Chiropractic: adapting well to stress

 

Many people see chiropractic as a treatment for pain, some understand how it can help them function better, but even fewer understand the power of chiropractic and its ability to help the nervous system better regulate the body by helping it adapt better to stress.

Chiropractic is founded on different principles to modern medicine. We see health as an inside job; health is something that emerges from a body at ease and in balance.  This comes from having a well regulated nervous system. 

Why does my body hurt?

Our bodies are self-developing, self-maintaining and self-healing organisms. If we cut our finger or bruise our knee, we know that within a few weeks it will heal itself. So why do certain injuries and pains not heal? Why does someones back pain not resolve by itself? The answer has to do with adaptability. 

The first few years of a cars life are usually problem free. It runs smoothly and only needs minimal maintenance. After a few years a car needs regular checks to maintain it and keep it running. The same principle happens with the body. As children and young adults we tend to be resilient, even feeling invincible at times!  We can play outside for hours, stay up late, and still not feel worse for wear the next day. There is so much adaptability in the system. 

As we go through life the effects of traumas, age, exposure to environmental toxins and emotional stress take hold. They can accumulate over time like droplets filling a bucket. All the time our nervous system is reacting to these stresses on the body, maintaining homeostasis and maintaining health.

Inevitably in life there are times when these stresses overload our body, and the nervous system cannot adapt enough to keep the body balanced and at ease. This leads to distortion in the body, what we call subluxation. Let’s look at a few examples. 

Physical stresses: A delivery driver who drives several hundred miles a week in his van. The first few months in the job go by without a hitch, but soon after his back starts to ache. A few months later his lower back is very painful and he develops sciatica down the leg. 

Emotional Stresses: you enjoy your job but wages aren’t increasing and the cost of living is going up month on month. You start to worry more and more about how you will pay all the bills. 

 Environmental toxins: Stress from work causes you to slip on your eating habits, and you find yourself eating sugary processed foods more and more. Within a couple of weeks your energy levels are down, your mental clarity isn’t so great and you don’t sleep so deeply. 

So you can see there is a constant battle for the nervous system to process and adapt to these different forms of stress. It is a sliding scale. When we are adapting well to stress, our bodies will function much better. That’s why it is so beneficial to exercise regularly, manage your mental and emotional health, and aim to eat a heathy balanced diet. The nervous system is primarily responsible for perceiving and adapting to our internal and external environment. Despite our best intentions, there will be periods when our body isn’t so adaptive, and the stress overwhelms our nervous system, just like in the examples given above. When this stress is too much to adapt to (overwhelm), our system distorts. 

How can I help my body adapt better to stress?

The goal of chiropractic is to maximise the expression of health from within. We do this by reducing the interference to the nervous system. When the nervous system has less interference, it is more capable of regulating and coordinating the body, helping it heal better, move better and function better. In short, to be healthier. 

So, what is the cause of the body not healing? The inability of the nervous system (i.e brain) to adapt to stress, whether internal or external. Chiropractic helps to bring back ease to the nervous system so it can adapt to stress on the body, release the distortion and heal. 

For more information on our services, please contact Innate Health Chiropractic today.