Apple Country Chiropractic Offers Treatment with Relaxing Effects
Where do you feel your stress? Neck? Upper back? Head? Low back? Would you like some help relaxing? Chiropractic spinal manipulation may well produce relaxing effects particularly when directed to the cervical and thoracic spine areas. Apple Country Chiropractic sees stress every day. Apple Country Chiropractic hears our Williamson chiropractic patients request more spine treatment once they feel it! Astute chiropractic patients!
MEASURING RESPONSES TO SPINAL MANIPULATION: STRESS
Initially, how do we react to stress? Sweaty palms. Rapid pulse and heart rate. We can feel these responses. Researchers want to measure these responses. Measuring heart rate variability, blood pressure, heart rate, and numeric pain scale after treating upper and lower cervical spine segments of healthy and neck pain patients, researchers discovered that upper cervical manipulation improved parasympathetic (calming) system and lower cervical manipulation boosted sympathetic (fight or flight) activity. Interestingly, neck pain patients’ parasympathetic activity was boosted by both upper and lower cervical manipulation. (1) Apple Country Chiropractic notices that the effect of touch alone is powerful.
EFFECTS OF MANIPULATION ON STRESS RESPONSES
The body responds to all types of stimuli. Researchers do their best to see how. One group performed a meta-analysis of multiple studies about the effect of spinal manipulation and mobilization on cardiovascular responses. Changes in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were charted. They concluded that spinal manipulation and mobilization may bring about a significant decrease of systolic together with diastolic blood pressure. (2) An analysis of articles about the effect of spinal manipulation on heart rate variability stated that a greater parasympathetic response was seen when cervical and lumbar spine areas were treated while a greater sympathetic response was seen when the thoracic spine was treated. (3) Another study linked pain response to resting blood pressure pre- and post-cervical spine non-thrust manipulation. Non-chronic neck pain patients who underwent such manipulation had reduced short-term pain and decreased systolic blood pressure. (4) There is something to manipulation beyond pain relief, and Apple Country Chiropractic is pleased to share the research as it comes available.
SPINAL MANIPULATION TREATMENT
Apple Country Chiropractic utilizes gentle spinal manipulation applied to the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine areas to reduce pain. Spinal manipulation of the thoracic spine effectively manages painful mechanical thoracic spine pain better than placebo treatment. (5) Effects of thoracic manipulation transcend the thoracic spine. Benefits of manipulation of the thoracic spine reach the cervical spine for patients with bilateral chronic mechanical neck pain. Thoracic thrust manipulation and non-thrust mobilization deliver similar changes in patients’ pressure pain thresholds and reduce neck pain intensity. (6) These are benefits of Williamson chiropractic care Apple Country Chiropractic is well-equipped to deliver.
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes how chiropractic and The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management may well attune parasympathetic and sympathetic as well as pain responses in the body.
Schedule your next Williamson chiropractic appointment now. Your neck and shoulders and upper back will appreciate the attention as will your decreased pain and heart rate and blood pressure after a gentle Williamson spinal manipulation session.
