Holistic chiropractic care is effective for helping treat anxiety, depression and other emotional issues.
Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist Dr. Hans Selye observed that all disease processes begin with faulty posture of the spine. Further, any distortion of the spine can have a profound effect on one’s health.
Life is stressful and it’s up to us how we cope. When stressors become chronic, subluxations can develop in our nervous system. Subluxations are interference in our nervous system. They can be physical, as in a spinal ‘misalignment’, but not always.
Subluxations send a negative stress signal to the brain, causing a cascade effect primarily on the limbic system. The limbic system, responsible for adrenaline flow, emotion, behaviour, motivation and long term-memory, also houses the amygdala.
The amygdala is our ‘stress and anxiety’ centre – and it is this part of the brain that focuses on a given stimuli while ignoring all others, that has the ability to set the wheels in motion for the fight/flight response.
When the nervous system is functioning poorly, this can result in low emotional functioning and mental health diseases such as anxiety, depression, bipolar and personality disorders.
Chiropractic’s role here is to find and remove subluxation or nerve interference and restore balance and alignment. This, in turn, changes the state of the nervous system from fight/flight to a parasympathetic, resting state and restores brain balance.
Chiropractic is not about curing, but rather about optimal functioning of the nervous system and spine that, in turn, allows the body to heal and function as it is meant to. Once nervous system function is restored, it is important to maintain chiropractic care as we move through life. Even though the stressors never stop, our health and experience of life are much improved with chiropractic care.
If you know someone who suffers from anxiety, SAD or depression, please share this blog post with them to let them know that chiropractic care can help them.
