Ask the Chiropractor: Can Chiropractic Help Me with Stress?

by Oasis Wellness Partners on June 30, 2022      

Stress is a fact of life for everyone. The truth is, stress can be good and bad, and a reasonable amount of stress in one’s life can be a positive thing. It can signal excitement, or can signal that there needs to be a change, mentally or physically, somewhere in a person’s life, and stress can even be the beginning of a healing process. However, when our bodies never have a chance to recover from stress, the negative effects build up. If the cause of your stress is physical, such as pain or dysfunction, this can cause a cycle of stress that feeds on itself. A body that is in pain tries to protect itself with tension, which exacerbates the pain, causing more stress. In this way, chiropractic care can relieve the physical stress and anxiety by interrupting that cycle, helping your body to heal and regain balance.

Here are some common sources of stress and some ways that we, the Chiropractors at Chiropractic Family Wellness Center in Scarborough, Maine can help you feel better.

Muscle Pain

When a part of the body is off-kilter, due to chronic stress, anxiety, an accident, injury or just the wear and tear of daily life, it impacts all the surrounding parts. A subluxation, or interference, in the spine can cause weakness in nearby muscles. This imbalance causes a ripple effect, as other muscles contract to compensate. You end up focusing on, or icing, an aching shoulder muscle when the real problem actually began in the spine.

A chiropractic adjustment takes that extra pressure off of overworked and tense muscles, which restores balance and eases pain. When the muscles and bones can support each other in the ways they are supposed to, muscle pain and the risk of injury is reduced, making chiropractic care a natural way to find stress and anxiety relief through increased physical comfort.

Dysfunction and Posture Issues

Subluxations are caused by all sorts of things—from stress to overuse of a smart phone! Correcting a subluxation relieves the pressure on the nerves housed in the spinal cord, creating another outlet for stress and anxiety relief. When subluxations are adjusted, the brain can communicate clearly with all the other systems, and the entire body functions together beautifully. When your body is working efficiently, you’re more able to respond to life’s challenges calmly and effectively.

Anxiety

Anything can cause anxiety in people. Our modern culture, for example. Relentless sensory input, from electronic devices, ambient noise, and chronic “busyness” often activates the sympathetic nervous system. This is the “fight or flight” response that is designed to make you alert and energized so you can escape danger. However, when it’s triggered all the time by all the stresses of modern life, it’s time to get some help before it begins to have a negative effect on the body.

If you are overwhelmed with stress, physical or emotional, we, your local Maine chiropractors, can offer you guidance and insights as to how chiropractic care can be used for stress and anxiety relief. Call us today at our Scarborough office to schedule your initial exam—(207) 883-549.

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