What is Wellness? Is it just a fancy word for feeling good, or a hippy term for spiritual enlightenment?
Dictionary.com says wellness is:
noun
- the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort.
- an approach to healthcare that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life, as opposed to emphasizing treating diseases.
Is it even possible to achieve wellness in today’s world? A world of toxins and stresses? It is now a widely used term that many holistic care practitioners use to describe the type of care they provide.
Chiropractors may help contribute to your family’s wellness. How?
The basics of chiropractic science state that a joint that does not move fully through a full range of motion will send nociceptive or stress signals to your brain. These initiate or add to the stress response in the body. This stress response is the fight-flight (or sympathetic nervous system) response. It gets your body ready to fight or run away from the immediate dangers that lurk around the corner. It raises your blood pressure and heart rate. It increases your breathe rate and allows more oxygen into the bloodstream. It releases sugars into the blood stream. Sight, hearing and other senses sharpen. This all happens very quickly as soon as the stress response is initiated. Often without you even noticing. After this initial response starts to fade the HPA axis is stimulated. This is comprised of your Hypothalamus, Pituitary and Adrenal Glands. This axis is the communication between these glands and the hormones they produce. The main hormone is cortisol. The stress hormone. When your body stays in a state of stress over a prolonged period it leaves you susceptible to lifestyle related diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, fatty liver and many other conditions.
So how may Chiropractic help?
Each adjustment bombards your hypothalamus with proprioceptive movement messages. These messages signal to your HPA axis that all is safe. It stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. This turns down and switches off the stress response! There is no question that the health of the body is dependant on a healthy nerve system. Each adjustment helps reduce the stress response.
In addition to the spinal adjustments that help restore normal movement and switch off or turn down the fight/flight stress response, Chiropractors are trained and offer their patients lifestyle options that help reduce the stress response and contribute to their wellbeing. Suggestions include advice in movement and exercises that contribute to overall health and wellbeing. They may also help advise in potential chemical toxins from the diet, or lifestyle that can impact the nervous system and overall health. They may also suggest sleep quality improvements such as change in posture, sleep hygiene or stress reduction activities. Chiropractors have always offered their suggestions to clients, knowing that these factors are vital for a healthy vibrant life.
Chiropractors respect and trust the body’s innate purpose to heal and repair. Your body is designed to heal, but it needs the best environment to do that in. Chiropractors are trained to help you establish an environment that allows your body to best heal in.
If you want to optimise your health and wellbeing, if you don’t feel quite right, if you feel over stressed and your body is having difficulty unwinding and relaxing, then chiropractic care is your answer.
Seek out help.
Yours in Health,
Dr. Anthea Holder
(Chiropractor and Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner)