Posture Correction Hospital

There is currently no officially registered medical institution category of "posture correction hospital" in China. There are entities with this name on the market, ranging from public tertiary rehabilitation centers and private orthopedic clinics to fitness studios and beauty and body care institutions. The level of quality can vary greatly. If your posture problems are accompanied by pain and limited joint movement, your first choice will always be the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Medicine in a public tertiary hospital; if it is just a mild functional problem caused by habits, then consider a compliant private rehabilitation institution, and be careful when buying the marketing package of the Internet celebrity "Corrective Hospital".

Speaking of which, I almost stepped into a trap last summer. At that time, I visited a "posture correction hospital" opened on the upper floor of an office building in the business district. It was decorated like an Internet celebrity cafe, with floor-to-ceiling windows, aromatherapy, and pure white soft furnishings. It looked very professional. As soon as you enter, you are asked to stand in the 3D scanner and go around in a circle. Within ten minutes, a report of more than ten pages was produced. While I was standing reading the report, the "evaluator" had already pointed at the picture and counted forward head extension, rounded shoulders, high and low shoulders, forward pelvic tilt, etc. There were five or six questions about fake hip width, and they were told to get a 12-time gold card package worth RMB 32,000, which would guarantee me three months to regain my "girly right-angled shoulders + model gait." I almost swiped the card at that time, but luckily I made an appointment with a friend to eat hot pot in a hurry, so I left in a hurry. Later, I went to a tertiary hospital to take an X-ray for shoulder pain, and I found out that my uneven shoulders were due to levator scapulae muscle spasm caused by long-term carrying of a shoulder bag, plus 11-degree idiopathic scoliosis. The "evaluator" at the agency didn't even let me take an X-ray. They said they could press it back on for me. Now I'm scared to think about it.

This does not mean that all institutions with "posture correction" are scams. The core is to first distinguish the nature of your own problem. If you feel that the spine on your back is crooked when you stand straight, or if one side of your back obviously bulges when you bend over, or if you experience back pain after sitting for long periods of time, or even numbness in your hands and feet, don’t hesitate to go directly to a public tertiary care orthopedics department. There is a high probability that this is an organic problem, and outside agencies are simply not qualified to deal with it. There is no absolute "standard answer" for the treatment of such problems. Western orthopedics generally first take anteroposterior and lateral radiographs of the entire spine to measure the Cobb angle. Adolescent scoliosis within 20 degrees can be observed first, and wear a brace and rehabilitation training if it is 20-40 degrees. If it exceeds 40 degrees, surgery may be considered. This is the consensus of evidence-based medicine; there are also many Patients will seek out orthopedic doctors of traditional Chinese medicine for bone setting, acupuncture, and muscle training, which have clear clinical effects on relieving muscle tension and improving mobility. There is no absolute right or wrong between the two paths. You can refer to any plan issued by a regular medical institution. Don't believe in the wild way of "straightening the spine using ancestral techniques."

If you go to the hospital and take a X-ray, and it turns out that there are no organic problems with your bones or joints, but are just "habits" caused by sitting and standing for a long time - such as the rounded shoulders caused by bowing your head for a long time, the forward pelvis caused by wearing high heels for a long time, and the slightly false hip width caused by crossing your legs, and it doesn't hurt at ordinary times, but it doesn't look good when you wear clothes and makes you look short, then you don't have to apply for a top-level rehabilitation department. Compliant private rehabilitation institutions can completely handle it. But when choosing, don’t just look at decoration and soft articles in Xiaohongshu. First, check two hard qualifications: first, whether the institution has a "Medical Institution Practice License"; second, whether the person who evaluates you has a physician qualification certificate or a rehabilitation therapist qualification certificate. Don’t look for someone who dares to say that he is a posture corrector after practicing fitness for half a year. My best friend used to have severely rounded shoulders. She looked bulky no matter what she wore. The rehabilitation therapist she found was a former therapist from the Third Hospital of Peking University. She ran a small clinic of her own. During the evaluation, she was first checked for shoulder impingement and cervical spine straightening. After eliminating the risks, she was given a plan. : Using techniques to relax the tense chest muscles and scalene muscles once a week, plus 15 minutes of wall standing and elastic band abduction training every day, the rounded shoulders improved a lot in a month and a half, and even the long-term shoulder and neck pain was cured. The total cost was less than 4,000, which is much more cost-effective than those marketing agencies.

There is a fierce debate on the Internet now about whether posture correction is an IQ tax. In fact, what both sides say is too extreme. If you are born with a wide frame and your bones are a bit curved, and you expect a few tricks to give you super-model chopstick legs, it will definitely be an IQ tax; but if you have morphological problems caused by imbalanced muscle tension, correction will not only make you look better, but also relieve chronic pain, that is useful. Don't believe those nonsense about "correcting XO-shaped legs in 7 days" or "growing 3 centimeters in height with one bone adjustment". The so-called "gaining height" only straightens your previously bent waist. The bones do not grow at all. It will take at least a month or two to adjust the muscle habits. If you don't want to rebound, you have to maintain a good sitting and standing posture for a long time. There is nothing that can be done once and for all.

After all, the core logic of finding a "posture correction hospital" is to check the risks first and then talk about aesthetics. The advice I give to my friends now is to first spend tens of dollars to get a X-ray at a top-level orthopedics department, rule out pathological problems, and then talk about subsequent corrections. Don’t go to those Internet celebrity institutions that boast much about it. Spending money is a trivial matter, but breaking your neck and waist is a lifetime matter. Oh, by the way, if you only slightly round your shoulders and stretch your head forward, and it doesn’t even hurt, then you actually don’t even need to spend any money. Just spend half an hour less on your mobile phone every day, practice more breast enlargement, and don’t slump when you stand. You’ll get better slowly, and you won’t have to pay the unjust money.