Turn Stress into Health and Longevity

Americans spend by far the most money on health care, yet the United States is one of the sickest nations in the world when compared to other industrialized countries. How can that be?

The current health care model places way too much emphasis on symptoms, sickness, disease and pharmaceutical interventions and not enough emphasis on function, health, wellness and getting to the root causes to most health care conditions.

When someone is diagnosed with a health care condition, whether minor or major, the first questions that should asked is WHY? Why has this condition developed? Why has the human body, which is supposed to function optimally, not functioning at its best?

Let’s discuss a diagnosis. A medical diagnosis is a label set upon a certain set of symptoms or biomarkers, but tells very little about the cause to that condition.

For example, if you have fasting glucose level above 100 mg/dl and Hemoglobin A1c above 6.5%, then there would be a Pre Diabetes or Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis. If Hemoglobin A1C is above 7.0 and Insulin and/or C-Peptide levels are low, there would be a Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis. If someone has high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high LDLs, low HDLs, and high Blood Pressure, then there would be a Metabolic Syndrome diagnosis, which may increase the risk for heart disease and/or stroke. While all of these diseases are important to diagnose or understand, none of them tell us what is the root cause.

The cause to most sickness and disease lies in lifestyles and the stressors that come with it. Stress is a physiological and psychological response to a perceived threat or challenge. It is the body’s natural reaction to situations that require adjustments or adaptations. While stress is a normal part of life and can be beneficial in certain situations, chronic or excessive stress can have negative impacts on both physical and mental health.

Stress can be categorized in 3 major forms:

• Physical Stress
  Physical stress refers to the strain or pressure exerted on the body as a result of various physical factors like body weight, body composition, exercise or physical activity, or body ergonomics (ie postural habits or patterns, repetitive movements, or sitting biomechanics). Unlike psychological or emotional stress, which involves mental or emotional strain, physical stress directly impacts the body’s physiological functions.
• Emotional Stress
  Emotional stress, also known as psychological or mental stress, refers to the psychological and emotional strain that an individual experiences in response to challenging or demanding situations. Unlike physical stress, which directly impacts the body’s physiological functions, emotional stress primarily affects the mind and emotions. It can result from a wide range of factors and may manifest in various ways, influencing both mental and physical well-being.
• Metabolic or Nutritional Stress
  Metabolic stress is a physiological response that occurs within the body during certain types of intense physical activities, particularly resistance training or high-intensity interval training. It is a concept often associated with the cellular and metabolic changes that occur in muscles during these activities. While metabolic stress can be a natural and beneficial aspect of exercise, it is important to understand how it affects the body.

These stressors can be further categorized into 2 more forms:

• Acute Stress
  Acute stress is a short-term and immediate response to a specific event or situation. It can be triggered by pressure, demands, or challenges, and it activates the body’s “fight or flight” response. This type of stress is often manageable and can even be beneficial in certain situations, providing the necessary alertness and energy to tackle a challenging task or respond to a threat.
• Chronic Stress
  Chronic stress is prolonged and persists over an extended period. It may result from ongoing situations, such as work-related pressures, financial difficulties, or chronic health issues. Chronic stress can have detrimental effects on physical and mental health. It has been linked to various conditions, including cardiovascular problems, digestive issues, weakened immune function, anxiety, and depression.

Throughout the rest of this post, we will be concentrating our focus on the physical stress, specifically posture, because our office has the ability to directly impact that the best. The most common and overlooked cause to physical stress is spinal posture. Posture is a direct window to spine. Your Spine and Nervous System is the foundation to the Life and Health of the Human Body. We can not emphasize this enough!

It is physiologically impossible to live the highest potential without a properly structured spine and optimally functioning nervous system.

To understand this, let’s discuss how the body functions. The brain is the control center of the human body. ALL vital function, ALL cells tissues and organs, ALL thoughts and actions are directly under the control of the human brain. The human brain communicates with the rest of the body through the spinal cord and all the spinal nerves that exit the spinal column. This is where posture is so crucial. When the spine is in an optimal structural position (ie good posture) there is minimal to no stress to the spinal cord and/or spinal nerves and your body will function optimally. The body then has the ability to function at its best, to reach its highest potential!

Now on the flip side, if the spine is not in an optimal position, or in a bad posture, there is tension placed on the spinal cord and/or spinal nerves. This decreases the energy flowing from the brain, through the spinal cord, out the spinal nerves, to each cell, tissue, or organ that it is functionally connected to. For instance, the nerves that exit the upper thoracic spine (upper mid back) controls and coordinates the function of the heart and lungs, in addition to the muscles, ligaments, and tendons of the thoracic cage.

When there is a slouched, flexed or hyperkyphotic posture, there will be tension on the nerves in that area. When this occurs, it is not uncommon that people will have dysfunction or disease in the heart and/or lungs. They may have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart murmurs, difficulty breathing when walking long distances, asthma, etc. This is imperative to understand in order to get to the root cause of the problem!

Now that we understand that posture is one of the most important aspects of physical health to address, wouldn’t it be wise to have a proper spinal and postural evaluation?

At The Chiropractic Source in Cedar Grove NJ, we specialize in a very unique care that focuses on correcting spinal posture. It is called Chiropractic BioPhysics and has allowed us to turn one of the biggest physical stressors as a tool to get to the source of many health care conditions and accelerate or optimize the healing potential of the body!

If you would like to learn more about how we can help bring your healing to the next level, please give our office a call and let’s begin your new health and healing journey.