There is one thing we all share in common. Rich or poor, black or white and everyone in-between; we all fall prey to stress in one way or another.
Although it is common and inescapable, we all experience stress and deal with it in different ways. This is due partly to the nature of stress and partly to the uniqueness of the individual. So what is stress?
The definition of stress is “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.” Stress is a force that effects the health of both the mind and body. Stress creates a cascade of actions and reactions that involves the whole body, specifically the Nerve System.
All stress has to go through the filter of our Nerve System. It is the Master System. Nerves control every movement we make, regulate all our body organs, sense everything we feel and relate us to the outside world. Stress effects nerves by increasing tension to the system.
The Nerve System is calibrated to have a certain amount of tension to it. This healthy tension maintains the structure and function of the body. Healthy nerve tension is like the tension found in a guitar string or piano wire.
When the tension is set right on a guitar or piano, it can play the notes at the proper tone. Adding more tension creates an imbalance in the instrument and it plays out-of-tune. The same goes for your nerves.
An “out-of-tune” Nerve System doesn’t make it sharp or flat like an instrument but does effect how nerves sense, perceive and behave. There is an alteration in nerve function. Tension effects how nerves move muscles, regulate organs, sense feelings and perceive the environment.
To maintain relative balance in the Nerve System, the body creates compensations to deal with the added tension. One type of compensation is a vertebral subluxation.
A vertebral subluxation locks the upper cervical spine in a misaligned position. This lock is somewhat of a defense mechanism of the body. It tries to protect the brainstem area of the Nerve System from further tension and irritation. This lock though perpetuates the additional nerve tension. Chiropractors correct this by adjusting the vertebral subluxation of the upper cervical spine.
An adjustment helps tune the Nerve System back to a healthier tension, or tone. When nerves are tuned right, the quality of their expression is optimized. The Nerve System overall can sense, perceive and behave at a greater capacity. Your body has the potential to make not “noise”, but beautiful music.
Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP is a pediatric, family wellness and upper cervical specific Chiropractor. He is an active member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA). Dr. Jarek has postgraduate certification in Pediatric Chiropractic through the ICPA. Dr. Jarek also has postgraduate certification in the HIO Specific Brain Stem technique through The TIC Institute. Dr. Jarek is happily married to his wife Regina. They live in Youngstown, Ohio with their daughter Ruby.