Common Stressors in Childhood And How Chiropractic Helps
We hope that childhood is a carefree, joyful time. However, sometimes physical, chemical and emotional stressors create disease. Here’s how chiropractic can help at different ages, with the different symptoms of dysfunction and stress.
Stressors in Infancy
Did you know birth was stressful...on babies? Whether natural birth through the birth canal, interventions like forceps and vacuum suction, as well as cesareans--they all have an effect on the baby’s neck and spine. This, in turn, affects their nervous system, which controls every other system and organ.
A pediatric chiropractor like Dr. Jill, can check and gently adjust even tiny newborns.
As babies roll, crawl and walk, they often don’t stay in alignment. So much life is happening! This is why babies and toddlers can be checked and adjusted regularly, to ensure they are growing, developing and functioning well.
Ways stress manifests as symptoms:
Colic
Latching issues
Ear infections
Discomfort
Stressors in Childhood and Adolescence
So much physical and neurological development happens during these years. It’s important for a child’s body to be able to function and communicate optimally through the nervous system.
However, interferences and subluxations still happen. Many stressors continue to be physical; kids are forever jumping, biking, bumping, falling.
During school years, there’s badly adjusted backpacks, poor posture at school, and awkward positions while watching TV. Of course a child needs their spine adjusted from all of that!
Two other causes also create stress in the body, putting the spine out of alignment. Chemical stress is one, especially as the teenage years are notorious for poor food choices.
Emotional stressors are another cause and can increase through adolescence, with everything from peer pressure to cyber bullying.
Stress shows up in the muscles and affects the systems of the body. Think about the tension you may hold in your shoulders alone. When the vertebrae are subluxated and the nervous system function is lowered, the body cannot adapt well to stress and various signs or symptoms start to present themselves. This is dis-ease.
Ways stress manifests as symptoms:
Bedwetting
Asthma
Sleeping issues
Hyperactivity
Short attention spans
Depression and anxiety
Recommendations For Children
Chiropractic is a wonderful, gentle way to realign the spine and clear the nervous system so that the body can innate heal.
Dr. Jill likes to suggest poses that encourage kids (and adults) to look up, improving the curve of your neck. Try these...
Superman pose - lay on your belly on a mat or carpet. Inhale, and lift up your arms and legs, shoulders, chest and thighs off the ground - or much of your body as you can. Keep your arms straight, with your hands by your hips. Hold for a few breaths and lower yourself back down.
Prop your chin on your hands to watch TV.
When reading, try lying on your back and holding the book overhead. This is great for reading outside and blocking out the sun.
Lay on your belly and hold a book so you are looking up at it. This could work for TV-watching as well.
Your Next Step
Come to Choice Chiropractic and get adjusted by Dr. Jill Thompson as part of your healthy lifestyle! Email drjillthompson@gmail.com with any questions. Call (904) 718-9036 for an appointment and come to 3771 San Jose Place Suite 26, Jacksonville, Florida.
Can Chiropractic Help Your Terrible Seasonal Allergies?
We may blame our sneezing on the changing seasons. “Oh, it’s just allergies; can chiropractic help with allergies?”
Yes! The majority of Dr. Jill’s chiropractic practice members see great improvement. Let’s explain why.
“Allergies occur when the immune system encounters an irritant and mistakes it as harmful, attacking it with far more ferocity than needed,” explains this article by Palmer College of Chiropractic. The article goes on to say, “By improving communication between the immune, nervous and respiratory systems, chiropractic care can help patients weather allergy season—without relying on medications.”
This is true, because the pollen (or other irritant) is not actually the problem. If it was, then every single person outside would be affected. It’s not that all human beings are allergic to plant pollen.
The problem is something going on in your body, blocking your innate ability to adapt to this outside irritation.
Adapting to Changes
The same goes with the stress of the temperature variations as seasons change. It isn’t that the differences make us sick, or that we “catch cold” when we are surprised by a thermometer drop.
We just need to adapt.
As we turn calendar pages, we often start doing different activities, wearing different clothes, eating different foods. This creates different types of stress on the body that you may not even realize.
Even small things like running outside on pavement instead of inside on the treadmill is a big change for your body.
The problem is your body’s inability to adapt to the stresses of seasonal changes.
The body is created to self-regulate to changes in its environment. When we’re cold, we shiver. When we get hot, we sweat. It should be automatic for our bodies to manage environmental irritations and changes.
But when the nervous system has interference, it’s stuck. Chiropractors call these subluxations; when the vertebrae are misaligned and putting pressure on the nerves.
The subluxations in the spine make it harder for the nervous system to communicate and make the necessary adaptations.
Dr. Jill uses specific, scientific adjustments to clear the nervous system. This turns back on communication from the brain to the rest of the body, and from the body back to the brain.
Spinal adjustments optimize the nerve supply to unlock your body’s natural potential to adapt to any of life’s changes and stressors.
Your Next Step
Come to Choice Chiropractic and get adjusted by Dr. Jill Thompson as part of your healthy lifestyle! Email drjillthompson@gmail.com with any questions. Call (904) 718-9036 for an appointment and come to 3771 San Jose Place Suite 26, Jacksonville, Florida.