The Overwhelmed brain

There are 4 key changes that happen when the brain becomes overwhelmed by stress.

Firstly you move into the survival fight or flight posture. This is where you over activate the flexor muscles in the neck, upper chest, hips and legs. This leads to pulling the head forward of the shoulders and down. The hip flexors and hamstrings cause the lower back to slump or slouch.

The second thing to happen is the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activates its survival side, the “sympathetic nervous system”. This will increase your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, lower the temperature in your fingers and toes, shut off digestion and disrupt normal hormone balance.

The third change impacts the regulations of moods and emotions. A part of the limbic brain known as the amygdala is allowed to overstimulate leading to poor expression of emotions. Feelings of anxiety and fear elevate as there is now a perceived threat of harm or danger everywhere around you. If this occurs for too long it will lead to further mental health challenges.

Lastly your pain threshold is lowered. This results in you “feeling” more pain, real or imagined! This means that the sensation of pain varies on the state of your mind.

Interestingly, when people receive chiropractic adjustments, research has shown that it impacts the overwhelmed brain and allows these 4 key changes to correct in reverse order. Pain sensitivity normalises, then moods, then the ANS restores balance and lastly posture improves.

Early identification of the overwhelmed brain to stress and early intervention with brain based chiropractic adjustments has the potential to prevent these 4 key changes from setting in and impacting your quality of life.