Happy Holidays to Everyone!

         As the holiday season is underway, I see that stress levels are at an all time high this year.  Maybe it's the same as every other year, but I just feel that this year is worse.  This is not surprising with the economy being what it is and everyone still thinking that they have to provide gifts as they always have.  What most people do not realize is that this extra stress (or any stress for that matter) is harmful to the body. 
         Stress puts the body in a sympathetic or panic state.  This is the same as being chased my a lion looking to make you his dinner.  In this state, the body cannot heal, digest or properly rest.  So what you are left with is a body that gets beat up every day, but does not recover.  
         Now lets talk about the kinds of stress.  There is physical, chemical and emotional stress.  During this season we see higher levels of all of these.  Physical stress is the running around, wrapping gifts and the other normal physical activities that one engages in.  Chemical stress comes with a poor diet, lack of water, increase in caffeine consumption and many other chemicals (medications) that we put in our body.  Emotional (mental) stress is the worry (family, money, time) added to the normal mental stress of job, kids and home.
        The reason why I am talking about all of this is to help create awareness of what we are putting our bodies through.  These are for the most part, the reasons why we have many of our aches, pains and other health problems.   As a chiropractor I can help people with many of these aches, pains and health issues that they come in with, but large part of my job as a doctor is to help people to reduce (of figure better ways of dealing with) the stress that they are putting themselves through.  So please make sure that you lets us know about the stress you are going through and maybe we can help make suggestions to reduce or better that stress. 

Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff
Any medical information provided in Doctor Jeff's Blog is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional.  Any information provided is not meant to diagnose, treat or manage any specific disease/condition.Doctor Jeff's Blog respects the confidentiality of individual patients and site visitors. All clinical anecdotes are compliant with HIPAA regulations.