When patients mention they have a lot of stress, or they’re “stressed out”, they’re referring to emotional stress. Emotional stress is at the root of a lot of pain and other health problems that people are experiencing. Chronic stress results in fatigue of our adrenal glands which pump out cortisol in response to thoughts or actual events. High levels of cortisol can directly or indirectly result in weight gain, insomnia, arteriosclerosis, chronic pain, and depression.
Once a person is having an emotional reaction to stress, it can be a tough habit to influence. Most people who are extremely busy will say that they often have a “hair trigger” response when things aren’t going “their way”. Reactivity to the day becomes the norm and our bodies pay the price.
The primary way that we help patients shift more permanently out of this cycle is to
correct spinal subluxations. There is a part of the nervous system that revs you up (“flight or fright”) and a part that slows you down (“wine & dine”). Chiropractic adjustments prompt the nervous system to normalize, returning to a more balanced state. One way that I like to think of this is that the chiropractic adjustment acts as a “pressure valve adjustment” that releases stress from our over-wrought systems.