The terms posture and POSTUROLOGY are coming into increasing use in everyday language, but Posturolgy is not a discovery. It is as old as the human race, indeed as old as mammals. Posture can be defined as the attitude or the position that an animal adopts in relation to the surrounding environment. Some characteristics of the posture are common to many different animals, whereas others are specific to each individual species. In human beings in particular, posture represents a form of communication, of interaction among the persons and between them and their surrounding environment.

In the human animal posture is the main form of non-verbal communication. Indeed the so called "body's language" is a spontaneous and automatic language that is outside of the control of the individual will.

The posture adopted by the body is a compromise between the wish of the person and what is permitted by the force of gravity.  Essentially, on the basis of the perceived direction of the force of gravity and the spatial position of the head, the vestibulo-spinal and cervico-spinal reflexes activate the extensor musculature of the spinal column and lower limbs, that is the musculature that counteracts the force of gravity. However, perception of the spatial position of the head and body involves also sight, the endolymph and the otoliths of the inner ear and the proprioceptive information coming from the vertebral column, from the ligaments, from the jaw, from the plantar receptors and from the skin.

The body gets information on his relationships with the surrounding environment from the PRIMARY EXORECEPTORS (sole of the foot, inner ear, eyes and jaw).

ENDORECEPTORS ( neuro-muscular spindles, tendon stretch receptors, articular receptors, etc.) provide the regulatory system with information on the relative spatial positions of various segments of the body, and on their mutual relationships.

Posture is therefore not simply a sum of reflexes, but a multisensorial interaction in which a set of similar or different structures act together in order to achieve a result.  Every activity or function therefore derives from the supply of external or internal information (inputs) and expresses itself as a form of adaptation (output).

A systematic study and the employment of a scientific method, that recognizes as real only those phenomena, that can be reproduced and classified on scientific bases, enabled to pass from a simple empiric observation of the posture to the scientific codification of a medical doctrine - CLINICAL POSTUROLOGY-.

Therefore, posturology can be considered as a branch of the modern medicine, involving and concerning different doctrines, such as neuro-physiology, biomechanics and ergonomics. I'm proud to state that a unique and innovating Italian school of clinical posturology is getting a footing in the last years. This school has also devised a diagnostic and therapeutic method, that allows to get satisfying results from the treatment of functional pathologies.