Chiropractic & Anxiety. Can it help?
“Why do I feel so relaxed after a chiropractic adjustment?” is a question I hear often in my practice in Barcelona. How can releasing restricted vertebrae, or ‘subluxations’ as chiropractors call them, make people feel so different? Others comment that they slept really well after an adjustment, or that their mood was a lot lighter. There are a lot of theories the exact neurological reasoning for such changes in people’s well-being after chiropractic care and I’ll explain one of the most supported theories.
Chiropractic and ‘Fight or Flight’…
If you walk around the corner and there is a lion or bear right in front of you, your body and central nervous system goes into ‘fight or flight’ mode. Your brain and body gear up to fight for survival, or run away. Whether you run or fight, you respond to the stress physically. The movement of running or fighting is detected in body by movement receptors in the muscle and joints. There are a huge amount of these movement receptors in the spine, especially the upper neck. When a chiropractor does an adjustment in the spine, especially the upper cervicals, this stimulates these receptors, which feed back into the cerebellum, which in turn has a dampening effect on stress in the brain.
‘Movement is the feedback system that relaxes the brain after stress’. The more restricted these spinal joints are, the less this relaxation feedback mechanism works. So, if we have chronically restricted spinal joints it stands to reason that we never quite relax properly.
Other things that have a similar relaxation effect is exercise, stretching, and massage. They too can stimulate these movement receptors. So, if you’re feeling stressed out, jump on the cross-trainer, get a massage, do some stretching or yoga, and consider visiting your chiropractor!
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Stefan Becker
Sarrià Quiropràctica