There are many ways to help reduce stress during the winter months including going outside for direct sunlight, finding exercises to do indoors, and seeking chiropractic care to improve body function and spinal health.
Can you explain the connection between stress and physical symptoms like tension or pain in the back and neck?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, absolutely. Stress is essentially what we call in our office, the silent killer and stress manifests as several forms, we call them the three Ts. Toxins, things that we’re putting into our body. So, patients who are overly medicated, have poor dietary habits. We have emotional stress, so losing a loved one, or a really poor work-life balance. Then you have stress, stress. So, trauma stress so to say. So, being rear ended on the freeway or being pinned to your desk and just looking down so your chin’s on your chest. And that’s typically in corporate America what drives symptomatology.
For example, we’re talking about tension and pain in the head, the neck, the upper back. That’s typically coming from several things, but structural misalignment. So again, looking at your phone all day with your chin in your chest is going to create that tech neck. That’s where essentially your head shifts forward, and your neck goes straight. This creates tension in the muscles because they’re now under stress. It increases stress on the disc and obviously stress on a disc is going to lead to pressure on the nerve. So those kind of micro stresses, and those postural stresses increase stress and tension essentially on the joint, the tissue, the spine, the nerve, which leads to pain, dysfunction, symptomatology within the spine.
People spend more time indoors, lounging around during the winter. How can maintaining proper posture help reduce stress on the body?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah. We discussed this on an earlier podcast, right? Wintertime, particularly for where we live, Liz, in the Midwest, East Coast, gets pretty Baltic, right? So, we can’t get outside and be active like we can in the summertime. So, when we’re sedentary, we’re not moving as much and we’re built to move, right? Two legs, bipedal, eyes in the front of our head. We’re not built to be sedentary in nature. So, when we can’t get outside and/or we’re pinned to a desk at work, that’s going to increase stress and tension within the spine through those postural misalignments we just discussed.
So, being proactive in your habits during the winter is really important as we discussed in an earlier podcast. Doing some spinal mobility or joint mobility. Taking a joint through its intended range of motion is going to stimulate the disc, the joint, and the tissue. Then working on all the muscles that control posture, their instincts, they pick up on movement. So, if you’re not moving you get weak and lazy. That allows your head to shift forward, your shoulders to round, your core to get weak and lazy.
So, throughout the day, throughout the week, we should be focusing on keeping that joint moving so it keeps its range of motion. That’s going to limit the stress and tension on the joint, tissue, and nerve. We should be doing pre-AB exercise to prevent pain. Engaging that muscle that sit deep in the neck that keep your head back or engaging the core which piques stability in low back and the pelvis. And then obviously, if the joint is moving well, you’ve got balanced muscle strength. That’s going to reduce the postural stress we’re putting on our body, which in turn is going to allow us to essentially feel and function better than not doing those things.
Can spending time outdoors and seeking out sunlight help reduce stress during the winter?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, absolutely. Motion is lotion, right? Research is all there for everyone to find and read. When you exercise a minimum of 20 minutes, it has a really positive effect physiologically on the body, releases endorphins, which essentially makes us feel good and happy. And then Dr. Huberman, I’m sure you’re familiar with the Huberman podcast, he’s a specific professor in ophthalmology so how your eyes deal with stress or light, etc. So, I’m taking this from his research, but he says if you can get 20 minutes of sunlight directly into the eyes a day, it has awesome effects on our physiology, how we feel, how we function, how we sleep.
Even though it’s cold, the sun still shines and we should all find the time to be exercising a minimum of three to five times a week, even if it’s light exercise, 20 minutes, get outside, go for a walk, look at the sun, obviously not directly, you get it in your eyeballs, and you’ll feel better than you would just being inside, not moving, not getting that natural sunlight.
How important is movement in reducing stress and what types of indoor exercises or stretches do you recommend for the winter months?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Movement’s key. So, as we just discussed, when you move, it releases endorphins, makes us feel better. So, we should all be moving for obviously all the health benefits, cardiovascular benefits that come with it, but also to limit our physical and physiological stress. Pick an exercise that you’d like to do if you physically can’t get outside. So, if you’ve got a treadmill, if you’ve got a bike, a Peloton, an elliptical, just try and move for 20 minutes a day and you’re going to feel and function a lot better.
When it comes to specific exercises to keep our bodies essentially bulletproof so we can function outside, snowing, skiing, etc., again, lean into those exercises that we should be focused on and we discussed earlier. Get the joint that we’re going to be using, hips, low back, knees, feet and ankles, shoulders, through their intended range of motion.
So, take it through the planes of motion that stimulate the joint, keep it healthy. A prerequisite for any joint in the body is full range of motion. We want to make sure we keep that. Once we lose that, that really increases stress and tension on the joint, which can break us down. Then focus on the muscles that are going to create stability in that joint. So, your lower back, we want the diaphragm to engage, we want the core to engage, we want the glutes, the hamstrings, to be active because then when we’re moving, the muscle groups that should be creating stability through movement are engaging.
Again, if you’re struggling for specific exercise through the spine and the core, jump on our YouTube channel, Advanced Health Chiropractor South Loop on YouTube. There’s a ton of videos and exercises that you can watch and listen to and follow through on at home.
How can receiving chiropractic care help relieve stress and tension in the body?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, great question. It’s essentially that. Chiropractors focus on stress. We know stress can manifest as several forms, stressful work environments, poor dietary habits, or physical stress. So a chiropractor, when your spine is getting adjusted, is going to improve the range of motion within the joint. That’s going to create less stress in the joint, less tension. That’s going to also feel good and function good.
Also, there’s loads of good research coming out when your spine’s getting adjusted, it activates activity in your brain, and cells form together, which has a direct response on stress. Also, it’s just typically from cortisol levels, right? So, if we’re in a stressed state, so we get rear-ended on the freeway for example, cortisol is released that blocks insulin from being absorbed. This then gets into the bloodstream, which raises our insulin. Then that has an effect on hormone proliferation and just essentially how the body functions physiologically.
So, by getting your spine adjusted it’s been proven to reduce stress physiologically within the body. Our patients typically come in for a little pain. For everyone, we do a deep history. They’re also having what we call conditions. Remember 15% of your nerves have the ability to send a pain signal, but 85% of your nervous system can’t do that. So, it’s going to show up as a condition. So, our corporate athletes who practice downtown in Chicago are going to have poor sleep patterns, low libido, fatigue, irritability, mood swings, inability to gain or lose weight. That’s because the body is under stress. When you’re getting your spine adjusted and relieving the stress in the nervous system, that’s going to allow you to function better physiologically at an optimal rate, which is then going to tie in, or going to allow us to sleep, and have more energy. All those things that you wouldn’t think chiropractors help with.
Speak to anyone who’s been under chiropractic care for an extended period of time, and they’ll tell you exactly that. It helps you so much more than just pain by reducing stress within the nervous system, which essentially controls everything the body does.
If you are interested in speaking with Dr. Luke Stringer visit www.southloopchiropractor.com or call (312) 987-4878 to schedule an appointment.
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