When people begin coming to me for chiropractic care, they typically come because of an ailment of some sort. Whether they’re experiencing lower back pain from pregnancy, sciatica, have a colicky infant or a toddler that had a fall – it almost always starts out as something physical. The funny thing is that physical stressors aren’t the only causes of subluxation in the body. There are two other things that can cause subluxations: chemical stress and emotional stress. If you’re continually experiencing pain and subluxations despite continuing regular chiropractic care, it may be time to address other these other subluxation causes.
Physical Stressors
Physical stressors causing subluxations are the most common reason that patients come to my practice. They have an ailment caused by pregnancy, poor posture or a car accident or a slip and they need me to put things back into alignment. But these aren’t the only types of physical subluxations that occur in the body. Constant trauma (like carrying a very heavy book bag for many years) or sleeping in a certain way over a long period of time can cause subluxations in the body. Of course, we can’t ignore birth as a subluxation. During natural vaginal birth an infant’s neck is stretched to almost twice its normal length. This in and of itself can be stressful, but imagine the impact of vacuums, forceps, or cesarean sections. This is part of why it’s so important to bring infants to a chiropractor, since trauma during birth can lead to issues with latch, fussiness, and in extreme cases may contribute to SIDS.
Chemical Stressors
What many people don’t realize is that chemicals have the power to impact muscle tone. Because spine alignment is directly dependent on the muscles in the body, this can easily cause subluxations. Examples of chemical stressors are pollution, antibiotics, caffeine, alcohol, smoking, prescription drugs, refined sugar and other processed foods. These chemical stressors cause subluxation by interrupting the function of your muscle fibers, which upsets muscle tone and influences the spine.
This is why I stress the importance of being aware of what is going into your body. With even healthy foods today being covered in chemical pesticides, it’s causing subluxations and long term issues that we aren’t even aware of yet.
Emotional Stressors
Perhaps the most ignored aspect of true wellness is subluxations caused by emotional stressors. The most common cause of subluxation in the body, emotional stressors are of massive importance to my patients, whether they realize it or not. Living in a GOGOGO world that is filled with noise, interruption, stress and tension – our cortisol (stress hormone) levels are through the roof. The long term impact of such emotional stress (worry, depression, fear) is muscle tension that ultimately results in vertebral subluxation.
Part of the reason for my monthly fee structure is that subluxations occur on an almost continual basis from birth to death. It’s unavoidable. But if we carefully manage what we put into our body, how we treat our body from a physical perspective (embracing fitness, doing yoga and flexibility training), and releasing stress via meditation and exercise, we can mitigate the impact of these stressors on our body – meaning we’ll require adjustments less frequently and experience complete wellness the majority of the time.
Chiropractic care can’t work alone. I wish it could, but managing your stressors plays a significantly larger role in your wellness. If you haven’t paid attention to your overall levels of fitness, the state of your emotions, embraced meditation or changed your diet – it might be time that you take action.
