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Part 3 of 3: Emotional Stessors

Written By Summerside Chiropractic Clinic on December 19, 2016

It got darker quicker than you expected, you're in the woods. Now you feel like something is watching you. You whip your flashlight around to see if there's something behind you but nothing there. You start thinking, "I'm being childish, smarten up!" Suddenly a snarl, white eye's and the flash of teeth! Your hair is on end, your heart is thumping and you feel your legs flying under your body. You are running hard. You feel the branches whipping your face until you finally emerge onto the streetlights and finally the road and even houses. Yes! You're safe; out of breath, sweating but safe.

Chiropractors and neurologists call this a sympathetic nervous system response. It's the fight or flight mechanism that we were born with. It's part of the limbic system in your brain. It's cortisol and adrenalin that shut down blood to the higher reasoning centres of the brain and open up blood to the heart and skeletal muscles so we can run away from the bear in the woods. It kept our ancestors alive when a bear or lion tried to eat them. It gave hunters more power and endurance to capture prey.

These days we don't get chased by lions and we don't do a lot of hunting with spears. However, we still get this kind of stress when we think we might get fired, when your computer does not work or your spouse and you are not getting along. Instead of an occasional lion it's constant mosquito's of life giving us the same fight or flight stress. The problem is that we are not running off that cortisol and nervous energy. The stress therefore stores in our nervous system and causes brain and spinal problems. Remember, if your higher reasoning centres are deprived of blood because your under stress all the time it's even more difficult to get out of those stess cycles.

One of the goals of our office is to not only release those stores of nervous system stress but also to help you get out of those cycles. We adjust the spine for the physical and also the attitude for the brain. Be grateful, get exercise and get adjusted regularly. Stress will always be there, it's our method of coping with it that counts.

Put another way, it's not our situation that determines our outcomes how we react to that situation.

All the best, Dr. D.


Posted In: Wellness Health Tips Dr. Darrell's Blog