The average Canadian is over-worked, under-paid, and expected to be more productive in less time. Not only are you under stress at work, but as mentioned in previous Westside Health articles, you have to perform at home as a parent, chauffeur, spouse and a hockey coach. There are only 24 hours in each day!
Feeling stressed? Feeling that there is no time for YOU? You are not alone!
Most people that we talk to equate stress to financial, job, and relational stress – all in all emotional stress. However, there are two other types of stressors, physical stress (postural strains, sport and motor vehicle injuries), and chemical stress (pollutants, food preservatives, and medications). Studying the difference between humans and wild animals, it’s been found that humans are the only primates that have higher rates of diseases of lifestyle: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, depression and other mental disorders. Over the last 100 plus years, since the onset of the industrial revolution, these diseases of lifestyle are far more prevalent than diseases of the past, like leprosy and the plague.
What this evidence shows is that humans have a higher stress lifestyle; family and free time are becoming a thing of the past, more work, and more taxes are the future! When comparing humans to other animals, humans are the only species capable of creating a stress reaction in the body without a stressful situation even presenting itself.
What does this mean? Try this exercise with us. Think of tax season, bills, or a project coming due at work. Did you feel yourself flush, your heart rate go up, and butterflies in your stomach? When we think of a situation that is potentially stress creating – we actually create stress just as if a big rabid dog jumps at you in the dark! This wonderfully unique trait is only common to human beings! We create the same physical stress response in our bodies sitting in traffic worried that we’re going to be late as we do when that dog jumps out at you.
The fact is that stress is necessary – if a big rabid dog is attacking you! Stress is needed to survive! If you are chronically stressed at work and at home, your body creates a cascade of chemical reactions that make you more prone to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, anxiety, IBS, and many more diseases. So if you decrease your stress, it is only natural that you decrease your chances of developing the diseases of lifestyle!
Here are some tips:
1. Create Proper Eating Habits – Eat fresh! Eat organic! Eat clean. Read food labels, if you cannot pronounce the ingredient – it probably shouldn’t go in your mouth. The ingredients should sound like: carrot, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, chicken, salmon. Avoid aspartame, MSG (Monosodium Glutamate – and other trick names), and artificial sweeteners.
2. Get Adequate Exercise – Research shows that 30 minutes of light exercise (walking, yoga, stretching, jogging, swimming) 3 times per week will decrease your risk of heart disease by 33%. It also helps move your bones, joints, ligaments, and muscles, telling your nervous system to decrease the stress response in your body.
3. Create Proper Nervous System Function – Your brain, spinal cord, spine and nerves control every function in your body (heart, lungs, digestion, reproduction, etc.). Any misaligned spinal bones or stress on your nervous system stops the transmission of signals coming from your brain to the rest of your body, and can create dysfunction to organs and systems in the body. Research shows that chiropractic adjustments create the proper alignment in spine and nervous system thus restoring the proper function to those organs and systems in the body.
4. Have a Positive Mental Attitude – There is a tremendous connection between your thoughts, your nervous system, body and immune system. “Psycho-neuro-immunology” – a fast growing field, suggests that the way you think, directly affects your nervous system and your overall health and wellbeing. Think of a very stressful time in your life; death of a loved one, exams, bills – were you sick after? Personal time, trips to the beach, or anything you enjoy be it meditation, prayer, deep-breathing, yoga, smiling, laughing, or even a 10 second time-out, will help you minimize the effects of all three types of stress.
So, a trip to Mexico may save your life, by decreasing your stress, and decreasing the likelihood of developing diseases of lifestyle.
You deserve it. Doctors’ orders!
Questions or Comments
Contact Dr. Travis Pillipow and Dr. Sarah Tremblay
Dr. Travis Pillipow DC, BSc.
Dr. Sarah Tremblay, DC BHPE
Health In Hand Family Chiropractic
104-1195 Industrial Rd.
Kelowna, BC
VIZ 1G4
250-454-9474
http://www.healthinhand.ca/
Adjusting you for a better life!
