Triple pandemic: stay healthy this year with some easy tips
I am sure you have heard more than a few times that stress isn’t good for your health but, what you may not know is chronic stress can impact your immune system and not in a good way.
Our endocrine system, the one that is responsible for hormone release, is one of the key players in the stress response in our body. When we are confronted with stress the endocrine system starts a chain reaction of hormone release in response to the stress.
Two of the main hormones released are Cortisol (known as the “stress hormone”) and adrenaline. The primary function of both these hormones is to protect you from danger, but like everything in life, too much of a good thing causes problems for us.
Persistently high cortisol levels can cause slowed healing, depression and feelings of despair and overtime can even cause a decline in physical and mental performance. When adrenaline is persistently elevated it changes how the nerves respond to stress and the result is an amplified response to pain and danger. In other words, when adrenaline levels are constant in your body, feelings like chronic pain and a sense of danger become more persistent and intense.
Your thoughts and feelings about what is going on in your life can influence so many of your body’s systems, even your immune system. This is why it is so important to be aware of and manage the stress in your life. Your immune system can be activated not only by events that happen in the tissues of your body, but also by your brain’s interpretation of those events. Your thoughts and feelings actually influence your brains map of the body or your brains inner reality.
When your immune system reacts, it produces small immune molecules called cytokines; these float around inside your body and help you to heal. Some promote inflammation and some stop inflammation. Your immune system is supposed to be a good thing, a powerful protection system, however, like all other systems, it can also turn into a problem for you if it gets stuck on hyper drive.
Research has shown that long term stress and pain actually leads to an alteration in the immune system which results in more cytokine molecules that promote inflammation. Research has also shown that your immune system is closely linked with your alert & danger (sympathetic) nervous system and responds to cortisol and adrenaline.
Your immune system can even turn on parts of your brain that produce more cortisol and adrenaline causing a vicious cycle.
So, what can you do?
There are actually many things you can do to help yourself to buffer your immune system and improve your pain.
Mindfulness meditation is well known to quieten your mind, to help manage your worrying about thoughts and feelings and is known to calm the stress response in your body. There are many online tools that can help and smart phone apps to assist you with starting your mindfulness journey.
Proper nutrition is also key – with the aim to calm down the inflammation, so that the chemical sensors in our bodies can stop sending inflammatory signals to your brain, so your brain can stop pushing the pain button.
Getting enough good quality sleep is also well-known to buffer against stress and pain, but bear in mind that stress and pain can often disturb sleep, so just do your best to prioritize good sleep habits that work for you.
Having fun with friends and/or family and doing things that you enjoy, getting outdoors or a hearty laugh in a safe place with friends is the complete opposite to the stress response; this will go a long way in helping your brain to turn down or off the stress and pain music that it has been playing.
Movement is also essential to helping quiet this stress response. If you can’t move due to the pain research has shown that even just imagining movement will help you. By moving the bigger muscles of your body that are affected by the “fight or flight” stress response you help get rid of the built-up stiffness and tension.
It is also important to get the small muscles of your spine moving too. Your family chiropractor can help you with this. Chiropractic adjustments help your brain to know more accurately what’s going on in and around your body. Regular chiropractic care is known to alter function in a part of your brain called the prefrontal cortex which plays a big role in your brains pain matrix. There are also plenty of studies that have shown chiropractic care helps people back pain, neck pain and some types of headaches.
So if you suffer with chronic pain do your best to stay positive, move often, eat well, sleep well, and go see your family chiropractor to have your brain fine-tuned too.
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Chiropractic
COMMUNITY HEALTH
