Cameron Stewart, D.C.

Hello North Florida! Dr. Cam here again.

We all experience stress. Work deadlines, family life, finances, even North Florida traffic can trigger that familiar feeling. But stress isn’t just “in your head.” It has profound physical effects on your body, particularly your musculoskeletal system and nervous system.

My time as a Combat Corpsman serving in Afghanistan and Iraq provided an intense, firsthand education in the body’s response to chronic, high-stakes stress. The constant vigilance, the physical demands, the emotional weight – it takes a toll. While thankfully most daily life isn’t that extreme, the physiological response to everyday stressors can still accumulate and cause problems.

How Stress Impacts Your Spine and Nerves:

When you’re stressed, your body goes into “fight or flight” mode:

1. Muscle Tension: Muscles, especially in the neck, shoulders, and back, tense up automatically as a guarding mechanism. Chronic tension leads to stiffness, pain, trigger points, and can even pull joints slightly out of alignment. This was a constant battle for me, contributing to my chronic neck pain and headaches.
2. Nervous System Overdrive: The sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) becomes dominant, increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and alertness. Over time, this chronic overdrive can lead to fatigue, poor sleep, digestive issues, and a lowered pain threshold (meaning things hurt more easily).
3. Inflammation: Chronic stress can promote low-grade systemic inflammation, which can worsen joint pain and other health conditions.
4. Postural Changes: When tense, we often adopt poor postures – hunching shoulders, clenching jaws – further straining muscles and joints.

Chiropractic’s Role in Managing Stress Effects:

While chiropractic care doesn’t eliminate the sources of stress in your life, it can significantly help your body adapt to and manage its physical effects:

• Releasing Muscle Tension: Adjustments help restore proper joint movement, which signals tight muscles to relax. Addressing misalignments caused by chronic tension can provide substantial relief.
• Calming the Nervous System: Studies suggest that chiropractic adjustments can help shift the balance away from the “fight or flight” sympathetic system towards the “rest and digest” parasympathetic system. This can help promote relaxation and improve overall well-being.
• Improving Body Awareness: Getting adjusted can make you more aware of where you hold tension, empowering you to make postural changes or practice relaxation techniques.
• Pain Relief: By addressing the physical manifestations of stress (muscle tightness, joint restriction, nerve irritation), chiropractic care can reduce pain, which in itself is a stressor!

Learning to manage the physical fallout of stress was crucial for me, both during my service and beyond. Chiropractic care provided a way to hit the reset button on my nervous system and release built-up tension.

If you feel like stress is tying your body in knots, let’s explore how chiropractic can help you unwind and feel better.

Visit http://www.drcam.rocks to book an appointment and start managing stress from the inside out.

Be well, Dr. Cam