Thursday, 1 June 2017

What does Stress have to do with Spinal Subluxations?

Did you know that spinal subluxations are really at the root of bad posture?

When too much stress is perceived from either the internal or external environment, the body launches a sympathetic stress response to ensure survival.

During the sympathetic stress response the brain undergoes neurochemical changes. These neurochemical changes make us feel bad as opposed to good.

This is a good thing.

We feel anxious, worried and nervous during a stress response as a survival mechanism to flee the stressful event.

Who wants to feel good when we are ready to experience a bad event?!

We undergo a reflexive, flexion response. Like a cat arching its back, we curl up or flex the stressed spine. This flexion response causes musculoskeletal changes that lead to Spinal Subluxations.

Subluxations are musculoskeletal adaptive response mechanisms that the body has developed to deal with the stresses in the environment. Subluxations are not good or bad, but simply an adaptation mechanism. The subluxations arise from prolonged or overwhelming physical, chemical and mental/emotional and spiritual stress in the environment.

It is easy to understand how too much physical stress can cause a sympathetic response and subluxations. When we roll an ankle, the result is a sprained ankle and the rest of the body undergoes compensatory subluxations.

We can make sense of physical stress subluxations.

What is less obvious is how chemical, mental/emotional and spiritual stresses can cause a sympathetic stress response and spinal subluxations.

If stress is detected in the internal environment because of the food we just ingested, or we recycle the same negative thought(s), the body activates the same sympathetic stress response as it would if we sprained an ankle.

Remembering that the mechanical tension placed at the ligamentous attachments on the cord determines the tone of the spinal cord. This flexed posture alters the length of the cord and increases cord tension and torsion.

The change in tension and torsion on the spinal cord changes the tone of the nervous system. The increased tone changes which neurochemicals will be released from the nerves at the target tissue. The body compensates for the increased stress in the system with spinal subluxations. This is how you develop bad posture.

The spinal subluxations are the body's stress adaptive mechanism because subluxations try to change back the tension and torsion placed on the spinal cord, all in an attempt to create better tone.




Your Chiropractic Lifestyle Doctor


Tuesday, 23 May 2017

What is a Healthy Response to Stress?

Why do we need to have stress in our lives? Wouldn't life be more fulfilling without stress?

Did you know that stress is actually a good thing?

We need stress in order to grow, evolve and change. With no stress we would stagnate and cease to exist. What more would there be to learn . . . as it would appear we have reached our potential?

Why can't I just stay comfy and cozy and calm in my little cocoon?

Think of a piano or music lesson.

When we go to the teacher, we learn something new. If the lesson did not change, stress or stretch us, we would never ever learn a new song. If we don't "hurt" a little there is no need for growth and opportunity. This ability to grow, learn and adapt from our surrounding environmental stresses is called neuroplasticity.

The body's ability to adapt to stress is dependent on the body's ability to self regulate and self heal.
Health is adaptability. Healthy individuals experience stress, undergo an appropriate stress response, but learn from the experience and ultimately adapt to it. The stress response is not perpetuated. The experience is fully appreciated.

This is a perfect example of the body truly self regulating and self healing.

However, there is good stress and bad stress. We will cover what happens when our bodies become over stressed in another blog post.

Where are you in your "stress" circle?

Find out more.



Your Chiropractic Lifestyle Doctor


The Nervous System and Environment

What kind of impact does environment have on the Central Nervous System (CNS)?

The CNS imprints, records, and memorizes everything it encounters in the environment. For simplicity, the environment can be categorized into physical, chemical, mental/emotional and spiritual.

Using the five senses, the CNS gathers information about the environment. It first senses the environment and then appropriately responds to it.

The signals come into the brain; the brain organizes the information and sends all the appropriate signals down the spinal cord and out to all the body and waits for feedback.
I'll bet you didn't know this.

But then what happens if there is a glitch in the recordings from the environment? What if the CNS is not receiving the correct information? How can this possibly happen?

All the events and recordings from the environment make up the various, unique layers of complexity of who we become.

From the moment of conception till this very moment and beyond everything we do imprints on the CNS.

These environmental events are really stresses.

Isn't the body a miraculous thing! Imagine! All those messages being gathered and then sent to their appropriate location in the body.

We touch on some of these in one of my workshops.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Just click to register for the next workshop.



Your Chiropractic Lifestyle Doctor