ADAPTATION is central to our ability to maintain health. We know the human body adapts to survive on a daily basis. We see this when we encounter a virus and the body adapts to shut it down, or even when we eat, by extracting the nutrients from our food and expelling the toxins and waste products.
When the body is unable to adapt to both the internal and environmental conditions that affect it, it becomes easier for illness to develop and thrive. Chiropractors take a keen interest in supporting the nervous system and your internal maintenance systems within the body – ensuring there are minimal impediments to healthy adaptation. This creates the optimum environment for your body to thrive and heal.
STTRREEESSSSS interrupts adaptation!!!
Be it internal or external in its origin, stress has the capacity to alter the internal chemistry of the body, flooding it with stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which in turn suppress immune, reproductive and digestive functions. This may not be a problem in the short term, but experience and research show us that in the long term, stress has a significant and detrimental effect on adaptation and your health expression.
Dr. John Minardi explains that the impact of stress and adaptation affects the mode in which your nervous system is running your body, creating changes in your spine called subluxation and suppressing digestive and hormonal function. During a recent interview with Dr Minardi, he discussed how adjusting the subluxation is a key aspect in managing stress hormones [1], and restoring your nervous system to a resting state.
Dr Minardi emphasized when stress hormones are released long term, your key survival systems (reproductive, immune and GI systems) shut down.
What’s the relevance to chiropractic care?!! We know that the subluxation also causes these stress hormones to be released, triggering the stress response to occur and visa versa. Adjusting you literally rewires your brain to stop these stress hormones from being released and we release other happy and helpful hormones like oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin. Those are all not only our feel-good hormones, but they shut off the stress response and allow health and healing to take place.
What does this mean? A brain that is receiving information that is distorted in any way cannot respond optimally to the world around it. It is here that chiropractors are empowered to intervene in the way the brain adapts and interprets stress.
