Since April is National Stress Awareness Month, today's Blog is an interesting article from "The Hundred Year Lifestyle." (Current practice members-the same company that prints your Report of Findings Folders.) Have you ever noticed how some people deal better with stress than others? These days, stress is so common it’s often seen as “normal.” Since it’s unlikely that we can eliminate stress in our lives, improving our ability to withstand and accommodate it is important for our health. An optimal functioning spine and nervous system allow our body to better deal
with the stress.
Generally, stress falls into three categories:
1)Physical Stress - Repetitive motions (painting the ceiling),
postural distortions Is this you? (falling asleep with your neck twisted) and whiplash injuries from a car accident are physical stresses. So are slips and falls. Even a difficult birth or learning to walk.
2)Emotional
Stress - Ever face an impossible deadline at work? Or grieved the loss
of a loved one? Notice the posture of someone who is depressed. Anger,
or a sense of hopelessness, are common forms of emotional stress that
may affect the spine.
3)Chemical Stress- Today’s environment
constantly assaults us with chemicals. Drugs, preservatives, tobacco,
alcohol, pollen, pet dander, detergents, wheat, dairy,
and a host of other substances that can affect our nervous system and
muscle tone.
Stress produces a reaction in your body. Besides
increased levels of stress hormones, the fight or flight response may
produce spinal joint dysfunction. Think of it as your body’s circuit
breaker. You want the power turned on right? Now, some stress is a
good thing but too much can do more damage to your body than you might
realize. Chiropractic has be shown to be one of the most effective
tools for stress. The chiropractic adjustment balances the nervous
system and turns the power on so you can better deal with the everyday
stress.
Please feel free to share the below article with others :o)
It is well documented that high levels of stress can contribute to heart
disease, cancer, headaches, ulcers, digestive disturbances, backaches
and nearly every other condition known to mankind. How can one word
cause so many unique and different problems in different people
especially since the stress reaction is the same for everyone? The
answer may be simpler than you think.
Stress is a nervous system
reaction that causes your heart to beat faster, your muscles to be
tense, your stomach to tighten, and your hair follicles to stand up, all
as a way to prepare your body for an emergency. When you interpret a
situation as stressful, whether it truly is or not, your brain triggers
this reaction by sending a signal over your spinal cord and nervous
system to every cell of your body. In prehistoric times, this would have
been the perfect reaction to escape from a hungry dinosaur, but in
today’s stress filled world and no Tyrannosaurus Rex, this chronic
reaction can cause pain, sickness and disease.
Where your body
breaks down from stress may depend on whether or not you have a
condition known as vertebral subluxation. A vertebral subluxation is a
spinal injury that interferes with the normal function of your nervous
system which can affect your health on every level whether you have
symptoms or not. If you have this in your spine, your body is already
pre-stressed.
Many people deal with stress through deep
breathing, meditation, exercise and healthy food choices. These are all
very good things to do as part of your lifestyle to counter balance
stress, but if your nervous system is pre-stressed, the slightest
deviation from the perfect stress management plan can send you into a
frustrating, uncomfortable, or painful tailspin. Removing this
pre-stress causing subluxation can improve your resistance to daily
stressors dramatically.
Research shows that it only takes the
weight of a dime to reduce nerve transmission. Additional research has
found that nerve compression can exist without pain and can cause
deterioration within two weeks.
In this pre-stressed condition,
your body becomes more vulnerable to outside stresses while other people
may be much more resistant. The location of the subluxation can
determine what types of symptoms, if any, you experience. For example,
someone with nerve interference in the upper part of the neck might feel
headaches, have allergies, or a stiff neck. Because the nerves fibers
that come out of the upper neck also go to the entire body, pressure
here can literally cause or mimic nearly every symptom or disease you
can name.
Interference to the nerve supply in the lower back can
cause a backache, leg problems and also affect ovary, prostate, bladder
or bowel function. Interference to the nerves in the middle of your back
can affect your heart and lungs or cause tension, stomach problems,
digestive disturbances and discomfort.
The scary part is that
like most serious conditions, vertebral subluxations can cause stress
for decades without any symptoms. This is when serious problems occur,
many of which could have been avoided by eliminating this pre-stressed
condition right away. The birth process, childhood falls, sports
injuries and poor lifestyle habits are just a few causes of
subluxations. Rather than getting to the cause and removing this
underlying problem, many people attempt to chase their symptoms away
with drugs, or another type of quick fix, and then wonder why their
condition returns. Removing the cause and optimizing the function of
your nervous system is a better immediate and long-term plan.
Regardless
or your symptoms, a chiropractic examination can locate pre-stressed
areas in your spine that may be affecting your health on every level.
Crisis
care is one way to deal with stress, only receiving care when you are
hurt. A much better option is to remove the subluxation, stress, from
your body and keep it out as a part of your lifestyle. This will help
you to stress less, live more, and enjoy the quality of life you
deserve.
