Have you ever wondered, why does it hurt? Why does my shoulder hurt, back hurt, why am I having headaches, and so on?
What about this one...I didn't even do anything...why does my ________ hurt?
There are 3 reasons why you hurt, it's either physical, emotional, or chemical stress or a combination of all three.
A physical cause can be anything from a car accident 10 years ago, a fall, sitting at a computer for 8 hours a day for the last year, sitting in a car all day, carrying heavy equipment, dehydration, etc. An emotional cause can be pent up anger, a death in the family, divorce, selling of your family home, moving, a break up, getting married, having a baby etc. A chemical cause can be the air you breathe or the foods you eat (or don't eat) or medications we are taking.
These 3 types of stress, cause our bodies, our spine, to go out of alignment (called a subluxation) and create symptoms that range from pain to numbness, from anxiety to headaches, from constipation to indigestion to diarrhea (no fun!).
When our spine is out of alignment we tend to leave it alone and not do anything about it. We often don't know when our spine is out of alignment until we experience any or all of the above symptoms. Pain is the last to show up and often the first to go away once you're under chiropractic care. That's why I suggest see a chiropractor at least 2 times a month to prevent any serious issues down the road.
There are some types of stress that we can control, one is drink ENOUGH water, this means a lot of water. Take your body weight and divide it by 2, then divide that number by 8. That's how many glasses of water you can drink per day.
Another is to stay in the outskirts of a grocery store when you shop. Anything on the inner isles is almost always processed food and packed with sugar (disguised as other things), and who knows what else. I like to buy a lot of organic vegetables, and stir fry them in extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic. So good!
Another way to decrease stress, is exercise, move your body! Walk, run, play with your kids, chase them around the house, do 10 jumping jacks, now, try something new, like Crossfit, or Bikram Yoga (2 of my favorites), or have a date night and go dancing, no date? Go with your friends or turn on some music and dance in the living room. Move your body.
Finally, see a chiropractor. A chiropractor is a doctor and has specialized training to clear misalignments in your spinal column caused by stress. Your body will function the way it's supposed to. Chiropractic care increases energy, decreases pain, improves sleep, digestion, flexibility, decreases or eliminates headaches and more!
Go ahead...try it! You deserve it!
--Dr. Sarah Hyre, DC