Stress causes the body to respond in a way that is supposed to be a short term, “run or fight the tiger,” type of response. We were not designed to be “stressed” every day, day after day. Yet, the majority of us are. Over scheduling, poor time management, unfulfilled at work, frustrating relationships are just a few of the issues we all try to juggle. Most people assume that they are fine, despite the stress. This is often because they are using pain as a marker for their health. “No pain, so I must be fine.” But what if your body expresses the stress by changing how your diaphragm works. The diaphragm is an underappreciated muscle in the body. We ALL take it for granted, yet it never gets a rest, or takes a break. If we lose the use of our diaphragm, we die. You see, this muscle is what allows our lungs to fill up with oxygen, then it pushes the air back out so you can then get ready to take another deep breath again. The body is very complicated. Check this out. The diaphragm is a muscle that extends across the bottom of the ribcage. It separates the heart and lungs from the abdomen. It also attaches to the lower end of your sternum (xyphoid process), inserts on the sides of ribs number 6 – 12, then to T12 of your thoracic spine down to L1 and L2 of your lumbar spine. The diaphragm helps to expel urine, poop and vomit by changing the internal pressure of your body. And, a healthy diaphragm PREVENTS acid reflux.
There is a very important nerve that innervates the diaphragm called the “phrenic nerve”. This nerve originates at C3 – C5 in your neck and travels down between your lungs and heart. It is this nerve that is involved in the hiccup reflex. If nerve gets compressed then it may cause pain in the right shoulder. (Lung cancer is a common cause of compression.)
When the body is under stress, it is extremely common to begin to change how you breathe. Instead of those deep, belly breaths, breathing becomes shallow. Your shoulders round forward. When that happens, you have to change how you hold your head up. Can you see how this is like knocking over a row of dominos’? The downward spiral begins, and the first sign might be those rounded shoulders, or shallow breathing, not overt pain. And all levels of the spine will then need to change the biomechanics to compensate. This is not good!
The wise chiropractor will be able to unravel this biomechanical mess, and some are even trained to reset the overly tight diaphragm. Once this happens, the rest of the spine needs to be assessed to ensure that proper motion has been restored. Most people will be able to take a deeper, fuller breath after this treatment. This means more oxygen….EVERYWHERE, including the brain. This is why I encourage everyone to schedule routine chiropractic visits during the holidays especially if you KNOW you are a big ball of stress!!!!!!
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