Stress is just like Calories!

Stress is a word thrown around way too easily these days. "My neck hurts but its just stress...I have a stress headache...Ugh, my boss is stressing me out!...I can go on and on. I hear complaints about stress all day long in my office and I don't think people understand that when we experience stress we can't just blow it off!

Stress is like calories. If you eat more calories than you burn what happens? You gain weight and after weeks or months or years of your calorie equation being out of balance(More calories in than out) you can see the damaging affects on your body.

Think of stress the same way. Every day we are exposed to combinations of physical, chemical and emotional stress. If we experience stress yet do little to alleviate stress we throw off balance our stress equation(More stress in than out). The affects of stress aren't as quickly apparent as calories but they do impact our health in a tremendously negative way.

Think of it; when you experience any stress your muscles tense, your blood pressure rises, your blood sugar rises, your heart rate increases, your immune system becomes depressed...I can go on with many more! Even when the stress is over there are residual effects of stress that stay with you. Think of the most basic:

Right now feel around your upper trap muscle ( its the muscle between your ear and your shoulder) If you poke around for a few seconds it will be easy to touch upon a sore spot. There will most likely be one little knotty area that will feel slightly more tender than the rest of your trap. That is one of the many effects of stress, tight muscles. those muscles in turn pull on your spine and cause subluxations. Subluxations are small misalignments that place stress on your nervous system. So ultimately a lot of the stress that you experience negatively impacts your nervous system. That doesn't sound like a good thing to me...how about you?

The greatest way to alleviate stress is to live an incredibly healthy lifestyle. You need proper rest, regular exercise, and excellent nutrition. If there are times when you are not following the best of lifestyle, which for most people is often, you should get to a chiropractor. Remember stress is cululative just like calories it builds up for weeks, for months, or even for years before you start to pay attention to the affects of stress.

The main purpose of chiropractic care is to reduce the effects of stress on your body. The less stress your body experiences the healthier you are. I also choose in my practice to utilize Applied Kinesiology, which is the melding together of chiropractic, nutrition, acupuncture, physical therapy and cranial sacral therapy. The more areas of stress you relieve the better!

My Advice! Get rid of your stress right now and call your chiropractor for an appointment!