Work Stress + Chiropractic = It Helps!

by | Aug 17, 2019

Is work-related stress making you sick?

Have you ever had your stomach do somersaults or make you queasy before a big presentation? Perhaps you’ve noticed terrible tension headaches that only happen at or after work? These are physical manifestations of stress. We all know that stress can affect our emotional and mental health, but it can affect us physically as well. There is sometimes a misunderstanding about what physical symptoms of stress mean. Where do they come from? Can’t this be solved by positive thinking?

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What stress does to the body:

One study has looked at all of the ways that stress can affect the body. What has been discovered is that if stress affects one system of the body, it can get communicated to another system. The interesting thing is, this happens in the same way that a physical injury would. So even if the fear and worry about meeting the project deadline is “all in your head”, it won’t just stay all in your head! That can manifest as symptoms that we mentioned before, like headaches and feeling sick to your stomach, but there are many other ways that stress can affect your body.

Stress can:

  • Effect your sex drive and energy levels, preventing you from relieving tension.
  • Keep you from sleeping and getting rest.
  • Alter your body’s natural pain relief, putting you in more pain!
  • Literally age your body — think about how much older a president looks after only one term!

So now we know that stress hurts the whole body, not just our internal motivation. What do we do about it?

At-home methods:

What you can do at home to help is to treat your symptoms of stress more seriously. Stress affects the entire body just like an illness does. Would you refuse to take any medicine or natural remedies for a cold or a stomach virus? Keep this in mind as you make positive steps to alleviate any symptoms of stress. Here are some things you can do at home:

  • Don’t take work home with you! When you’re not working, stop thinking about working. For what it does to your body, you’re basically still at work and you aren’t even getting paid for it.
  • Activities like massages, going to the gym, and taking a warm bath are great stress relief because they relieve physical, not just mental stress. Even if you’re tired, see if you can make time for physical relief!

How chiropractic care can help:

Remember how we said that if something happens in one system of the body, it gets communicated to another system? This happens negatively with stress, but it can happen positively too! Physical adjustments can affect the entire body for the better. Just like stress can start a negative cycle of effects on the body, chiropractic care can be the start of a healing cycle.

Chiropractic adjustment can:

  • Relax tense muscles
  • Combat stress
  • Help you sleep better
  • Relieve pain
  • Give you more energy
  • Raise your sex drive
  • Balance hormone levels
  • Improve immune health
  • Heal the body internally
  • Make you “feel better” mentally

Visiting a chiropractic wellness center near you can be the first step in balancing your body’s immune system, hormones, and mental and emotional health! HealthWorks: A Family Wellness Center would love to help you with your work stress- or any other kind of stress. Give us a call if we can serve you!

Check out the research behind it here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2562609/

HealthWorks: A Family Wellness center is a chiropractic and wellness center located in Plano, Texas. Our chiropractors, Dr. Christy Flick and Dr. Jennifer Taylor, have been helping patients function better since starting private practice in 2005. For information about this article or other chiropractic questions, please contact our office at 972-612-1800.