It is not uncommon for patients to start seeing me for chiropractic adjustments after they’ve had an injury of some sort. Some of them stay on after the injury heals but others stop care because they start to feel better. 

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to continue getting adjustments even after an injury seems healed. First, just because an injury isn’t as bothersome doesn’t mean it’s fully healed. If you don’t continue getting adjustments, you will not only potentially prevent complete healing, you could make yourself susceptible to further injury. 

The truth is, even without an acute injury aggravating you, each of us is dealing with several types of stress at any given time. Did you know there are three types of stress? You might be saying “three? I have way more than three, Dr. Jasmine!” Let me explain. 

The three types of stress are: physical, emotional, and chemical. 

• Physical stress is anything related to the body such as your body’s position when working (including posture and workstation ergonomics), repetitive motion, gravity, injuries, and so on.
• Emotional stress can come in the form of work struggles, financial problems, loneliness, isolation, and hard family situations (just to name a few). Emotional stress is incredibly hard on a person’s body and often shows up in physical symptoms such as nausea, pain, and anxiety. 
• Chemical stress includes anything that touches or goes in our bodies such as medications, food/drink, lotions on the skin, and allergens in the environment. 

Each person’s mix of any of the three types of stress above will vary depending on a variety of factors. I have several patients who are dealing with a high level of all three stress types right now and they come in for a weekly adjustment. It doesn’t take major stressors to cause a problem. Even a handful or more of tiny stressors (you may even call them annoyances) build over time and affect how we feel and how our bodies work. 

Some of you have likely heard of each person having both a sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. The first is what prepares the body for the “fight or flight” response during any potential danger (your body can interpret stress as a danger). 

The parasympathetic nervous system tries to prevent the body from overworking and restores the body to a calm and composed state. If your sympathetic system is in overdrive and your parasympathetic system isn’t working at its best, it’s the perfect storm for anxiety, pain, and other stress-related maladies. Keeping your spine adjusted will help your body’s nervous system regulate itself better. 

Whether you’re dealing with big stress or a bunch of nagging stress, I’d love to help. I can’t make the problems go away, but with regular chiropractic adjustments, I can help you manage them better by keeping your spine and nervous system functioning well.