Chiropractic Medicine for Stress Management

The body’s reaction to stress is meant to protect us as it adjusts to its surroundings to maintain homeostasis. Under stress, the sympathetic nervous system sends messages to muscles, organs and glands that help the body to react. These messages cause many changes to occur in the body. After the threat has passed whether it was real or imagined the body should return to its normal state. Problems arise when there are too many stressors at one time or when stress is prolonged. Stress is the main cause of poor health in our society today.

Chiropractic medicine is based on the relationship between the alignment of the spine and the function of the body and the belief that the body can heal itself. Anxiety and stress attack the weaker parts of the spine, and the spine causes headaches, including migraines, neck and back pain along with general muscle tension. These physical symptoms then lead back to emotional stress.

Chiropractic is a holistic therapy that recognizes the overall health of the patient and the body’s innate ability to heal itself from physical, mental, and emotional stress and trauma. Chiropractic medicine is one of the most popular health care systems and probably the most widely accepted form of alternative, or natural medicine.Chiropractic treatments usually involve adjusting the joints and bones in a person’s spine using twisting, pulling, or pushing movements. Some chiropractors use heat, electrical stimulation, or ultrasound to help relax the person’s muscles before doing a spinal adjustment. While different chiropractors may use one or more different methods and may counsel and advise their patients on nutrition and exercise, drugs are never used. With use of manual manipulation of the spine, chiropractors believe they can improve a person’s health without surgery or medication. Treatments have been shown to be highly effective in treating back pain, tension headaches and other muscle and bone aches and pains, all of which are negative symptoms that can be directly attributed to stress.

Chiropractic medicine actually dates back to Ancient Egyptian times. Its modern day use in Western society however was not discovered until the mid 1890’s. In 1895, Dr. Daniel Palmer brought chiropractic medicine into practice in America. He claimed that all health problems could be prevented or treated by using adjustments of the spine and other joints. This would be accomplished by correcting vertebral subluxations, or signs and symptoms occurring as a result of a misaligned segment of the spine. The idea that all diseases were the result of subluxations was in line with the common thinking of the day; that there was one cause for disease. His belief was that these subluxations cause nerve disruption, which in turn leads to disharmony within the body and subsequently disease. While some of the thinking or modalities may be different today, Chiropractic revolves around the premise that stress, whether it is physical, chemical or emotional in nature, affects the body’s ability to properly function and leads to poor health.

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