Stress is Contagious

Just like disease, health can be transmitted. What one individual does to improve or diminish their health has consequences to all other individuals. From atoms to persons, connection is a requirement for life to happen. Atoms in our physical body need constant interaction and exchange with atoms in the outside world in order to maintain life. Likewise, we cannot be our healthiest unless we relate positively interpersonally. The way we perceive stress in the external environment has a direct influence on the way we react to it. People who are exposed to stress by association with social groups that are highly stressful are more susceptible to mirroring the feeling. Likewise, having assistance while dealing with a new challenge or situation effectively can have significant influence in an individual’s health and well-being. John H. Knowles stated, “each person has an individual moral obligation to preserve one’s own health—a public duty if you will.”

The effects of stress can be emotionally and physically drastic. The following afflictions have become characteristic of our fast paced society: high blood pressure, ulcers, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, lung disease, and depression. Some of the physical effects of chronic stress can cause harmful pressure on the structure on the structure of the body, including muscle tension, contraction, and nerve irritation. This strain can lead to misalignment of the spinal column, leading to what are known as subluxations. This is a situation where your vertebrae are out of position and create pressure on the spinal nerves, which causes the nerves to interfere with the signals traveling over those nerves. This often manifests in severe neck and back pain proving a direct correlation between stress and the physical ailments one might feel.

Your chiropractor cannot change stressors from life that stimulates the pain, but they provide treatment that can help you develop healthy bodily responses to stress. The theory is that adjustments help encourage the body to heal itself. Unfortunately most people don’t seek change until the damage is already done. As a patient, your responsibility to upkeep the healthy adjustments received from your chiropractor, and incorporate more sensibility into your everyday life. Acknowledge the influences and stressors of your environment. Self-care is indispensible for staying healthy, and ironically has an effect on the people around you too. Simply by being aware of the stress around you can allow you to acknowledge its presence before you get sucked into its consequences. Bottom line: help spread the healing power of wellbeing, not the toxic infection of stress!