Can chiropractic care help with stress?

Modern life can be stressful—the constant demands of longer work hours, an increasingly blurred line between business and personal lives, the 24-hour nature of information bombarding our brains, family tensions, raising kids in a confusing new age, grief, financial woes, loss—it can all build up. We all know what we need to do: exercise more, meditate, eat better, and process our problems. But sometimes, when you’re in a really stressful situation, that can be easier said than done.

So can chiropractic care help? Well, yes, is the short answer. It’s no magic cure, but it can definitely be a tool to help you lower your stress levels. Basically, our spine is the central support system of our body, but it’s also intricately connected to our nervous system. When we’re stressed, our body tends to tense up, causing muscles to contract and our spinal alignment to shift. These shifts, or subluxations, can trigger a domino effect that impacts not only physical health but also mental well-being. It creates a vicious cycle—stress causes you to tense up, the tension leads to muscle and spinal problems, and the resulting pain exacerbates your stress further. Not ideal, and perhaps not so easy to solve with a session of mindfulness or a green smoothie.

When the spine is misaligned, it can put pressure on the nerves that run along the spinal column. This pressure can disrupt the proper functioning of the nervous system, which plays a critical role in how our body responds to stress. In other words, a misaligned spine can keep your body stuck in a state of high alert—like an engine revving too high for too long.

So what should you expect from a chiropractic session to relieve stress? Essentially, a check of your spine to see where things are out of alignment. When the spine is aligned properly, the nervous system can communicate more effectively with the rest of the body. This improved communication helps regulate the body’s stress response, allowing it to return to a state of balance. As a result, you should find you are not only experiencing less pain and tension but may also feel calmer and more in control of your emotions. While there aren’t enough studies to be 100 per cent conclusive, some research has indicated that chiropractic care can improve heart rate variability, a key indicator of how well the body is managing stress. This one found chiropractic care was found to reduce pain and improve heart rate variability (HRV) metrics, such as the mean heart rate, SD of normal-to-normal QRS, and both high- and low-frequency components, following single adjustments.

So, the next time it’s all feeling a bit much, consider paying a visit to your chiropractor – that’s us! It might just be the adjustment you need to help you unwind and give you enough calm headspace to do all those other things you know will help—getting some fresh air, using that meditation app, choosing the stir-fry rather than the burger. Sometimes, you just need a hand-up to be able to access all the other tools that help you navigate the daily stresses of modern life.