Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn Offers Treatment with Relaxing Effects
Where does your stress settle? Neck? Upper back? Head? Low back? Do you want some help relaxing? Chiropractic spinal manipulation may well produce relaxing effects especially when applied to the cervical and thoracic spine regions. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn observes stress daily. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn hears our Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic patients ask for more spine treatment once they feel how good it is! Astute chiropractic patients!
MEASURING RESPONSES TO SPINAL MANIPULATION: STRESS
First, how do we respond to stress? Sweaty palms. Rapid pulse and heart rate. We can feel these responses. Researchers strive to quantify these responses. Measuring heart rate variability, blood pressure, heart rate, and numeric pain scale after treating upper and lower cervical spine segments of healthy and neck pain patients, researchers found that upper cervical manipulation improved parasympathetic (calming) system and lower cervical manipulation boosted sympathetic (fight or flight) activity. Curiously, neck pain patients’ parasympathetic activity was boosted by both upper and lower cervical manipulation. (1) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn notices that just the effect of touch is powerful.
EFFECTS OF MANIPULATION ON STRESS RESPONSES
The body responds to all types of stimuli. Researchers do their best to document how. One group did a meta-analysis of multiple studies about the effect of spinal manipulation and mobilization on cardiovascular responses. Changes in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were charted. They concluded that spinal manipulation and mobilization may result in a significant decrease of systolic as well as diastolic blood pressure. (2) An analysis of articles about the effect of spinal manipulation on heart rate variability reported that a greater parasympathetic response was seen when cervical and lumbar spine areas were treated while a greater sympathetic response was seen when the thoracic spine was treated. (3) Another study tied pain response to resting blood pressure pre- and post-cervical spine non-thrust manipulation. Non-chronic neck pain patients who underwent such manipulation had reduced short-term pain and reduced systolic blood pressure. (4) There is something to manipulation beyond pain relief, and Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn is pleased to present the research as it is made available.
SPINAL MANIPULATION TREATMENT
Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn utilizes gentle spinal manipulation applied to the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine areas to decrease pain. Spinal manipulation of the thoracic spine effectively manages painful mechanical thoracic spine pain better than placebo treatment. (5) Effects of thoracic manipulation transcend the thoracic spine. Benefits of manipulation of the thoracic spine extend to the cervical spine for patients with bilateral chronic mechanical neck pain. Thoracic thrust manipulation and non-thrust mobilization produce similar changes in patients’ pressure pain thresholds and reduce neck pain intensity. (6) These are benefits of Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic care Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn is well-equipped to deliver.
CONTACT Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates how chiropractic and The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management may well address parasympathetic and sympathetic as well as pain responses in the body.
Schedule your next Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic appointment soon. Your neck and shoulders and upper back will appreciate the attention as will your decreased pain and heart rate and blood pressure after a gentle Ashburn and Herndon spinal manipulation session.
