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Introduction
The Posture Theory is based on observation
and thought, with trial and error and experimental experience
used to assess the correctness or otherwise of an idea, in order
to determine cause and effect from direct and obvious results,
and trends and patterns not clearly apparent to casual assessment.
This sort of theory generally has
less acceptance than scientific theories which are essentially
based on what can be seen with the eyes, microscopes, x-rays,
and statistics etc, where variations from consistency are ruled
out as contradictions.
However in general terms an empirical
theory always comes first and the scientific determination of
it after, sometimes centuries later.
In the meantime serious problems are
likely to be encountered by the inventor of the idea which are
not generally appreciated, so I would like to relate the experience
of an empirical theorist called Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis.
The Empirical Theory
of Semmelweis
The Hungarian physician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818-1865), was born in 1818 and became
educated in medicine and then an assistant obstetrics surgeon
working in the Vienna General Hospital.
He began an intensive study of child
bed fever, or perpeural sepsis, now known as septicemia or blood
poisoning, and now recognised as being caused by a bacterium which enters
the birth canal during childbirth.
However prior to Semmelweis the actual
cause was unknown and it was attributed to milk fever, miasma,
or cosmic telluric, but in 1843 an American Doctor name Oliver
Wendell Holmes developed a theory that midwives were infecting
mothers with their dirty hands and instruments. Semmelweis considered
this possibility despite the forceful opposition of the head
of his department. Unfortunately he was unable to identify a
contagious agent, but then a friend of his, Dr. Jacob Kolletschka,
died of septicemia after cutting his finger while performing
an autopsy on an infected woman, and he realised that he had
died of the same disease.
He also observed that the death rate
in the wards where students were taught was 400% greater than
in the wards where midwives were trained, and he realised that
the students had been performing autopsy studies as well, whereas
the trainee midwives were not. He therefore theorised that putrid
or cadaveric material was being carried on the hands of students
from the autopsy room to the patients in the obstetrics room.
He then acted on the basis of this
theory that the disease could be prevented by instructing all
students and physicians who entered the obstetrics ward to wash
their hands in a solution of chloride and lime, and following
some initial success he then extended the practice to cleaning
all surgical instruments and utensils.
His methods were spectacularly successful
in reducing the death rate but he responded in an argumentative
and belligerent manner to the resistance of his superiors who
refused to accept his ideas and practices, and as a result they
blocked his path to being promoted to a position of authority
as clinical professor.
He angrily left the Vienna hospital
and later gained employment at the University of Pest, where
he taught his antiseptic techniques to thousands of students
15 years before the more famous demonstrations of Lord Lister
of England.
Semmelweis also later wrote books
and letters about his successful treatment of Child Bed Fever,
and lashed out at those who rejected his teaching .
Unfortunately, in 1857 two of his
own children died in infancy, and with that coming on top of
many years of arguments an opposition, he succumbed to a serious
mental illness.
He died in 1865 from an infected finger
which he cut while doing an autopsy demonstration for his last
class of students.
He was "one of the great tragic
figures of medical history, . . . and the classic example of
the dedicated scientist whose very dedication antagonised entrenched
conservatism and eventually destroyed him."
Reference: Collier's Encyclopedia
1962 Vol.20 p.587-588
Semmelweis was committed to an insane asylum where he died
There were other reports that the resistance to Semmelweis ideas was because there were doctors who were not eager to admitting that their failute to clean their insturments was the cause of so many deaths in their own patients.
The reports also suggest that his ideas produced heated arguments which resulted in his ideas being rejected, and him going mad and being sent to an insane asylum where he died. See here and here
Since Semmelweis
I can recall reading of late 19th
century doctors who would call on farmers who had injured or
broken their legs and developed gangrene. The surgeon would arrive
at the farm and collect a rusty saw from the barn, wipe off the
wet cow dung with their hands, and then amputate the patients
leg on a kitchen table. 95% of such patients died of infection,
and the doctors argued that they would have died anyway because
the body was already diseased.
I can also recall reading the biographies
of Robert Louis Stevenson. His wife Fanny Stevenson had read
the latest medical literature and was familiar with ideas about
contagious infections and "germs", but some of the
doctors who came to visit Louis would sneeze all over him and
refuse to believe that they were causing problems. Fanny had
to argue with them and insist that they didn't sneeze on him,
and when she insisted that her friends not enter the house while
they had colds, or that they should cover their mouths with handkerchiefs,
they branded her as an irrational hypochondriac. I am sure that
doctors were largely responsible for spreading many of the great
plagues of Europe by sneezing over patients, and using dirty hands, and carryinng dirty instruments
from one plague ridden patient to another.
I can also recall the example of Florence
Nightingale who was sent to the military hospitals of the Crimea
where the death rate was 44%. The patients would come in with
knife or bayonet wounds and get sick with vomiting, diarrhea,
bleeding, and pus being left on their bed sheets after they died,
and so the next soldier with a simple cut would be thrown into
the bed to get infected and die. Toilet buckets were next to
each bed and emptied into the toilet barrel each day and the
barrel would be emptied each week. Bed lice and other bugs,
infected mice, and rats, and dirty floors, and dirty clothing
etc would have contributed to the high death rate.
Florence Nightingale met with considerable
resistance from the surgeons in charge of the hospitals but she
had authority to override them, and by cleaning the bed sheets,
clothing, and ward floors, and by taking toilet buckets outside,
the death rate dropped from 44% to 4%.
Scientific Theory
Since the time of Semmelweis, Fanny
Stevenson, and Florence Nightingale the world has seen the development
of microscopes, X-rays, and antiseptic techniques backed by statistics,
and now every scientist can see the "germs", and the
effect of antiseptics, and the public believes everything that
scientists tell them.
When modern surgeons operate they
wear caps, gloves, gowns, socks, and masks to prevent the transmission
of "germs", and hospitals have procedures and staff
for cleaning floors, bedding, and instruments, and some wards
with immune deficient patients have filtered air, and the food
is hygienically prepared and transported.
Tens of millions of people owe their
life to Semmelweis, but most people have never heard his name,
or know that the medical establishment ignored and belligerently
resisted his ideas, blocked his promotion to positions of authority,
and drove him mad.
The Posture Theory
The Posture Theory is an empirical
theory based on detailed observation, conclusion, trial and error,
implementation and success, but most of it cannot be scientifically
proven. According to modern medical science 15% of postural deformity
is due to such things as arthritis and tuberculosis of the spine,
and other factors which are evident on X-rays. The cause of the
remaining 85% is unknown. The logical, deductible, and obvious
experiential causes of spinal deformity and postural back pain
clearly described in The Posture Theory, but are not evident
on X-rays, and neither are most of the other postural induced
pains and illnesses!!!
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"Approximately 80% of cases of kyphoscoliosis
(stooped spine) are of unknown cause". Most of the remaining
20% follow poliomyelitis or Pott's disease.
Reference: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine 6th edition
(1970) p.1299
"Scoliosis: About 85% of all cases of curvature of
the spine fall into a classification known as "idiodathic"
(unknown cause) scoliosis. In this one large group of cases the
etiology (cause) remains obscure". Of the remainder 10%
follow poliomyelities, 2% are due to Von Recklinghausen's Disease
or neurofibromatosis, and less than 2% are due to congenital
bone disorders in the spine, osteochondrodystrophy, Friedreic's
ataxia, cerebral palsy, and some muscular dystrophies. Also,
less than 2% follow empyema, thoracoplasty, or any other factors
which change the chest shape during the growth period".
. . . "There is still considerable controversy in the whole
field of scoliosis ... wherever possible it will be to the patients
advantage to be followed by someone with special interest and
experience in this disease".
Reference: The Specialties in General Practice (1951) p. 72-74
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Perhaps it will be several hundred
years before The Posture Theory causes of spinal deformity and
backpain becomes scientific.
In the meantime I must say that I
can identify with the problems and antagonisms of Semmelweis,
but I have had the advantage of some early training in social
studies, and I have good social and communication skills, as
well as a good personal understanding of a wide range of people
and experiences which enables me to deal with those problems,
sometimes with difficulty, but more often routinely. I have also
had the support and encouragement of a small number of doctors
and professors, and Sir Mark Oliphant, so I have not been existing
in some sort of singular social vacuum and haven't ended up thinking
that I am odd or alien. I have never believed that I was wasting
my time because most of my good ideas have benefited me, if no-one
else, and I have learnt from the mistakes of people like Semmelweis,
and have not let ignorance, scepticism, and or rejection of the
ideas bother me, at least not to the extent of insanity. It is
just a predictable fact of life that anyone who produces a theory
which replaces an established idea is going to be met with powerful,
unreasonable, and unjustifiable resistance.
Semmelweis Insanity: A form of mental
disturbance which is caused by the disappointment of conflicting
circumstances, where a person proceeds with the best of intentions
to accomplish something of value with the expectation of reward,
but is treated as if their motives were heinous and they were
derided, rejected and punished. M.B.
The Posture Theory is an empirical
theory based on tens of thousands of observations and ideas which
were put together haphazardly over a thirty year period as the
complicated interrelation of clues presented themselves for assessment
, and to describel them in the interwoven way that they occurred
would create more confusion than is practical to contemplate
so, with the benefit of hindsight I tried to put tthem in chronological
order, so that other people to make sense of them.
The following text
is taken from pages 49-53 of the 1000 page 11th edition of
The Posture Theory which was published in October 2000.
The June 1980 edition of The Australasian
Nurses Journal included an article entitled "The Matter
of Framework" which I have subsequently called "The
Posture Theory". In that essay I described how poor posture
could cause a downward pressure on all the internal organs and
produce the broad range of health problems involved in hypochondria.
The symtoms included fatigue, abdominal pain, breathlessness,
palpitations, faintness, kidney and bladder problems, constipation,
and many more.
The Posture Theory diagram was first
used on my booklet "A Decade of Theories 1976 - 1985"
published in 1986. Concentric internal lines have been added
to show how the shape of the external body can affect the contours
of internal anatomy temporarily or permanently.
The Origin Of The
Posture Theory (Originally from the 10th edition)
The Posture Theory (1975-1980)
I became interested in medicine in 1974 when I found that there
were many common ailments for which the cause was unknown because
there was no evidence of broken bones, open wounds, or infections.
I also found that some individuals had multiple and varying symptoms
which included abdominal pains, chest pains, breathing problems,
neckache, back pain, fatigue, and many more. I was curious to
know how such problems could evade detection and I wondered if
there were separate causes, or perhaps a single common cause,
and I began a search, which unknown to me at that time, was to
take me five years to complete.
I started by assessing those conditions one at a time.
For example, I considered the idea that undetectable abdominal
pain might be due to a wound which was hidden between several
layers of muscle in the stomach region.
I also thought that it may have been due to different types of
food which may have been acidic, or spicy, or irritant to the
stomach. I also considered that there may be some delay between
the time food was eaten and the time it reached a tender section
of the abdomen, and that the delay would create confusion about
the cause. Eventually I considered that leaning forward might
compress the stomach to cause stomach pain, and that led me to
consider that bending might compress the chest to cause chest
pain.
I then considered how bending forward might affect breathing.
In that regard the chest and abdomen are separated by a sheet
of muscle called the diaphragm, and when it descends it creates
a vacuum in the chest which draws air into the lungs, and when
it rises it pushes air out of the lungs. I thought that leaning
forward might stop the diaphragm from rising to it's maximum
height, and that wearing a tight belt might interfere with it
descending fully, so that much less air entered and left the
lungs with each breath. Therefore breathing would be shallower
and more rapid, less oxygen would be consumed, the diaphragm
may be strained or damaged, and the lungs would become congested,
and the breathing reflexes might become adversely affected.
One year, while I was considering a possible postural cause of
kidney problems, I drew a diagram of the side view of the human
body in a seated and slouched position to see how slumping forward
might affect the kidney. I noticed that I had drawn the body
with the head erect with the eyes directed forwards, and that
as a consequence I had drawn a forward arch in the neck.
I then concluded that the middle bone
in the neck would be pressing forward against the spinal nerve
and the throat, and that the strain could cause neckache, and
sore throat, and tension in the muscles of the neck and lower
head which could result in headache. I then noticed that the
jaw joint would be out of alignment, possibly causing jaw and
dental problems, and that the tubes which drain the sinuses could
be obstructed at their junction with the throat, thereby causing
congestion of the sinuses.
In 1979 I was considering the cause of chronic fatigue which,
in the nineteenth century was called neurasthenia (neuro = nerve,
asthenia = weakness), and I was examining a procedure called
Valsalva's Manoeuvre which was described as an experimental method
for stimulating the nervous system. That procedure involves holding
the mouth and nose shut and breathing out forcefully to increase
the air pressure inside the chest. The effect is to slow the
blood flow from the feet to the heart so that the nervous system
responds by stimulating all of the bodies arteries to contract.
That increases the systemic blood pressure which forces blood
through the chest. I then realised that poor posture could repeatedly
compress the air in the chest and overstimulate the nervous system
and cause problems with blood pressure and chronic fatigue.
I was then able to write an essay which linked a framework of
ideas to a framework of symptoms which were related to the framework
of the human body so I called it "The Matter Of Framework".
That essay was published in June 1980 and was the original Posture
Theory.
During the next 14 years there were no significant additions
to the idea.
The Posture Theory
(1994-1999)
In 1994 I found an old medical book which contained an illustration
of the internal anatomy of a woman who had worn a tight waisted
whalebone corset. The stomach, which is normally in a horizontal
position in the upper abdomen, had been pushed into a vertical
position, and all of the other abdominal organs were deformed
and displaced.
I then found a nineteenth century book which had a list of almost
a hundred symptoms and ailments which eminent doctors of that
time attributed to corsets, so I had found evidence and logical
proof of The Posture Theory. i.e. that if poor posture compresses
the abdomen, it can therefore produce a multitude of health problems.
I then published a small booklet called
The Posture Theory and began compiling evidence in subsequent
editions about every 6 months.
Since then there have been a number of significant improvements
to the idea.
For example, I found that children with poor eyesight are likely
to develop a bent spine as a result of repeatedly leaning forward
at a desk to read. Moreover, as a secondary effect they develop
rounded shoulders and their chest tends to grow flat, or in some
cases, to actually incline backwards to create a funnel shaped
chest. The next consequence is that eventually, each time they
lean forward, they will be virtually stabbing themselves in the
stomach with the blunt cartilaginous tip of their own dagger
shaped breastbone.
I then noticed that as a right handed person writes their right
hand moves to the left margin of the page and proceedes across
to the right margin, and then quickly back across and down to
the left margin of the next line. In the process of completing
a page of text they repeatedly twist and untwist their spine,
and their stomach, and their sword shaped breastbone, and they
press and twist the tip of their breastbone deeper into their
abdomen as they proceed down the page.
I also determined that such problems could be prevented by sitting
with good posture, or by bending at the hips instead of the waist,
when leaning toward a desk.
I then concluded that posture could be improved by standing up
and writing with the page placed on an elevated bench, and preferably
with the page on an inclined surface.
I then noted that by preparing a text on a computer the left
hand remains on the left side of the computer keyboard, and the
right hand remains on the right side, so the spine does not get
repeatedly twisted in the process.
Ultimately the tendency to lean forward can be minimized by placing
the keyboard at waist height, and the computer screen at eye
height.
Those are the main conclusions of The Posture Theory to this
current time.
In the process of adding the additional ideas to the 1994 booklet
The Posture Theory became quite a large book but as it grew in
size and scope the mixture of ideas, evidenc and illustrations
became complicated and confusing so I separated the information
into individual units which did not have the form of conventional
chapters, so I called them sections. My objective was to maintain
a logical sequence of easily understood ideas so the book now
starts with an introduction, followed by some ideas on the cause
of hunchback, then by some quotes and references from various
books, and then by some diagrams of slouching. Those pages are
followed by some ideas and references for the cause of sideways
curvature of the spine, and then by information on other deformities.
I then present information on the affects of poor posture by
providing ideas, quotes and diagrams about the cause of individual
symptoms.
Section 2 considers how the enlarging womb of pregnancy can compress
internal organs and alter a womans posture to cause similar problems,
and there are quotes and diagrams to support that idea. Section
3 considers how tight corsets and tight clothes affect health,
section 4 deals with visceroptosis (the obsolete medical term
for displacement of the abdominal organs), section 5 gives some
miscellaneous examples of other factors which can compress or
displace internal anatomy, section 6 provides some treatment
suggestions, and section 7 presents a brief conclusion.
Some of the individual subjects had so much information supporting
them that the sheer bulk was confusing the running flow of the
text so I established an entire new volume at the back of the
book and set up new sections on abdominal pain, blood pressure,
and menstrual pain etc..
I then introduced biographical information to support some of
the ideas by suggesting how posture or clothing style may have
affected the health of famous people such as Charles Darwin,
Alexander Pope, Howard Hughes, Napoleon, Florence Nightingale,
Frederick Matthias Alexander, Queen Anne, John Keats, and Moliere.
That information is dispersed throughout the book and can be
located by referring to the index at the back. M.B.
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