With the winter holidays upon us, there just seems to be more people every year who find this time of year to be full of stress, rather than fun gatherings with friends and family. Dealing with relatives, money worries, and fighting the crowds at the mall can all add up to exponentially increase your stress.

All of that emotional stress will manifest in physical ways. With every credit card bill that arrives or circle you make around the mall parking lot, you can feel your neck and shoulders tightening, your jaw clenching, and your teeth grinding.

Over time, you will end up with tight, sore muscles around your neck and shoulders, as well as down the length of your spine. Dr. Nathen Horst has seen many patients with conditions similar to yours, in which emotional stress will present itself in physical symptoms.

This pain is a result of the vertebrae of your back shifting out of proper alignment, causing what are known as vertebral subluxations, In order to fix these subluxations, Dr. Horst will shift the vertebrae back into their proper alignment by performing spinal adjustments. These adjustments are at the very core of chiropractic care.

How Do Vertebral Subluxations Happen?

The vertebrae are designed to protect the spinal column, which houses the central nervous system and passes electrical impulses between the brain and the various parts of your body. If these vertebrae shift out of alignment, they can pinch or block the areas where peripheral nerves branch out to lead to different parts of the body.

As just one example, if your clench your jaw as a reaction to emotional stress, this can shift the vertebrae in your neck and upper back to shift out of alignment, causing pain and stiffness in the areas of the body around the affected vertebrae.

However, you may also experience pain in areas of the body that are not near the affected vertebrae. As an example, while you may feel pain in your arms, the actual affected vertebrae are in the neck. This is referred to as distal pain.

Understanding Spinal Adjustments and How Can They Help

No matter their particular focus, all chiropractors agree that the spinal adjustment is the basis upon which all chiropractic treatment is built. In basic terms, a chiropractic adjustment delivers a thrust to the affected vertebrae to shift it back into proper alignment, thereby releasing any pressure it may have been placing on nerves leading in or out from the spinal column.

There are a number of techniques that can be used to perform this adjustment, but most patients are familiar with the manual technique, which simply involves the chiropractor placing his or her hands directly on the patient’s spine to perform the adjustment. Dr. Horst also uses the Active Release Technique (ART) for his athletic patients, as it focuses on tendons and ligaments.

Popular media portrays the holidays as a time of family togetherness and fun. Unfortunately, the holidays often mean exactly the opposite for many people, leading to stress and anxiety. This stress can often manifest in physical ways, such as pain in the neck or back. Chiropractic care might just be as welcome as a gift from Santa during this time of year.