Is stress affecting your health?
Stress; it is something that we all experience in life. Have you ever wondered what causes each of us to react so differently to the stresses of everyday life? Consider this well-known story…..
A young girl was watching her mother bake a ham for a family gathering and noticed her mom cutting off the ends before placing it in the oven. “Mom, why do you cut the ends off before baking the ham?” she asked. “Hmmm… I think it helps soak up the juices while it’s baking. I’m not sure, though. That’s just the way your grandma always did it, so I’ve just always cut them off. Why don’t you call grandma and ask her?”
So, the little girl phoned her grandma and asked “Grandma, mom is making a ham and cut off the ends before placing it in the oven. She said that it’s probably to help soak up the juices but wasn’t sure. She said you’d know because she learned how to cook from you.” “That’s true. I do cut off the ends of the ham before baking. But I’m not sure why either. I learned how to cook from my mom. You should ask her.”
So, the inquisitive little girl called her great grandmother and asked “Great grandma, mom and grandma said they learned how to cook a ham from watching you. Do you cut off the ends of the ham to help it soak up the juices?” The great grandmother chuckled. “Oh, no sweetie. I just never had a pan big enough to hold a whole ham, so I always had to cut off the ends to make it fit.”
Just like this story we learn from previous generations how to react to the stress of life. Often the way we cope/react is simply a learned response beyond our conscious control, in other words how you react to stress isn’t your fault.
Our health is a direct reflection of how well our nervous system is able to interpret the stress that we are exposed to.
When we are presented with a stressor our nervous system normally goes into a sympathetic or “fight or flight” response. Once the stressful trigger passes, our nervous system returns to baseline which is a state of calm. Sometimes, due to past experiences including traumas, this doesn’t always happen.
In some instances, our nervous system gets stuck in a pattern where it is constantly reacting as if we are under threat. This is a result of our nervous system misinterpreting the information it receives either externally through the senses or from inside the body itself, as being a danger to our well-being. What results is a pattern of our body being constantly on guard. This will be manifested in our health as a feeling of being short tempered or angry, anxious, depressed and/or withdrawn. It can even lead to such things such as autoimmune disorders, chronic inflammation and general dysregulation within our body.
Chiropractic care helps to improve the way the nervous system receives information and how it reacts to the information it receives. When the spine is moving properly, the brain can more accurately receive information from the senses and send information back to the body; this accurate communication between the brain and body is what impacts our health.
So, if you find yourself “cutting off the ends of the ham” when it comes to your health give us a call. We would love to partner with you to improve the health and well-being not just for you but for your entire family!
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Chiropractic
COMMUNITY HEALTH
