How Stress Can Hurt Your Overall Wellness

Stress is the body’s collective response to a challenging, unpleasant or potentially dangerous situation. All stress cannot be avoided and in fact, not all stress is bad for you, such as the pressure to complete an important work project on-time. Yet, chronic stress is another matter. At Family Chiropractic Care in Longview, WA, our team focuses on improving your health through many services, such as providing advice on lifestyle changes with the aim of reducing stress so you can lead a healthier, happier life.

You may be thinking that while stress can be upsetting and draining it cannot possibly cause any lasting harm to your body or mind. However, chronic stress can hurt your overall wellness and lead to a number of health issues.

• Anxiety
• Chronic back and neck pain
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Fatigue
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Headaches
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Impaired or slowed cognition
• Insomnia
• Re-injury
• Ulcers
• Weakened immune system
• Weight gain
• Worsening of pre-existing conditions, such as autoimmune disorders

When you deal with stress, your body releases chemicals to mobilize your resources in order to deal with the situation. These chemicals include adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine, which individually and combined can have negative effects upon your body when you live with chronic stress. Your body’s immediate response to a stressful event is to create tension in your muscles, dilate blood vessels, release more oxygen-carrying red blood cells into your blood stream, and produce more glucose – all in an effort to prepare your body for battle or a quick escape. Chronic stress leads to a vicious cycle of exaggerated chemical response and demobilization that can degrade your overall wellness.

Contact Family Chiropractic Care

Overall wellness cannot be achieved in a constant state of stress, which is why Family Chiropractic Care focuses on treating the whole person, not just the symptoms at hand. To reduce stress that reoccurs day-to-day, we offer lifestyle advice tailored to each individual client’s life. If you are dealing with chronic stress or experiencing musculoskeletal pain, schedule your initial consultation with the Family Chiropractic Care Team in Longview, WA, today by calling 360-636-2636.