Chiropractic, Stress and Weight Control

Stress what is it good for – absolutely everything!

Stress can be good for you when it allows you to handle difficult situations. Stress only becomes a problem when your body can’t or doesn’t relax after the stressful situation- it then becomes chronic stress.

After all the body’s fight – or – flight mechanism is a protective response and should not be harmful.

According to Philip Hagen, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn there is a direct correlation to stress and weight gain.

Some of it is related to poor eating habits during stressful periods, but the hormone cortisol increases the amount of fat tissue in your body as well as increasing the size of those cells. Hi levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) have been linked to an increase in belly fat.

How can chiropractic help?

Chronic stress can wreak havoc on the body by creating prolonged muscle tension and contraction which can create uneven pressures on the bony structures of the body, often leading to misalignment of the spinal column.  Back pain, muscle tightness, tension headaches, fatigue, and neck pain are some of the symptoms people experience when under stress. Chiropractic treatments help relieve the uncomfortable

symptoms of chronic stress. In addition, regular chiropractic adjustments can soothe the nervous system, and lessen the flight or fight response most people experience when stressed.

The spinal column serves as a switchboard for the nervous system. Messages from the brain make their way down the spinal cord. From there, the messages are sent to various parts of the body. Due to this important role, chiropractic work on and around the spinal column can help alleviate the common ailments associated with stress.

When someone is under chronic stress, muscles tense and contract. Sometimes, people grip their muscles in an unnatural position. For example, someone experiencing chronic stress may unconsciously hold their neck to one side, or hold one hip higher than the other. This action creates pressure, which weighs on the bones. Eventually, the bones will cave under this unnatural pressure and become misaligned. When under stress, people often move their bodies in improper ways. These movements compound the problem.

What chiropractic care cannot do is make your job or relationships less stressful, or create a soothing environment but chiropractic can help you to develop healthier responses to stress thereby reducing your cortisol levels and helping you to lose weight as continue on our program.