Is your nervous system nervous?
Our nervous systems controls everything within our body. What happens when your nervous system gets nervous? The short answer is that a wide variety of issues can occur when this happens. At times there may be physical signs of this, but oftentimes there are often other underlying issues present that occur long before pain and discomfort is felt. These function as more of the body giving us a gentle warning that t is struggling to keep up with the current environment and stressors. Think more of the body whispering before it screams.
There are many different signs that our nervous system is under increased stress, but we first must understand how the body adapts or sometimes fails to adapt to these situations. Continual stress over time causes our nervous system to be overactive, or have a overpowering sympathetic response. This continual stress wears on the nervous system, preventing it from returning to a balanced/regulated state or having normal parasympathetic function active. Every time a new stressor is experienced the amount of stimulus that’s needed to trigger a stress response becomes less and less. Eventually a persons nervous system can become “stuck” in the fight or flight state. Our body cannot function at 100% in a state of fight or flight with high stress and constantly dominant sympathetic nervous system activity. The body has to compensate to make this happen and in doing so it down regulates the parasympathetic nervous system. This causes many of the autonomic background functions to not have the full function and regulation. This is the case with IBS, other digestive disorders, hormone imbalances and many other autonomic disorders. Not only do physiological processes get impacted but the body’s ability to heal, rest and relax is diminished.
Think about the last time you were under a lot of stress….. Regardless of whether it was physical, mental, chemical or emotional stress you may have noticed that you were more irritable, easily startled, bristled or withdrawn with touch or it was more difficult to regulate and process emotions. This is all the result of the body being stuck in a sympathetic state or returning to that state immediately after a stimulus.
Some of the signs of a “nervous” nervous system that I see in practice in addition to physiological issues are sleep issues, brain fog, low energy, low appetite, high tension, anxiety, poor emotional regulation and of course issues dealing with pain and discomfort. Of course the latter indicates that the nervous system has been dealing with many issues for a long period of time. Remember that nervous system controls everything, when dysfunction is present symptoms slowly become more and more severe.
The best recommendation I can give you from my experience working with the nervous system is don't wait till your body is screaming at you for help. If your nervous system is showing signs that it needs some support, the earlier you can support your body and help your nervous system to regulate the better. Your nervous system controls every function within the body and keeping it functioning at its best is the key to maintaining the best health.
In our office we don't guess with what your nervous systems needs, on your first visit we will use N.S. scans to evaluate what side of your nervous system is most active or if it is stuck in one function or the other. We will also determine how the alignment of your spine is impacting the central nervous system which is the main communication highway in the body.
With these scans we can determine the unique and specific chiropractic adjustments that you need to bring your nervous system back into a balanced and regulated state.
Are you ready to live a life with a nervous system that adapt to stress with ease?
Give us a call today to schedule your first appointment or complementary consult.
-Dr. Josh
