It’s that time of year when many of us are, or should be, thinking about how we can keep our body’s highly tuned, giving our immune systems a boost so that we can fly through the challenges of winter and maximise our health and well-being.
Every year as the temperatures drop over the winter period, many people become more susceptible to colds and flu’s. The susceptibility during the winter months has often been attributed to many of us being less active, greater isolation as we stay indoors out of the cold, and spending less time outside charging our batteries with vitamin D from the sunshine.
So what can we do to make sure we can fly through the challenges of winter?
Aside from taking the obvious actions like:
- Getting outside,
- Getting active
- Getting social amongst others, and
- Getting some sunshine
The question we often get asked in practice is,
In order to answer this it is important to start with understanding how the adjustment works, and how ongoing chiropractic care affects the physiology of your body, before we can begin to understand the benefits of chiropractic on your immune system.
How the adjustment works, and it’s relevance to your immune system
As much as it is common that chiropractic has been attributed to helping with musculoskeletal challenges, it is the nerve system that is the primary focus of chiropractic and its ability to adapt your body to live the lifestyle you desire.
It’s your nerve system’s job to perceive, assess and understand your environment, including the challenges that come our way.
The better the assessment, the better the response, the better your performance, including your immune system.
So how does this link with chiropractic and your spine you might be asking?
Let’s get a little geeky.
When your nerve system is perceiving stress, under stress and overloaded, one of our responses is that particular regions of our spine and nerve system increase tone and move into protection. A great short term strategy when your nerve system cannot adapt to what’s happening. However, not a great long term solution.
Getting even more geekier, the dyskinesia (spine not moving properly) further alters or interferes with the brain’s understanding of your environment (dys-afferentation).
If your brain has less understanding of your environment then managing the most appropriate response will also be obviously interfered.
Then, to amplify this, when your spine is not moving properly (dyskinesia) and your brain and nerve system have less understanding of your environment (dys-afferentation), your nerve system gets stuck on a fight, flight or freeze sympathetic response (dys-autonomia).
Dys-autonaomia results in the release of the stress hormone cortisol can suppress your immune system’s effectiveness in fighting off invaders by lowering the number of lymphocytes present in the blood and interfering with normal white blood cell communication.
With your body stuck in a fight flight or freeze response long term you end up with DYS-PONESIS, which basically means you have wasted energy expenditure because you are driving at 6000 revs, unsustainable; >>>>creating noise for your brain, lowering your resistance and fatiguing your body.
Why is this important to understand?
Why is this relevant?
There is no magical button or adjustment for boosting the immune system
However…..
- It’s the momentum of chiropractic care that can make a difference
- It is the clarity of your brain’s understanding of your environment through a properly functioning spine and nerve system that will make a difference. (point to dys-afferentation and dyskinesia
- It is getting out of the fight flight or freeze sympathetic state that a lot of people are in that will make a difference
- It is the decreased noise from a relaxed system that will make a difference.
- It is maximising your nerve systems ability to assess, perceive and respond to your environment that will make a massive difference in any season of the year.
The bugs are always there, summer winter autumn and spring.
- It is the state we are in that determines our resistance and resilience at any and every time of the year.
- It is the activity
- The socializing
- The sunshine
- It is all these things
- AND, it is the clarity of our nerve system through chiropractic care so you can assess, perceive and respond to any challenge that comes your way…including bugs
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At Advanced Health Chiropractic, we believe that everyone can benefit from chiropractic care, whether you’re seeking to get out of pain or are searching for holistic healthcare to stay well, we are here to walk alongside you on your family’s journey.
Contact us today to find out more (09) 818 8015.