Over-representation of Men Reveals What is the Most Important Factor

Most people with PE know that men are over-represented (that is basic knowledge). Now I will try to get a little bit smart: If “something” makes a difference in a hugely complicated complex of causes, is that “something” likely to be the most important factor? (Note: It does not mean that those other factors are irrelevant).

According to my theory men are over-represented (in the case of both PE and PC) because of; in general bigger feet and tallness. Bigger feet will play a key-role in the early years when there are not so much difference in length between men and woman and the tallness will play a key-role during puberty when the difference in tallness between men and woman will be more evident.

Symmetry vs Imbalance

When we grow up both men and women uses the same type of shoes. Men don’t lift the heels more than woman or vice versa when we start to walk.

Someone might think: Girls lift their human heels with footwear that have high heels. At that point when some girls starts to use that type of shoes, men are already heavily over-represented.

Now I will try to get yet a little bit smarter and think this way: All environmental factors seems to be symmetrical when you compare woman and men when we grow up. Should there be a difference?

1: Same types of shoes.

2. Same type of beds.

3. Same type of chairs.

4. Even same prerequisites before birth.

Where is the asymmetry?

When it comes to differences in the body structure between men and woman you can say that a short woman can be a symmetrical copy of a tall man. A man and a woman can be completely symmetrical compared to each other, or to express it in another way; a woman can be (pure technically) a smaller twin copy of a man. It seems like there shouldn’t be any difference in the PE-ratio (men vs women)?

 

The S-Shape

If I make the following statement: Shoes that lifts up the heels will cause the human body to take an S-shape (side view). Yes, this will happen, for some people more, for some people less. What about this S-shape? Shouldn’t that S-shape be symmetrical even if the feet were bigger and the person in question were taller? The answer is absolutely; it can be symmetrical. Ok, why are men over-represented then?

Answer: Both men and woman will create an imbalance in their bodies when the heels are lifted up but the imbalance will be greater in men because the distance to the vertical ergonomic balance line will be longer compared to women.

Symmetric systems with an imbalance can grow proportionally while incorrectness (the imbalance within that system) will grow exponentially. Symmetry is overruled by the fact that there is an imbalance.

 

 

Two things will cause this greater distance in men.

1. The bigger the feet there are, the bigger moment there will be when they are lifted up and the body will lean backwards more to create a weight balance and therefore the distance to the vertical ergonomic balance line will become longer.

2. The tallness will create a bigger S-shape and as a consequence of that make the distance to the vertical ergonomic balance line longer.

Short people with small feet are highly unlikely to develop pectus excavatum according to my theory it doesn’t matter if it is a man or a woman as long as they are equal in length and have the same shoe number.

A Simple Study

If you want to make a little of a study yourself just take a look at people out on the street or wherever you can see them. Which ones have in general the best posture? Men or women? Tall or short? People standing barefoot or people with ordinary shoes? Tip if you will do it: Especially compare extremely short people with extremely long. I can here and now reveal the outcome of this study: Tall people are more likely to have worse posture. Why is it so? I will repeat: The taller a person is and the bigger the feet there are, the longer distance to the vertical balance line there will be. The S-form will be bigger.

Unnatural Forces Sideways

When the S-form is getting bigger it also means that the body will be put under heavy unnatural forces sideways.

What now will happen is determined by genetic factors. Will there just be bad posture and or a little pain and/or small or big injuries? Will the body develop kyphosis? Will the feet become flat/extremely flat? Will the pelvis rotate a little, much or not at all? Will pectus excavatum or pectus carinatum develop (it’s possible to get a combination of them both).

Fool the Nature

When I make the statement: There will be a bigger moment the bigger the feet there are. Ok, someone might think “I can consciously fool nature by thinking about not to lean backwards to compensate for the pressure on the forefoot”. My advice: Don’t try to be “too smart”. You can’t fool nature (the laws of physics).

Tre negative things will happen by thinking as above.

1. The forefoot will be put under unnatural high pressure (obviously because you don’t release it).

2. Constantly think about how you hold your body will cause a huge psychological stress.

3. You will cause incorrectness’ in other parts of the body.

You will only be fooled back if you try to overrule the laws of nature.

The Imbalance

Let’s take a look at children playing with toy-cubes (of course they want to build as high as possible). What is the best start? A horizontal or a non-horizontal surface?

Everyone know that answer! The human body is built up in a similar way as a tower built of toy-cubes but just a little more complicated. That means that the best way to start the human body construction is with a horizontal surface. What do you think I am going to write now? If you think it is something about shoes you are right.

To lift up the heel is the same thing as start to build a high tower with a non-horizontal surface.

The higher tower you plan to build the worse it will become if the surface is not horizontal.

First of all I think that almost everyone are intelligent enough to understand that. If you know about someone who don’t really can handle this fact. Tell that person to ask some kids playing with toy-cubes (I mean they actually have it fresh in mind).

Genetics

To understand why the lift of the heel can be so devastating it is also very important to understand a little about how the muscles and bones are connected to each other. I remember that I asked a very basic question in one of my first posts here on my blog. What are the muscles and the bones for, and it was not that big surprise to me when I came to (“the 100% sure conclusion”) that they are dependent of each other to keep up the human body. Let’s say that the body was built up with only muscles and bones. Would it be enough to keep up the human body? Of course not. There must be something that stabilizes the construction of bones and muscles. It is here the genetic factor comes in to the picture. How stable your body is depends a lot on how inflexible the connective tissue is that holds and binds muscles and bones together. If it is very loose bones and muscles are more likely to get out of position. Let’s go back to building towers with cubes.

The higher the cube-tower gets the more difficult it will become to keep it up and finally it will collapse.

What happens when it collapses?

Answer: The cubes moves sideways.

That is the actual cause to the collapse. That is exactly what happens when pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum developes. The connective tissue (if it is very loose) can’t keep the body stable when the body is put under unnatural forces sideways by the S-shape.

My theory explains in that way why people with connective tissue disorders are highly overrepresented in the pectus excavatum statisitics. The human body will be extremely vulnerable sideways in these cases.

People with pectus excavatum very rarely have any diseases related to it even though some diseases are connected to pectus excavatum).

The human thorax is constructed in a way to be very stable vertically as long as the ergonomic line is properly aligned through the body. It is almost like an egg in its construction.

The Ergonomic Vertical Balance Line

What is this ergonomic vertical balance line I am talking about?

The total body mass should be the same on both sides of this ergonomic line to make the body to work optimally. The picture below shows the skeletal system and the most important view is the one from the side in this case. That is the only figure I will refer to in this post. I have put a balance scale over the middle figure to symbolize that there is a balance in the thorax that is preferred to be held to say the least.

If you lift the heel, there will be a chain reaction that forces the upper body over the balance line and starts a rotating force.

Even a change with just a few percent will cause a rotating force. There are no muscles or bones that are constructed to work optimal against a rotating force in that direction. The muscles and bones hands over the job to the connective tissue. If the connective tissue can’t withstand this rotating force next in line to be put under heavy force will be the spine. If the spine can’t withstand this force it will take an unnatural curve called kyphotic spine or kyphosis and what I call a free fall of the rib cage is a fact.

When will this free fall stop?

Answer: When the ribs around the sternum are completely compressed tight to each other.

What about pectus carinatum then? I am in my works to do a detailed explanation about how differences in the physiology can make the sternum to move the opposite direction.

The secret about how to improve PE dramatically is to turn the margin to your advantage. Development of pectus excavatum hangs in the balance as well as recovery from this condition, in this case the vertical ergonomic balance line is extremely critical in a standing posture.

During recovery there will be a reverse development of the condition that will normalize the whole thorax.

Summary: All the main situations that causes PE are identical for men and women except the lifting of the heel which also gives the following answers.

1.       It answers the question why men are overrepresented.

       2.     It reveals the most important factor to heavy development of pectus excavatum.