Thoughts, Traumas and Toxins
We have a serious pandemic in America. No it is not Covid 19. Mental illness has been steadily increasing in America for the past decade and it is coming to a head in 2023. In America, 21% of adults are battling some form of mental illness. That’s 50 million adults in America that are battling some form of mental illness. With this staggering statistic, it warrants investigation on actions that should be taken to help those battling mental illness.
Although therapy is tremendously helpful for those who are struggling with depression, anxiety or other forms of mental illness, there are other tools to aid in this battle. Chiropractic has been shown to provide aid when battling mental illness. There are three major factors that play a role in the development of spinal misalignments; Thoughts, toxins and traumas.
Negative thoughts and mental traumas have serious effects on your body just like they do on your mind. In this newsletter we will be breaking down how your body responds to mental stress and how Chiropractic can improve your mental health just like it improves your physical health.
- It does not affect only your mind
Let’s say you have been battling depression this past week. Then anxieties of everyday life rear their head and you start to feel physically ill. Headaches, joint pain and back pain all begin to manifest. These are common physical reactions to mental illness that millions of people face every day.
You may wonder how something that manifested in your brain could cause issues in your body. The reason your body reacts in such a profound way to mental traumas is due to the fact that your brain is part of your nervous system. Your nervous system controls everything that happens in your body so there is no surprise that when a negative thought or mental trauma occurs that the body will follow in the illness manifestation process.
- The three parts of your being
When God made man, He created three amazing pieces that all work together to make man a living being. The third piece is the spirit of the man. This piece of you is the part of you that is re-created when You accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour. The second piece is your soul. The soul is made up of three other parts that make up your personality. The three parts that make up your soul are your mind, your will and your emotions. The final piece that makes up man is the physical body, which houses your soul and spirit.
Each of these intricate parts work together in a symbiotic relationship so that each human being can operate the way God intended them to. With this knowledge, we can easily see the relationship between your soul, your nervous system and the rest of your physical body. This explains why back pain, muscle tension and nausea manifest when panic attacks or depression bouts occur.
- How mental stress affects your spinal health
When anxiety attacks, stress roams free. Our bodies will produce adrenaline and cortisol; the two major stress hormones. These hormones cause an increase in heart rate, impact the nervous system and increase blood pressure. These hormones are used to help us exert large amounts of energy to run from or fight dangerous threats. After those threats our bodies will relax and return to their normal state.
Although the body will naturally return to a resting state, there are a great deal of unnatural stressors that can cause a constant state of stress in the body. Constant stress is a result of cortisol and adrenaline levels being at constant high levels in the body. With this constant state of stress, your body will begin to show signs of muscle tension, limited range of motion, and headaches.
- The Impact Anxiety and Depression have on pain
Anxiety and depression can actually lower the body’s tolerance to pain levels. The parts of the brain that control the reception of pain also relate to depression and anxiety. The two neurotransmitters that are responsible for signaling pain, norepinephrine and serotonin, are also implicated in depression and anxiety.
Physical symptoms that occur due to depression include: headaches, digestive issues, eyesight problems and fatigue. Stress and mental trauma can also trigger autoimmune diseases like psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Each of these symptoms and effects of depression are indications of subluxation in the spine. This further expresses the relationship between the soul and the body (nervous system).
- How to help
There is no denying that mental illness can impact the physical body and cause subluxation in the spine. This interaction between the soul and the nervous system can be impacted through chiropractic care. When you face depression or anxiety, the emotional trauma that accompanies the mental battle can cause a misalignment in the spine. This misalignment causes interference with the nervous system. The nervous system is what chiropractors interact with on a daily basis. Removing interference from the nervous system will cause the healing energy to flow, resulting in healing and health.
There are reports that show an emotional release that occurs after an adjustment. For those living with constant stress caused by mental illness, there has been nerve interference that has been around almost as long as the initial mental trauma! Removing that nerve interference has relieved the body of its symptoms of pain, muscle soreness and headaches resulting in the ability to release all the built up emotional stress caused by anxiety and depression. Whether the emotional release is expressed in laughter or tears, health has been restored both in the soul and the body.
Doctor Aaron Morres has reported similar events occurring in his office in Spain. One of his patients that had been battling severe anxiety was getting adjusted regularly on a weekly basis. At his progress report he told Dr. Morres that he had never thought Chiropractic could help his anxiety, however he stated, “I have found inner peace through chiropractic”. If you would like to find peace through chiropractic, ensure you get adjusted often!