People have no problem understanding how a physical stress, such as falling, lifting, or repeated motions, can cause damage to the spine and the nervous system creating subluxation. On the other hand, chemical and emotional stresses may be a little harder to understand. Is it possible that your stress and spine pain are related?
Chemical factors highly impact the muscles and glands of the body. So yes, too much Starbucks can have an enormous effect on the wellbeing of your spine and nervous system.
How Emotional Stress Can Lead to Spine Pain
Today, more than ever, we hear about the impact that emotional stress can have on the body. People understand the link between emotional stress and ulcers, heart disease, and headaches. Similarly, emotional stress can result in spinal misalignment (subluxation) along with the severe nerve impact those misalignments can make.
There are numerous mechanisms as to how stress pounds the spine, and research done at Ohio State University has recently shed some critical light on the subject.
A group of college students repeatedly lifted 25-pound boxes while a special measuring device calculated the pressure on the students’ spines. During the first half of the experiment researchers offered words of encouragement to the participants while they were performing their tasks.
In the second half of the experiment, the students were criticized, sort of like having your boss yelling at you while you are doing your job. While some of the students were not bothered at all, others, particularly introverted students who did not handle criticism well and who dislike repetitive work to start with, demonstrated an almost 27% increase in pressure on the spine.1 A 27% increase of pressure on the spine is more than enough to subluxate a person.
What this shows is that there is a body-mind interaction that manifests itself as pressure on the spine. – William Marras, professor of industrial engineering at OSU
Of course, if a person is already suffering from spinal alignment issues, then the spine is in a pre-weakened state so stress will have a far greater negative impact on someone’s health. The researchers were limiting their research to job-related pressure but they concluded that the same findings could occur “anywhere exertion and stress combine.”
That could be the pressure of athletic competition or even non-physical stressful situations like:
- talking on the phone with the head tilted at an angle
- sitting at a computer
- any repetitive work while experiencing the pressures of your job.2
Except for major physical traumas, it is likely that almost all spinal issues occur as a result of a combination of physical, chemical, and emotional stresses upon the body.
How Chiropractic Adjustments Reduce Stress
Clearly, if you are subluxation free, already living with your spine in line, you will be better able to withstand those forces. That is the purpose of Lifetime Wellness Care. Yet, in this stressful world even the strongest spines will move out of a health position given certain circumstances. That is why it is important to make sure your spine is currently in it’s ideal state and if not, to correct it.
In our modern, stressful world most, if not all, people require some degree of spinal correction due to continued exposure to chemicals, stress, and physical trauma.
Learn More About Spinal Health At Our Community Dinner
Join us for the Community Dinner on 9/12/17 at Zocalo Restaurant in the Fountains and share the Mission of saving lives by bringing friends and family. We will cover how to reduce stress and how to correct the devastating effects of subluxation NATURALLY!