While the country navigates the COVID-19 outbreak alongside the rest of the world, it seems as if the rules change daily regarding what is healthy and what is safe. Add to that a huge loss of jobs, schools being canceled and recreational areas like parks and walking trails being shut down, your part of the world may start feeling much more oppressive. Any situation where you are scared, uncertain, or worried for a prolonged period of time can lead to stress, and prolonged stress can open your body up for a whole host of other issues that have nothing to do with COVID-19. Let’s take a look at what stress is, what it does to your body, and a few practical ways chiropractic care can start combating it today.
What Is Stress?
Stress can be described as many things, but the most simplistic explanation is an overabundance of a hormone called cortisol in your body brought on by an external trigger. Triggers could be anything from a fight with your spouse, a long day with the kids, struggling with isolation, or watching too much news. Cortisol can actually be helpful in short bursts, but prolonged cortisol exposure is incredibly detrimental to your health and your immune response which is vitally important, especially during a pandemic.
Too much cortisol in your system will produce stress headaches, inflammation, irritability, and an elevated heart rate among other symptoms. The reason for this is because a stress trigger causes a tiny part of your brain called the hypothalamus to go into ‘fight or flight’ mode. In a dangerous situation, this jolt of cortisol is helpful and can push your body into action, but if your body continues to perceive danger and isn’t allowed to rest, you will start to notice some of the symptoms mentioned above start to manifest.
How Can You Combat Stress Today?
Schedule a Chiropractic Adjustment
Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to dramatically reduce stress by aligning the spine and allowing the spinal cord to send better signals to the brain. Chiropractic adjustments have also been shown to decrease inflammation in the body, and reverse some of the damage prolonged stress can cause. Our experienced team will also be able to counsel you on dietary changes and other stress-relieving tactics that will allow you to take some control back.
Limit News Consumption
It’s so tempting to always want to know what’s happening, especially when almost daily there are new developments about the pandemic and other world issues. While you may not think this is affecting you, over time watching or reading the news will elicit that same ‘fight or flight’ stress response we talked about above. Try to limit your consumption of news altogether or try sandwiching catching up on news between more stress-relieving activities.
Create New Habits
The social isolation associated with this pandemic has led to many people reporting declining health, poor exercise habits, and a more sedentary lifestyle. To fight the patterns that may be starting to take hold in your life you may need some accountability. So if possible, join with a few friends or family members either in person or over video chat to begin a new exercise regime, cover a song together, read a book together or do something that will decrease the amount of stress you are exposed to.