Johnson Chiropractic Offers Treatment with Relaxing Effects
Where does your stress settle? Neck? Upper back? Head? Low back? Would you like some assistance in relaxing? Chiropractic spinal manipulation may well produce relaxing effects particularly when directed to the cervical and thoracic spine areas. Johnson Chiropractic observes stress every day. Johnson Chiropractic hears our Richmond chiropractic patients request more spine treatment once they feel it! Wise chiropractic patients!
MEASURING RESPONSES TO SPINAL MANIPULATION: STRESS
Initially, how do we react to stress? Sweaty palms. Rapid pulse and heart rate. We can feel these responses. Researchers strive to quantify these responses. Measuring blood pressure, heart rate variability, heart rate, and numeric pain scale after treating upper and lower cervical spine segments of healthy and neck pain patients, researchers discovered that upper cervical manipulation improved parasympathetic (calming) system and lower cervical manipulation enhanced sympathetic (fight or flight) activity. Interestingly, neck pain patients’ parasympathetic activity was boosted by both upper and lower cervical manipulation. (1) Johnson Chiropractic notices that just the effect of touch is influential.
EFFECTS OF MANIPULATION ON STRESS RESPONSES
The body responds to all sorts 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. Variations in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were documented. They determined 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 stated that a greater parasympathetic response was seen when cervical and lumbar spine areas were treated while a larger sympathetic response was seen when the thoracic spine was treated. (3) Another study linked pain response to resting blood pressure pre- and post-cervical spine non-thrust manipulation. Non-chronic neck pain patients who underwent such manipulation experienced reduced short-term pain and decreased systolic blood pressure. (4) There’s something to manipulation beyond pain relief, and Johnson Chiropractic is pleased to share the research as it comes available.
SPINAL MANIPULATION TREATMENT
Johnson Chiropractic utilizes gentle spinal manipulation applied to the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine areas to reduce pain. Spinal manipulation of the thoracic spine efficiently influences painful mechanical thoracic spine pain better than placebo treatment. (5) Effects of thoracic manipulation transcend the thoracic spine. Advantages 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 decrease neck pain intensity. (6) These are benefits of Richmond chiropractic care Johnson Chiropractic is well-trained to provide.
CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he explains 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.
Make your next Richmond chiropractic appointment today. 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 Richmond spinal manipulation session.
