Work. Home. Family Obligations. Paying bills. Deadlines. The holiday season. The economic situation….it seems like a never-ending cycle. These unpleasant or challenging situations can create much stress in our lives. Even the happy occasions, such as a birth, wedding, family reunion, can cause stress. Why do some people seem to handle stressful situations so much better than others? The answer can lie in many different factors, including genetics.
A study that was published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics has indicated a relationship between receiving chiropractic care and the effect it can have on dealing with stress situations in your life. This study found that approximately 1/3 of patients viewed their lives as moderately to severely stressful and more than half felt that their level of stress had a moderate to severe impact on the condition of their health. In that study, three-quarters of the individuals felt that it would be beneficial for their chiropractor to offer advice on how to manage and cope with their stress.
Communicating with your chiropractor, as well as your other health care professionals, about dealing with your stress is a great place to start. Chiropractors deal in the health and function of the spine and nervous system. Improving nerve and spinal function can have a dramatic impact on improving your emotional, mental and physical function. Chiropractic care involves touch, and this factor alone can set the stage for the release of muscular tension associated with stress. When your chiropractor administers the adjustment to the spine and surrounding muscles, it may help to relieve the fatigue and tension by removing the irritation to the nerves, releasing the muscular tension and increasing blood circulation.
Signs of stress can include tension in the upper back and neck, irritability, headache, backache fatigue, as well as high blood pressure, digestive problems (ulcers, colitis, etc) and sleeping difficulties. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, talk to us about if it might be related to stress and what we can do to help you.
Life is good….Chiropractic care makes it better!
Dr. Jen
