03/28/2020
! ! ! STRESS ! ! !
This is a time of heightened levels of stress and anxiety. Rather than continuing to focus on the fear and worry this virus has caused, we need to shift our focus more towards what we can do to live the healthiest life we possibly can! The best defense is a good offense. And the best offense is to build a strong IMMUNE SYSTEM!
What we know is that increased levels of stress leads to a compromised nervous system. And a compromised nervous system leads to compromised immune function.
There are 3 main types of stress…
1. Thoughts
2. Traumas
3. Toxins
-The biggest stresses in life right now are your THOUGHTS. If we are constantly checking the news and checking our phones regarding the coronavirus, then we are only setting ourselves up to keep having these negative emotions and thoughts run through our head. Our brain processes roughly 3,000 words a minute, and if we are focused on the fear and worry this virus has caused, that’s all we are going to think about. The more we fill our minds with positive thoughts, the more positive we are, and the stronger our immune system can function and fight off disease. POSITIVE IN = POSITIVE OUT!
-TRAUMAS. These are your slips, falls, car accidents, concussions, and yes, that even includes the birthing process! Whether these are little traumas or big traumas, our bodies have been under constant physical stress since the day we were born. If the body is not able to move well it isn’t able to function and heal well. This physical stress on the body decreases the function of our nervous system which in turn, decreases the function of our IMMUNE SYSTEM!
-Finally, you have your TOXINS. This chemical stress mainly plays a role surrounding the things that we put into our body. If we are constantly bombarding our bodies with garbage food, it will only result in stressing your stomach out, your liver out, and your gallbladder out. Make sure you are eating your fruits, vegetables, your whole foods and stay away from all of the things that create inflammation and negatively impact the immune system. These are your sugars, gluten, processed dairy, and alcohol (I know, all the fun foods/drinks).
We have 24 movable bones in our spine, and stress plays a HUGE role in how our body moves and functions. Stress leads to this term called SUBLUXATION. This is where one or more of those spinal bones can be come injured and misaligned. Subluxation causes nerve irritation and interference. This interference disrupts the flow of messages from your brain, down your spinal cord, and out through the nerves which control all your organs, tissues, and muscles in your body. This interference also limits your body’s innate ability to heal and remain healthy.
Another thing we know is that we live our lives through our nervous system. And we have two very important subdivisions of our AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (the part of the nervous system that controls the function of our body that we are unaware of like breathing): the SYMPATHETIC and PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM.
The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for your “gas pedal”, your “fight or flight” response to stressful situations.
The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for your “brake pedal”, your “rest and digest” response to situations and bringing the body back to homeostasis (being level between the two nervous systems).
So what happens when we are constantly being overloaded by all these stresses in life? We are overloading the SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM!
Take for example you are getting chased by a bear. Your heart rate is going to go up, you’re going to have increased blood pressure, and you’re going to have an increase of blood flow to your muscles, all of this to help you get away from the bear. This experience is meant to be short lived. We calm down, our breathing becomes normal again, our blood pressure lowers, and we aren’t pumping all the excess blood to our muscles to help us escape the bear. Now, I’d like to think we all aren’t getting chased by bears every day, but life is unavoidably stressful. When our nervous system is stressed, and we stay in this fight or flight state for an extended period of time constantly stepping on that gas pedal, our body goes into a state of RESISTANCE. This is when the body is trying to compensate for this change in our nervous system. When we are in this state of sympathetic dominance for an extended period of time the body says, you know what, I just can’t do this anymore, and the immune system shuts down allowing for infection and disease to run rampant. This is where we start to see issues with blood pressure, weight, hypersensitivities to pain, etc. It becomes the underlying cause for many other problems and diseases. AND THAT STRESS RESPONSE IS THE SAME FOR ALL OF US!
The body cannot be in both repair/healing (parasympathetic) and defense (sympathetic) at the same time. It can only do one job well at a time. So if we are constantly under perceived threats (stress), what’s going to happen is our immune system? Our repair and healing mechanisms are going to decrease, it’s going to shut down. This is when you will see a decrease in immune response.
Don’t attack the stress! What we need to do is strengthen our bodies to ADAPT to the stresses of our environment. BJ Palmer, known for being the developer of chiropractic, once said “while other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suit the environment”. STRENGTHEN THE HOST, DON’T ATTACK THE ENVIRONMENT!
So now what? How do we address this stress?
There are many ways to address health and help build up a strong immune system, and here are a few ways you can do just that!
1. Sleep! Make sure you are getting enough sleep every night, roughly around 7-8 hours every night.
2. Water! We should be drinking about half our body weight in ounces every single day.
3. Vitamin D3. Even if it’s only for 20 minutes, step outside and make sure you are getting some sunshine. This will help our bodies make vitamin D and help protect our immune system from infection and disease.
4. Eat fresh whole foods. You’ll notice when you go to the store all the frozen and processed foods have been wiped off the shelves, but there still remains plenty of fresh produce!
5. Exercise daily. If there’s one magic pill out there that people are looking to take to get healthy it’s this, but you have to DO it. A lot of gyms and fitness centers are closed right now but there are still an abundance of home workout videos out there that can help you make sure your body is moving well.
6. Positive thoughts and emotions! The best way to start your day and set your mind up for positive energy, is to do something that will create these positive thoughts. This can include meditation, prayer, journaling, etc.
7. Practice good hygiene. This is something we all should have been doing before this virus came about, but still an important regimen to practice!
8. Most importantly, make sure to GET ADJUSTED! The chiropractic adjustment has been found to boost the immune system up to 200-300%! If the body is moving well and functioning well without any interference from subluxation, the body is able to heal well and is able to do its job to fight off infection and disease!
Remember, you don’t GET sick, you DO sick. And you don’t GET healthy, you DO healthy. Getting sick is a process, it’s not an event. It’s the result of constant stress and unhealthy lifestyle choices. The same goes for being healthy. It’s a process. It’s being proactive and living a healthy lifestyle where you have trained your body to function, heal, and fight off infection and disease to the best of its ability.
This time will pass and you can come away from this stronger and healthier than before if you are making good choices. WITH EVERY PROBLEM THERE IS OPPORTUNITY! Use this period of time as a wakeup call so you can improve your overall health, not reactively, but PROACTIVELY!
