Got Stress?

In 2007, a gold standard double blind placebo study was presented in the Journal of Human Hypertension, which demonstrated that a chiropractic adjustment, to the upper neck region, lowered blood pressure significantly. In a group of 50 people with early stage hypertension, 25 people had the chiropractic adjustment and 25 did not. None of the patients were allowed to take medication during the eight week study. The patients that had the adjustment saw an average drop of 14mmHG systolic blood pressure and 8mmHg diastolic.

Interestingly enough, it would take two blood pressure medications to have the same effect. The researchers also noted that none of the patients getting the adjustments had any adverse reaction to the chiropractic treatment. In my opinion, the coolest part of this study is that they eliminated the patients who had complaints of neck pain. That’s right, they were all asymptomatic patients which means that they had no musculoskeletal complaints anywhere in their bodies. A link to the study is found at the end of this blog.

So why would a chiropractic adjustment decrease blood pressure? It is the same reason, neurologically, that the adjustment would decrease overall stress in the body. When a spinal segment is subluxated (see subluxation blog for more information), or misaligned causing a restriction in range of motion, it interferes with the neurological message to the brain. The small joints in the spine constantly tell your brain where it is in space and time. Also, movement of the spine actually stimulates your brain.

Why do you think toddlers like to move around and get into just about everything? They are learning and their brains are growing. This is also why it is counterproductive to have kids sit all day in classrooms without proper movement. When these joints are not moving, the brain receives stress signals from the body called nociception. Nociceptive signals activate the sympathetic nervous system or “fight or flight” response. It is the same response that would activate if the body was in trouble (ie. Saw a bear).

This response is quite healthy short term; however, it is devastating to the body’s overall health when chronically activated. Now, here’s the big question: If you saw a bear, would your heart rate and blood pressure increase or decrease? Silly question right? Of course your heart would pump like crazy to get blood to the organs which would get you away from the bear or attack it (hence why it is called “fight or flight”).

On the other side..........

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