Posture, pain, and the hidden role of inflammation

Top 3 key takeaways:

• Chronic inflammation can quietly slow pain and posture recovery by increasing muscle stiffness, reducing mobility, and making it harder for the body’s repair processes to work efficiently
• Inflammation can be fuelled by everyday factors like diet, stress, and gut health, which means small, targeted lifestyle changes can make a meaningful difference
• Reducing inflammation helps your body heal faster and respond better to treatment, leading to greater comfort, improved posture, and longer-lasting results from your care

When pain or poor posture hangs around, it’s easy to think the issue is purely mechanical – a tight muscle here, a stiff joint there.

But there’s often more going on under the surface. Inflammation is like the body’s internal fire alarm. In the short term, it’s brilliant – calling in repair crews, increasing blood flow, and getting the healing process underway.

The problem comes when that alarm doesn’t switch off. Instead of a quick, helpful burst, you get a slow-burning fire smouldering away in the background. This chronic inflammation can quietly delay healing, make you more sensitive to pain, and undo some of the progress you’re making with your chiropractor – even if you’re diligent with your posture and exercises.

Why inflammation can stall your progress

When inflammation lingers, it’s not just a passenger -it starts driving the experience of pain and slowing your comeback. It can:

• Make muscles more tender and joints more stiff
• Delay tissue repair, meaning posture-related strain hangs around longer
• Keep you stuck in a discomfort cycle, making it harder to stick with the movements and habits that will help you improve

The takeaway? If you want lasting change, it’s worth looking at both the mechanics and the chemistry. Calm the inflammation, and you make it easier for your body to heal, adapt, and hold those posture gains.

At Melbourne Functional Medicine, we often see that when inflammation is addressed alongside structural care, patients not only recover faster but maintain their results for longer.

Why this matters more than you think

The World Health Organisation ranks chronic disease – much of it fuelled by chronic inflammation – as the greatest threat to human health. Here in Australia, around 1 in 3 people live with at least one chronic inflammatory condition, and many are juggling more than one.

You might not think arthritis, low mood, or digestive issues have much to do with posture or back pain, but they often live in the same “inflammatory neighbourhood.” And when the neighbourhood is noisy, the whole system feels it – slowing your recovery, increasing discomfort, and making it harder to hold on to the progress you’ve made.

If you want a different outcome, it starts with understanding what’s keeping the inflammatory fire smouldering – and what you can do to calm it down.

Common drivers of chronic inflammation

Chronic inflammation doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It’s usually the result of a perfect storm – diet, stress, environmental triggers, and internal imbalances – that keep your immune system on low-grade alert.

Over time, this background static wears on tissues, delays repair, and makes your body more sensitive to pain. When you’re working hard on posture or recovery, it can feel like you’re taking one step forward and half a step back – not because your effort isn’t enough, but because your body still thinks it’s under threat.

• A diet loaded with processed foods, sugars, and damaged fats: these fuel pro-inflammatory molecules that keep your immune system on edge
• Gut imbalances like dysbiosis or leaky gut: allowing inflammatory compounds to slip into your bloodstream
• Chronic stress and poor sleep: disrupting hormones and immune regulation so your body can’t get back to baseline
• Toxin exposure: from mould, chemicals, or heavy metals, creating a constant detox burden
• Oxidative stress: from free radicals, mitochondrial dysfunction, or high homocysteine, damaging cells and tissues
• Certain medications: frequent antibiotics, NSAIDs, or antacids can impair gut health and stoke inflammation
• Lifestyle factors: smoking, alcohol, and overtraining all add fuel to the fire

When these drivers are in play, your repair systems are constantly competing with an internal fire that never fully dies down. That’s why progress from your posture or pain treatments can feel slower than you’d like.

The upside? You have more influence than you think. By turning down the inflammatory heat, you give your body the breathing room it needs to heal – and to hold on to the gains you’re working for.

Practical strategies to calm inflammation

If recovery feels slow, it’s worth looking beyond symptom relief and addressing what’s fuelling the fire in the first place. The aim isn’t to do everything overnight – it’s to start shifting the environment in your body from one that’s constantly reacting to one that can finally repair.

At Melbourne Functional Medicine, we use these foundational habits as a starting point for helping people reduce inflammation and create the right conditions for recovery. These strategies are simple, but when applied consistently, they can transform how your body responds to treatment.

Here are five foundations to work from:

1. Eat for anti-inflammatory balance
Fill your plate with colour – think berries, leafy greens, fresh herbs, and a mix of vegetables. Add healthy fats from salmon, walnuts, chia seeds, and extra virgin olive oil to nourish cell membranes and calm immune activity. And yes, dial down the processed snacks, sugary treats, and deep-fried foods that quietly stoke inflammation in the background.

2. Support your gut health
A healthy gut keeps inflammatory compounds where they belong — out of your bloodstream. Include fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir, or miso, and feed your gut microbes with prebiotic-rich foods like garlic, onions, asparagus, and green bananas. Pay attention to how you feel after meals; if certain foods reliably leave you bloated or foggy, they may be part of the problem.

3. Prioritise daily recovery habits
Your body does its deepest repair work when you rest. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep, and break up your day with “stress resets” – even two minutes of slow, deep breathing can help shift your nervous system into repair mode. Keep your body moving gently and often – walking, stretching, or yoga can maintain joint mobility without adding strain.

4. Use supportive nutrients wisely
Omega-3 fatty acids, curcumin, and antioxidants can all help dial down inflammation. These aren’t quick fixes, but they can be useful tools alongside a nutrient-rich diet.

Always check with a healthcare provider before starting supplements, especially if you’re taking medication.

5. Reduce inflammatory triggers where you can
Alcohol, smoking, and environmental exposures like mould or harsh cleaning chemicals all add to your inflammatory load. Even your posture setup matters – a supportive workstation reduces physical stress and helps your body stay in repair mode.

Small, consistent steps can tip the balance in your favour. The more you lower that inflammatory background noise, the more capacity your body has to heal – and hold on to the improvements you’re working hard to make.

Integrating care for the best results

When inflammation settles, everything else you’re doing to support your posture and pain has a better chance of working. Lowering that internal “noise” can mean:

• Less discomfort during recovery
• Faster gains in mobility and flexibility
• Longer-lasting results from alignment care

This isn’t about swapping one therapy for another – it’s about giving your body the internal conditions it needs so that every adjustment, stretch, or exercise can deliver more.

By calming inflammation through food, gut health, stress management, sleep, and lifestyle tweaks, you create an environment where the body can repair more effectively. And if progress still feels slower than you’d like, it’s worth looking deeper. Sometimes there’s an underlying driver, like chronic inflammation, that needs attention before the body can move forward.

At Melbourne Functional Medicine, we can help uncover and address those root causes, so your recovery isn’t just faster, but more complete.

About the author:

Jabe Brown is the Founder of Melbourne Functional Medicine – a clinic dedicated to personalised healthcare.  Find out how the team at Melbourne Functional Medicine can help you find the healthiest version of you.