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What is something we do 22,000 times a day? Breathe.
Yes, breathing. It seems like it should be a simple activity, one we don’t even need to think about. Well, one of the things we love doing as chiropractors is helping people improve their function and health by making small changes. Yep, changing how you breathe will absolutely improve your overall health. Did you know?
So how can breathing in a different way affect stress? If you are only breathing through your mouth, not using your nose at all, this can increase blood pressure and pulse rate, and decrease mental acuity and heart rate variability, all measures of increased stress on the body. So simply closing your mouth and breathing through your nose as much as possible is a great place to start. If you are someone who has difficulty breathing through your nose, from sinus blockages, allergies etc, then start small, even just 10 mins every hour is a great start! Also, mention this to your chiro at your next appointment, there are some wonderful gentle releases that may help blocked sinuses! When our body is exposed to stress, we become stuck in our fight or flight response, leaving us feeling anxious, irritated, fearful and on high alert, unable to rest. Ideally, we should be able to switch from our fight or flight response into a rest and digest response quite easily. But once our body has been running in fight or flight for a while, it needs a concentrated effort to switch this off and get some quality rest. The tissue lining the nose has links to our ‘fight or flight’ system and our ‘rest and digest’ system. So we can use breathing through our nose to activate our rest and digest response. Here are two techniques that use breathing to help us go from fight or flight, to rest and digest:
Using deep breathing techniques may help with a wide range of stress related issues. For a full list of how stress affects the body, see our blogs on stress, and SD protocol. Breathing also affects how well we sleep. If we are breathing through our mouth while we sleep, we are more prone to snoring, sleep apnea and lighter, non REM sleep. When breathing through the mouth while asleep, the soft tissues at the back of the throat become loose and decrease the space in the airway. This encourages snoring and sleep apnea episodes, interrupting deep sleep and often leading you to wake up feeling like you have barely slept. Normally, when we are getting enough REM sleep, our body produces a hormone called vasopressin, which encourages our cells to store water. When our REM sleep is insufficient, our vasopressin is lower, our cells release more water, and we will have the urge to pee during the night. This also lowers the quality of our sleep if we are waking through the night to use the toilet. Again, the solution is the same. Breathing through the nose as often as you can. At night this is harder as we cannot control what we do in our sleep, but there is growing evidence that taping your mouth shut (just using small strips of tape) can encourage nasal breathing at night and decrease snoring and sleep apnea. At first, breathing through the nose may feel difficult, especially if you have been relying on your mouth to breathe. The more you breathe through your nose, the easier it becomes, as the nasal passages widen and get less blocked with more use. This one, small but significant change can affect your entire body, reducing stress and improving sleep, something I think we would all benefit from. So give it a go and let us know how you find it! Blog inspired by reading Breath by James Nestor, highly recommend reading this book! Most people begin to see a chiropractor to address a certain complaint. We often see people coming in with low back pain, tightness across the shoulders and pain between the shoulder blades, postural concerns including rounding or a ‘hump’ at the bottom of the neck, neck pain, headaches, and many, many more. As chiropractors, we assess you to determine where within your body the problem is coming from, and work on these areas to improve function. But what is happening within our body is only half the picture. Your chiropractor will also ask questions about your everyday activities as we are products of our environment, and our body is constantly responding to everything around us to keep us optimised for our daily lives.
Anything in our environment that causes a reaction in our body can be referred to as a stressor. An easy way to think of this is that our body responds to a hot environment by sweating to keep us cooler. This can be thought of as a stressor because sweating depletes the body of water and salts, and it takes energy to create a sweating response. If we sweat for too long, our body cannot regulate itself properly. Other stressors on our body include:
As you can see from this list, our body is constantly adapting to the different stressors in our environment. This takes a lot of energy and effort, and sometimes, our bodies need to take a little shortcut. Our bodies are so good at adapting to change, that it will take the easiest option, even if this is not the best option for long term wellbeing. If we are sitting all day at our job, our body takes the easiest option and diverts energy, and therefore strength, away from our underused central postural support muscles, and places it into our brain and other structures that are using the energy more consistently. Short term, this is great, it uses the available energy efficiently. Long term, we are left with unsupportive core muscles that are more prone to allow injury when placed under load while exercising or moving. So, a short term solution that is not good in the long term. When you visit a chiropractor, we support your body to heal and move well through a wide range of techniques. Unfortunately the stressors on your body are often working against us, creating stress and tension in your body and nervous system. This is why we offer small, easily implemented changes that you can make to keep your body moving and decrease stress on your system. Often these changes include:
When you visit a chiropractor, they can help your body to move and function better, often resulting in less pain and discomfort and more mobility. They can also help you to make changes to how you interact with your environment when working or playing so you can minimise how much this stress affects you going forward. However, you will still be subject to many of the same stressors as before you started care. We cannot avoid using computers or phones for our jobs (even with stretch breaks), we will still crave junk foods, and the kids will be as loud as ever. While some stressors in our environment are unavoidable, with the right adaptations to your working environment, a few simple exercises and a well moving spine, most people can keep themselves functioning at a good level. Then they choose to come back for regular chiropractic visits to decrease the effects of these unavoidable stressors and maintain optimal function. They often feel they are better with regular chiropractic adjustments. Is it time for you or someone you know to make some changes in your environment? You can book with our chiropractors now to discuss your situation and come up with a plan to help you function better. |
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May 2024
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Address:
605 Howitt St Soldiers Hill Between Doveton St and Creswick Rd, opposite Selkirk Bricks Ph: (03) 5333 7830 |
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Monday: 9am-8pm Tuesday: 9am-7pm Wednesday: 9am-7pm Thursday: 8am-7pm Friday: 9am-5pm Saturday: 9am-12pm Sunday: CLOSED |