diaphragm.

Monday, April 14, 2014

For Me a Huge Improvement (flexing photo)

I have gained weight both muscles and fat. I think the total dip is around 1.9 cm (fat and muscles 1.5+sternum0.4). Once it was around two inch without muscles and fat included, so this is for me "almost completely out".



I have found it especially important to be up on the feet to keep the sternum in this position. If I sit down too much, it sinks back around 5 mm quite fast.

I think that my modified dumbbell pullovers have made a lot to the positive but it is very important to not do them too much, as all form of training. I have lately made some test to verify my shoe-theory and it has yet another time been confirmed that it is impossible for me to lift the heel. The sternum sinks in extremely fast because of the S-shaping posture they produces which is described in detail on my blog. 

After my healing process of my feet I can’t use shoes with heels for yet another reason. I immediately get pain and it is clearly visible that they get deformed. Once moving back to nature, there is no reason to look back.
As always: Zero drop/barefoot shoes is a must (the natural way). If Ignored=Mission Failed with the higest degree of certainty possible.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Biochemical Reasons to Development of PE

Biochemical base theory: Is there a possibility that biochemical reasons can cause pectus excavatum?

I made a post here on my blog about nutrition and PE and I have put a warning flag on especially wheat and the chemical substances that it contains as a possible biochemical reason to cause/worsen pectus excavatum or possibly make the recovery impossible. My whole blog have until now been mostly about the mechanical reasons. As I have already mentioned earlier last year on my blog; technical reasons causes the muscles in the upper back to malfunction (the blood flow decreases). When this happens, it will cause the upper back to be shortened. If it wasn’t for that reason (the shortening) it would be impossible to develop severe cases of the condition and it would also be a lot easier to recover from it.

The most difficult part of the recovery is not the sternum itself. The most difficult part is to stretch/make the muscles longer in the upper back. That is, as earlier mentioned, a prerequisite for the sternum to be able to pop out.

The following phrase is one of the most important phrases on my blog:

Anything that can make the muscles in the upper back to get them into a spastic condition can without doubt cause pectus excavatum to develop. When the muscles is getting shorter because of spasm, they will cause a free fall of the ribcage and make an already high mobility to become even more mobile, the same way it happens because of mechanical reasons. The connective tissue and the spine will be put under heavy muscular force vertically. The big question will be; can they withstand the force? Genetics will determine! If they can’t the ribs in the upper back will drag the sternum inwards the same way as described in other posts on my blog.

After this statement is made it also opens up for the possibility that pectus excavatum can be caused and/or worsened by chemical substances produced by the body itself during heavy loads of psychological stress. Many substances produced under such circumstances can cause muscular tension.

To understand why tension in those muscles can be so devastating, it is also important to know in what direction the muscle fibers are aligned.
Many of them are aligned in a way that will cause a vertical force during a spastic condition. This part of the body, the upper back, is ONE OF THE MOST NERVE RICH PARTS OF THE BODY and will therefore be more vulnerable for chemical substances.

I believe that biochemical factors and/or psychologic stress, in some cases, can be the last drop that makes the cup run over.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Development of PE after Nuss Surgery/Procedure

Not even a Nuss-operation guarantees that pectus excavatum does not come back. Why?

 
The fact that PE in some cases starts to develop once again after surgery fits very well in to my theory that development of pectus excavatum is caused mainly by outer forces. If PE would have been what can be classified as a deformation that was PURE genetically, the chances for it to relapse after a Nuss-procedure would be out of the question if you think about it logically.

My theory says; it is both environmental and genetic factors that causes it to exist.

Why is it out of the question?

“When the metal bar is removed the diaphragm has a normal environment to work in and it can produce a strong (normal) force under the sternum that makes it impossible to cause the sternum to fall back” (it would have been that way if PE was PURE genetically).

If one continue to do what caused PE to exist in the first place it may affect the diaphragm once again to make it malfunction. As long as the metal-bar is in the body it can help to withstand those outer forces but once removed, the body is “on its own” again.

That means that my theory (what I did to improve it 90%) can make it impossible for PE to develop once again after a Nuss-surgery (if it is followed 100%).
I also believe that people that plans to undergo surgery will benefit from my theory because; the more you can fix it yourself, the less complicated the procedure to fix it surgically will (most likely) be. I have read on many places on the internet (ask your surgeon if you plan to do it) that surgery becomes more risky with severity of the condition.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Chain Reaction that Destroys the Posture

Figure 1. This is a person standing flat on the ground without lifting the heel. Figure 2. To keep the ergonomic balance line straight you have to stand like this. Of course you can’t do that.

 
Figure 3. A chain reaction creates a weight balance and the bad posture is a fact and the body starts to grow in to this position. If it is difficult for you to reach your feet while sitting down with your legs straight forward on a floor then you can say with certainty that the lift of the heel have shortened your muscles in your legs by this S-shaping posture. With time and stretching it will be fixed.


Friday, April 4, 2014

Two Types of Bad Posture


When one look around on the internet searching for information about bad posture I have found that explanations about what bad posture is can be very detailed but often lacks the information that there actually are two main types of it.
Bad posture can be temporary or permanent.

If you take a look at a soccer player whom just scored in his or hers own goal you will probably see a case of temporary bad posture mostly because of psychological reason. After some time when this horribly happening become more distant he or she will go back to normal. If this posture would be held day out and day in the body would start to grow in to this position and become permanent.

In the case of pectus exavatum the bad posture is of course permanent (it is possible to fix it anyhow) which means that it will take some time to grow out of it, for example by wearing footwear (zero drop) that helps to recover from it. And as I always say: This is essential in the recovery process from funnel chest (PE).
I am quite sure about that pectus excavatum can have such a great impact psychologically that it actually worsens the condition. So by wearing footwear that helps to recover from PE it will probably also have a good psychologically effect because you actually doing something about it.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Over-representation of Men Reveals What is the Most Important Factor


Most people with PE know that men are over-represented (that is basic knowledge). Now I will try to get a little bit smart: If “something” makes a difference in a hugely complicated complex of causes, is that “something” likely to be the most important factor? (Note: It does not mean that those other factors are irrelevant).

According to my theory men are over-represented (in the case of both PE and PC) because of; in general bigger feet and tallness. Bigger feet will play a key-role in the early years when there are not so much difference in length between men and woman and the tallness will play a key-role during puberty when the difference in tallness between men and woman will be more evident.

Symmetry vs Imbalance

When we grow up both men and women uses the same type of shoes. Men don’t lift the heels more than woman or vice versa when we start to walk.

Someone might think: Girls lift their human heels with footwear that have high heels. At that point when some girls starts to use that type of shoes, men are already heavily over-represented.

Now I will try to get yet a little bit smarter and think this way: All environmental factors seems to be symmetrical when you compare woman and men when we grow up. Should there be a difference?

1: Same types of shoes.

2. Same type of beds.

3. Same type of chairs.

4. Even same prerequisites before birth.

Where is the asymmetry?

When it comes to differences in the body structure between men and woman you can say that a short woman can be a symmetrical copy of a tall man. A man and a woman can be completely symmetrical compared to each other, or to express it in another way; a woman can be (pure technically) a smaller twin copy of a man. It seems like there shouldn’t be any difference in the PE-ratio (men vs women)?

 

The S-Shape

If I make the following statement: Shoes that lifts up the heels will cause the human body to take an S-shape (side view). Yes, this will happen, for some people more, for some people less. What about this S-shape? Shouldn’t that S-shape be symmetrical even if the feet were bigger and the person in question were taller? The answer is absolutely; it can be symmetrical. Ok, why are men over-represented then?

Answer: Both men and woman will create an imbalance in their bodies when the heels are lifted up but the imbalance will be greater in men because the distance to the vertical ergonomic balance line will be longer compared to women.

Symmetric systems with an imbalance can grow proportionally while incorrectness (the imbalance within that system) will grow exponentially. Symmetry is overruled by the fact that there is an imbalance.
 
 

Two things will cause this greater distance in men.

1. The bigger the feet there are, the bigger moment there will be when they are lifted up and the body will lean backwards more to create a weight balance and therefore the distance to the vertical ergonomic balance line will become longer.

2. The tallness will create a bigger S-shape and as a consequence of that make the distance to the vertical ergonomic balance line longer.

Short people with small feet are highly unlikely to develop pectus excavatum according to my theory it doesn’t matter if it is a man or a woman as long as they are equal in length and have the same shoe number.

A Simple Study

If you want to make a little of a study yourself just take a look at people out on the street or wherever you can see them. Which ones have in general the best posture? Men or women? Tall or short? People standing barefoot or people with ordinary shoes? Tip if you will do it: Especially compare extremely short people with extremely long. I can here and now reveal the outcome of this study: Tall people are more likely to have worse posture. Why is it so? I will repeat: The taller a person is and the bigger the feet there are, the longer distance to the vertical balance line there will be. The S-form will be bigger.

Unnatural Forces Sideways

When the S-form is getting bigger it also means that the body will be put under heavy unnatural forces sideways.

What now will happen is determined by genetic factors. Will there just be bad posture and or a little pain and/or small or big injuries? Will the body develop kyphosis? Will the feet become flat/extremely flat? Will the pelvis rotate a little, much or not at all? Will pectus excavatum or pectus carinatum develop (it’s possible to get a combination of them both).

Fool the Nature

When I make the statement: There will be a bigger moment the bigger the feet there are. Ok, someone might think “I can consciously fool nature by thinking about not to lean backwards to compensate for the pressure on the forefoot”. My advice: Don’t try to be “too smart”. You can’t fool nature (the laws of physics).

Tre negative things will happen by thinking as above.

1. The forefoot will be put under unnatural high pressure (obviously because you don’t release it).

2. Constantly think about how you hold your body will cause a huge psychological stress.

3. You will cause incorrectness’ in other parts of the body.
You will only be fooled back if you try to overrule the laws of nature.




The Imbalance


Let’s take a look at children playing with toy-cubes (of course they want to build as high as possible). What is the best start? A horizontal or a non-horizontal surface?



Everyone know that answer! The human body is built up in a similar way as a tower built of toy-cubes but just a little more complicated. That means that the best way to start the human body construction is with a horizontal surface. What do you think I am going to write now? If you think it is something about shoes you are right.

To lift up the heel is the same thing as start to build a high tower with a non-horizontal surface.

The higher tower you plan to build the worse it will become if the surface is not horizontal.

First of all I think that almost everyone are intelligent enough to understand that. If you know about someone who don’t really can handle this fact. Tell that person to ask some kids playing with toy-cubes (I mean they actually have it fresh in mind).


Genetics

To understand why the lift of the heel can be so devastating it is also very important to understand a little about how the muscles and bones are connected to each other. I remember that I asked a very basic question in one of my first posts here on my blog. What are the muscles and the bones for, and it was not that big surprise to me when I came to (“the 100% sure conclusion”) that they are dependent of each other to keep up the human body. Let’s say that the body was built up with only muscles and bones. Would it be enough to keep up the human body? Of course not. There must be something that stabilizes the construction of bones and muscles. It is here the genetic factor comes in to the picture. How stable your body is depends a lot on how inflexible the connective tissue is that holds and binds muscles and bones together. If it is very loose bones and muscles are more likely to get out of position. Let’s go back to building towers with cubes.

The higher the cube-tower gets the more difficult it will become to keep it up and finally it will collapse.

What happens when it collapses?

Answer: The cubes moves sideways.

That is the actual cause to the collapse. That is exactly what happens when pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum developes. The connective tissue (if it is very loose) can’t keep the body stable when the body is put under unnatural forces sideways by the S-shape.

My theory explains in that way why people with connective tissue disorders are highly overrepresented in the pectus excavatum statisitics. The human body will be extremely vulnerable sideways in these cases.

People with pectus excavatum very rarely have any diseases related to it even though some diseases are connected to pectus excavatum).
The human thorax is constructed in a way to be very stable vertically as long as the ergonomic line is properly aligned through the body. It is almost like an egg in its construction.




The Ergonomic Vertical Balance Line


What is this ergonomic vertical balance line I am talking about?


The total body mass should be the same on both sides of this ergonomic line to make the body to work optimally. The picture below shows the skeletal system and the most important view is the one from the side in this case. That is the only figure I will refer to in this post. I have put a balance scale over the middle figure to symbolize that there is a balance in the thorax that is preferred to be held to say the least.


If you lift the heel, there will be a chain reaction that forces the upper body over the balance line and starts a rotating force.

Even a change with just a few percent will cause a rotating force. There are no muscles or bones that are constructed to work optimal against a rotating force in that direction. The muscles and bones hands over the job to the connective tissue. If the connective tissue can’t withstand this rotating force next in line to be put under heavy force will be the spine. If the spine can’t withstand this force it will take an unnatural curve called kyphotic spine or kyphosis and what I call a free fall of the rib cage is a fact.

When will this free fall stop?

Answer: When the ribs around the sternum are completely compressed tight to each other.

What about pectus carinatum then? I am in my works to do a detailed explanation about how differences in the physiology can make the sternum to move the opposite direction.

The secret about how to improve PE dramatically is to turn the margin to your advantage. Development of pectus excavatum hangs in the balance as well as recovery from this condition, in this case the vertical ergonomic balance line is extremely critical in a standing posture.

During recovery there will be a reverse development of the condition that will normalize the whole thorax.

Summary: All the main situations that causes PE are identical for men and women except the lifting of the heel which also gives the following answers.

1.       It answers the question why men are overrepresented.
       2.     It reveals the most important factor to heavy development of pectus excavatum.