Why is dealing with stress important to my health?

As a chiropractor, I see how stress can impact a patient’s health just about everyday. Stress can impact degeneration in a patient’s spine, create anxiety, cause sleep disturbances, promote poor digestion and so on. I always hear people say, "Ohhh its just stress, I’ve learned how to live with it!" It may be true that we have learned how to live with it, but we are not dealing with stress in a way that is productive to our health. Let's look at ways we can properly adapt and process stress and not let stress, stress us out!

Identifying the stressor should be the first step we take to properly deal with stress. Stress does not always present itself with a big red bow on its head. For instance we may not think of going for a 5 mile run as a stressor to our body. Running is great cardiovascular exercise and I promote running, but it is a stressor to the body. Any exercise is going to breakdown muscle, lactic acid builds up and we get soreness. So what do we do? We stay hydrated so muscle's can function properly and get lactic acid out and nutrients and oxygen in. This is an example of how we effectively manage any kind of stress. We know the stressor and make sure we respond to that stressor in a way to diminish its potential negative side effects. Lets look at emotional stress. Someone at work is not pulling their weight causing production to slow down and increases your workload. I think this would anger and stress most people out in this situation. What do you do? Some get angry and hold a grudge against a fellow employee. Others stress about the situation and blame the job. The key is being capable of staying calm. Over reaction to any situation is going to further promote the stress response and be counter productive to your health. I think the first thing to be aware of is that feeling of tension building up. We can use simple relaxation techniques to prevent this tension building into a headache, neck pain, shoulder pain, etc. One example; in the sitting position, lean back, let your arms hang to your side, and rotate your thumbs out. This will let your shoulders open up, take tension off your shoulders and allow you to BREATHE. Practice this throughout the day and allow oxygen to get deep into your lungs. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Deep breathing exercises are an excellent way to divert stress and not allow it to affect you physically.

In the book The Success Principles, the equation E+R=O describes the relationship between an event (E), in this case a stressor, and how the outcome (O) of that event comes to be. The variable to this is R. R in this equation stands for response. It is our response or reaction to a stressor that predicts the outcome of that situation. If we work out hard and don't hydrate - we feel sore and achy. If we work out hard and hydrate before and after with appropriate stretching, we feel amazing! If we get into an argument with a spouse and blow up, over dramatizing the situation - we get a long drawn out fight. If we get into an argument with a spouse and stay calm, breathe, respect them - we get a resolution to the problem without hurting each others feelings! I think we see how this works.

The greatest thing about being a Chiropractor is that we try our best to see the big picture of a person. Granted many times patients initially come to us because of pain. Once that issue is resolved, we can talk about the whole person and options to get them feeling better than ever. Understanding the principles of how our body works and what we can do to enhance that, is so much fun! Chiropractors can help so many people in dealing with stress not only in the spine but emotionally and physically. To learn other useful health related tips and schedule an appointment to see how stress maybe impacting your health - visit www.livingwithmotion.com.

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