Chiropractic care is a popular treatment option for many different conditions. For example, around a third of people with lower back pain will seek treatment from a chiropractor. What you may not realize, however, is that chiropractic care can actually help with much more than back and neck pain. It can even help to lower your stress levels.
What is stress?
Everyone experiences stress from time to time. And in some circumstances, stress can help us to achieve and perform. Chronic stress, on the other hand, can severely impact our lives and our happiness, and it can even have some serious physical effects.
A stress response is your body's way of responding to an imminent threat. In our evolutionary past, this would have been a danger that had the potential to kill us. Even though most of the time in modern society, we only encounter threats that are in no way life-threatening (like a negative email from a boss), our body's stress response remains the same.
For example:
• Elevated heart rate
• Increased breathing rate
• Sweating
• The digestive system slows down
• Glucose is released from the liver for energy
• And many other body responses
If we encounter frequent stressors over a long period and experience this stress response over and over again, it can have effects on our body that can cause serious health conditions.
These can include:
• Obesity
• Heart disease
• Anxiety and depression
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
How chiropractic care can help with stress
1) Relieving tension
When we are stressed, our muscles get tense in preparation for fight or flight. This muscle tension can further exacerbate our stress levels and compound the problem. Chiropractic care can help to relieve tension in your muscles through spinal adjustments, and other treatments such as massage, exercises, and stretches.
2) Helping you to sleep
Insomnia often goes hand-in-hand with chronic stress and, like muscle tension, it can make your stress levels worse. It can also contribute independently to the health conditions related to chronic stress, increasing your risk of developing them again. Chiropractors are trained in how to help with sleep issues and can give you advice on sleep posture and your sleep environment, and also through treatments that will help you to relax enough to fall asleep.
3) Dealing with chronic pain
As with sleep and muscle tension, chronic pain and stress are also closely linked. Stress can contribute to chronic pain through the repeated tension and other physical responses. And being in chronic pain can itself be a strong source of stress. By treating the underlying cause of your chronic pain, chiropractic care can help to prevent it from causing you stress. Depending on the source of your pain, a chiropractor can offer a varied treatment plan that can help to address the source of the issue and reduce your pain.
Chiropractic care is a treatment option that is well known for helping with pain conditions, but it can also be a great help when dealing with chronic stress and its effects. Chiropractors can offer a range of therapies that can help to reduce your stress levels and improve your quality of life.