Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Eat your fruits and vegetables. Always buckle your seat belt. Sit up straight.
All great advice, right? Well, maybe not the last one. A group of researchers out of Scotland has conducted a study indicating that the best position for your back might not be sitting up straight at all.
The group wanted to determine if the best way to sit really was with the back straight, at a 90° angle to the thighs. They compared it to two other sitting positions, one slouched forward and the other lounging backward, with back and thighs at a 135° angle.
To measure the strain that each position put on the back and spine, they employed a special technique called positional MRI, which uses a scanner capable of imaging patients in upright and weight-bearing positions (Upright MRI, Fonar, Melville, NY).
The results of their study are the subject of our latest AuntMinnieTV piece, which you can view by clicking here.
