Stress and anxiety treatments can include a range of therapies, including talking therapy, meditation techniques, and medication. Chiropractic care, adjustments, and massage are also used as a treatment plan to de-stress. Whether diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or experiencing intense stress, chiropractic functional medicine can address the physical symptoms to rebalance the mind and body.
De-Stress
Physical and mental health are connected. Stress and anxiety can cause tension, fatigue, headaches, and aches and pains. It can make sleeping and/or relaxing difficult, affecting mental and physical health. Signs of stress include:
- Blood sugar level changes
- Every day or almost every day, tension headaches
- Teeth grinding
- Backaches
- Muscle tension
- Digestive problems
- Skin irritation
- Hair loss
- Heart issues
The spine is the conduit for the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
- The sympathetic nervous system activates when the brain thinks sudden action or important stressful decisions needs to be taken.
- The fight or flight response speeds up the heart rate and releases adrenaline.
- The parasympathetic system deactivates the fight or flight response, calming the body into a more relaxed state.
Problems arise when the sympathetic nervous system gets activated repeatedly, causing the fight or flight system to remain semi-active. This can come from long commutes, traffic jams, loud music, deadlines, sports practice, rehearsals, etc. The parasympathetic nervous system never gets a chance to activate and settle the mind and body. The result is constantly feeling stressed and agitated.
Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care to de-stress decreases stress hormones and releases feel-good hormones like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin, which allow healing and help the body relax. Chiropractic adjustments let the brain know it's time to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and ease down. Chiropractic helps by:
Relieving Muscle Tension
- When the body is under stress, the muscles tense up, causing discomfort, aches, and pains.
- The continued stress can lead to health issues, panic attacks, anxiety disorders, and depression.
- Chiropractic relieves tension restoring the body to its natural balance.
Restoring Body Function
- When stress activates, it can cause body dysfunction.
- Chiropractic can help effectively restore bodily functions.
- Adjustments and massage rebalance blood circulation and energy flow, allowing clear nervous system transmission.
Lowering Blood Pressure
- Chiropractic care has shown positive results in lowering blood pressure.
Improving Quality Sleep
- Chiropractic care improves sleep patterns by correcting spinal misalignments.
Increasing Relaxation
- Chiropractic adjustments can release and relax muscle activity, allowing the body to relax and de-stress completely.
Health Voice
The information herein is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified healthcare professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make healthcare decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified healthcare professional. Our information scope is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, sensitive health issues, functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from a wide array of disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and directly or indirectly support our clinical scope of practice.* Our office has reasonably attempted to provide supportive citations and identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.
We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900.
Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*
email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com
Licensed in: Texas & New Mexico*
References
Jamison, J R. "Stress management: an exploratory study of chiropractic patients." Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics vol. 23,1 (2000): 32-6. doi:10.1016/s0161-4754(00)90111-8
Kültür, Turgut, et al. "Evaluation of the effect of chiropractic manipulative treatment on oxidative stress in sacroiliac joint dysfunction." Turkish journal of physical medicine and rehabilitation vol. 66,2 176-183. 18 May. 2020, doi:10.5606/tftrd.2020.3301
Mariotti, Agnese. "The effects of chronic stress on health: new insights into the molecular mechanisms of brain-body communication." Future science OA vol. 1,3 FSO23. 1 Nov. 2015, doi:10.4155/fso.15.21
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/so-stressed-out-fact-sheet
Stefanaki, Charikleia, et al. "Chronic stress, and body composition disorders: implications for health and disease." Hormones (Athens, Greece) vol. 17,1 (2018): 33-43. doi:10.1007/s42000-018-0023-7
Yaribeygi, Habib et al. "The impact of stress on body function: A review." EXCLI journal vol. 16 1057-1072. 21 Jul. 2017, doi:10.17179/excli2017-480
