Can Chiropractic Care Help With Depression?
The holidays can be filled with fun and joy throughout the season. However, not everybody deals with
the holiday season the same way. According to the American Psychological Association, nearly 40
percent of people feel their stress levels increase during the holiday season. Increased stress levels can
raise your chances for illness, and can lead to anxiety and depression.
On top of that, the holidays are a season of excess, and it’s easy for those struggling with depression to
turn to substance abuse. Holiday depression is a real thing, and coping with it can sometimes feel like a
lost cause. It’s important to know that there are a lot of avenues for help out there, and chiropractic
care is a way to help mitigate some of that stress.
How a Misaligned Spine Affects You
Your spine is the main pathway for your central nervous system, and when it’s out of line, it makes it
more difficult for your brain to communicate with your whole body. This means more than just getting
rid of back pain, but it can also open up pathways of communication to help prevent some serious
health issues – including depression.
Your nervous system is central to helping you maintain optimal mental and physical health. By being
properly aligned, those lines of communication stay open, and allow your body to create the proper
hormones to offset those feelings of sadness and stress. This gets to the root cause of the issue,
naturally keeping the system on track.
How Chiropractic Care Helps With Depression
Chiropractors are specialized in correcting those misalignments, which gets those pathways back on the
right track. This opens the door for your body to deal with things like stress and depression, which can
often manifest themselves as back pain, neck pain or shoulder pain. Your aligned spine helps balance
your body and mind, opening the door to healing.
This spinal alignment also allows for the proper release of those good hormones, which can reduce or
eliminate those feelings of stress. It can also lower the tension in your muscles. Relieving that tension
can reduce the side effects associated with depression and stress. Things like headaches and muscle
stiffness can really slow you down, and a properly aligned spine can help reduce some of those side
effects.
Relax and Get Some Rest
One of the most daunting and stressful aspects of the holiday season is the jam-packed schedule. Along
with proper spinal alignment, one of the most positive things you can do is to promote your own
relaxation and rest. Having your nervous system communicating properly will go a long way in helping
this, but making sure you’re getting proper rest is paramount.
Insomnia can be a symptom of anxiety or depression, and chiropractic care can help you get more rest.
Proper spinal health keeps your body in sync, allowing for improved sleep patterns. Along with keeping
your muscles more relaxed, chiropractic adjustments can help you relax more during these stressful
times.
Chiropractic care offers a laundry list of benefits, and some of them can bolster your mental health as
well as physical. For more information on how chiropractic can help offset depression and stress,
contact Dr. Morgan Sheridan at Foundation Chiropractic today.