Stress Management In El Paso, TX

Stress comes from various places and for many different reasons. These could be mental and physical. Stress can stem from various factors such as family, employment or unemployment, excessive work, daily or nightly commuting, relationships, illness, and sleep issues. All of these can create stress. The American Psychology Association showed that 54% of Americans worry about their stress and are likely to seek help.

Many people experience stress without realizing it. Such stress is the way of the modern world, and we’ve become used to it. Despite getting used to a stressful world, it still places genuine strain on the body. This strain manifests through increased blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, metabolism, and blood flow. This response is the primordial fight-or-flight reaction, preparing for action in a stressful situation.

The body’s sympathetic nervous system (SNS) generates the fight-or-flight reaction. When the body feels a stressor, the SNS turns on and stimulates the appropriate bodily response. This process allows us to defend ourselves in the wild, where stress comes from a reaction to wild animals and grave danger. Unfortunately, this reaction can do more harm than good in today’s world, as most of us no longer live in danger from wild, hungry animals.

Symptoms of Stress:

Stress is the disruption of homeostasis but is helpful/necessary in various situations. For example, during exercise or sports, stress is needed to push the athlete or person to a new level. When in the learning process, stress is required in order to help the brain learn a new language, solve a math problem, create a web page, a presentation, etc. Humans can handle small amounts of periodic stress. But once stress becomes chronic, then it turns into a disease.

The effects of stress on the body are real. The symptoms fall into four categories: behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physical.

Behavioral Symptoms:

  • Eat More/Less
  • Isolation From Others
  • Need Alcohol, Cigarettes, Or Drugs For Relaxation
  • Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)
  • Procrastination/Neglect of Responsibilities
  • Sleep Too Much/Too Little

Cognitive Symptoms:

  • Anxiousness/Racing Thoughts
  • Constant Worrying
  • Memory problems
  • Negative Outlook
  • Poor judgment
  • Unable To Concentrate

Emotional Symptoms:

  • Agitation, Inability To Relax
  • Depression Or General Unhappiness
  • Feelings of Loneliness and Isolation
  • Feeling Overwhelmed
  • Irritability
  • Moodiness
  • Short Temper

Physical Symptoms:

  • Aches/Pains
  • Chest Pain/Rapid Heartbeat
  • Constant Colds
  • Constipation
  • Diarrhea
  • Dizziness
  • Low Libido
  • Nausea
  • Weight Gain

Response to Stress:

The body’s stress response, fight or flight, works when threatened and in a dangerous situation. It’s all about self-preservation. However, it becomes unhealthy if this state of self-preservation persists indefinitely. In today’s world it is triggered, not in response to an aggressive situation or wild animal trying to attack, but instead as an ongoing reaction to life’s stresses, which is highly probable to be harmful to your health.

People react to the same situation in different ways. What might stress one person may not stress another.

During a stressful moment, the pituitary gland releases adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). It tells the adrenal glands to release stress hormones into the bloodstream, which include cortisol and adrenaline. Then several physiological changes take place, such as an increase in heart rate and blood pressure; this shuts down the digestive system and affects the immune system. Following the stressful situation, the cortisol and adrenaline return to normal levels, as well as heart rate, blood pressure, and other bodily functions.

A problem arises when these levels fail to return to normal. Instead, they remain raised from the ongoing stress of various situations. The body doesn’t get a chance to recover to its natural state. When this goes on for a long time, the stress response can disrupt all of the body’s processes.

Chronic stress also damages the immune system. It becomes weaker and less able to fend off infections. When it works properly, the immune system responds to infections by releasing chemicals to cause inflammation to rid itself of the bug. But when chronic inflammation occurs from stress, degenerative diseases can begin to take over.

Stress also affects the nervous system; this causes anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and dementia. The chronic release of cortisol causes damage to certain areas of the brain. This affects sleep patterns and sex drive. As heart rate and blood pressure increase, it is dangerous for the cardiovascular system, as it creates the potential for a heart attack or stroke.

Chiropractic Treatment for Stress:

Chiropractic treatment can help manage stress. Chiropractic focuses on the spine, the nervous system’s headquarters. Chronic stress affects muscle tension and contraction, which can lead to uneven pressure on the skeleton, leading to subluxations. Chiropractic adjustments ease muscle tension, easing stress on areas of the skeleton and helps take the sting out of the subluxations. With the subluxations abated, a balanced spine can be achieved. This is a crucial component of managing stress. And it may sound like a CD that skips over and over, but proper nutrition is a crucial component of stress management.

Chiropractic is effective for various pain conditions, but over the last few years, various research studies have found that it can also help improve overall health. These recent studies have shown that chiropractic can regulate immune function, heart rate, and blood pressure.

 

Stress Management:

Stress creates real detrimental physical effects. Trying to avoid stressful situations isn’t always possible. We advise becoming familiar with the possible actions/outcomes and minimizing the negative.

Relaxed Breathing Technique (Diaphragmatic Breathing): Stress often leads to rapid, shallow breathing that affects the other aspects of the stress response, i.e., increased heart rate and perspiration. Controlled breathing is an effective way of dealing with the effects of stress.

  • Mouth closed, shoulders relaxed, inhale slowly and deeply through your nose to a count of six, allowing the air to fill your diaphragm.
  • Keep The Air In The Lungs And Slowly Count To Four
  • Exhale Through The Mouth And Slowly Count To Six
  • Repeat This Three To Five Times

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique: The aim is to reduce tension stored in the muscles. Find a relaxed private area. Dim the lights, loosen up, and get comfortable. Tense up the following muscle areas for a minimum of five seconds before relaxing for 30 seconds. Repeat, then move on to the next area.

  • Central Face: Squint eyes tightly, wrinkle nose and mouth, and feel the tension. Relax. Repeat.
  • Chest, Shoulders, Upper Back: Pull shoulders backwards where shoulder blades almost touch. Relax. Repeat.
  • Feet: Turn feet inward, curl toes up, and spread out. Relax. Repeat.
  • Hands and Lower Arms: Make a tight fist and tense your wrists. Feel the tension in your hands, knuckles, and lower arms. Relax. Repeat.
  • Lower Face: Clench teeth and pull back corners of mouth; show teeth like a growling dog. Relax. Repeat.
  • Lower Legs: Lift feet toward the ceiling and flex them back to point at the body. Feel the tension in your calves. Relax. Repeat.
  • Neck: Lower your chin to your chest and feel the stretch at the back of your neck. Relax. Repeat.
  • Shoulders: Raise shoulders toward ears, feel the tension in the shoulders, head, neck, and upper back. Relax. Repeat.
  • Stomach: Tighten stomach muscles. Feel the tension. Relax. Repeat.
  • Upper Arms: Pull arms back, press elbows into the body. Don’t tense lower arms. Feel the tension in your arms, shoulders, and back. Relax. Repeat.
  • Upper Face: Raise your eyebrows upwards and feel the tension in both your forehead and scalp. Relax. Repeat.
  • Upper Legs: Squeeze knees together, lift legs off the chair or floor, feel the tension in your thighs, relax, and repeat.

Do these muscle relaxations twice a day for maximum benefit. Take 10 minutes for each session.

Exercise: It is a great way to release energy. Improved health guards against the negative effects and releases endorphins (neurotransmitters that relieve pain). Exercise helps with concentration, sleep, illness, and pain and improves life quality. Age doesn’t matter, as exercise will create amazing benefits for mind and body and remove feelings of stress.

Listen to Relaxing, Soothing Sounds: Ten minutes alone with soothing sounds can help with relaxation. Allow the mind to get away from the accumulated stresses of the day. Meditation CDs, soothing music, or natural sounds all work to achieve a relaxed state. The choice is yours.

Chiropractic Treatment Helps With Stress

Professional Scope of Practice *

The information on "Stress Management In El Paso, TX" is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make healthcare decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified healthcare professional.

Blog Information & Scope Discussions

Welcome to the wellness blog of El Paso Back Clinic, where Dr. Alex Jimenez, DC, FNP-C, a board-certified Family Practice Nurse Practitioner (FNP-C) and Chiropractor (DC), presents insights on how our team is dedicated to holistic healing and personalized care. Our practice aligns with evidence-based treatment protocols inspired by integrative medicine principles, similar to those found on dralexjimenez.com, focusing on restoring health naturally for patients of all ages.

Our areas of chiropractic practice include  Wellness & Nutrition, Chronic Pain, Personal Injury, Auto Accident Care, Work Injuries, Back Injury, Low Back Pain, Neck Pain, Migraine Headaches, Sports Injuries, Severe Sciatica, Scoliosis, Complex Herniated Discs, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain, Complex Injuries, Stress Management, Functional Medicine Treatments, and in-scope care protocols.

Our information scope is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicine, wellness, contributing etiological viscerosomatic disturbances within clinical presentations, associated somato-visceral reflex clinical dynamics, subluxation complexes, sensitive health issues, and functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions.

We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from various disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system.

Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and directly or indirectly support our clinical scope of practice.*

Our office has reasonably attempted to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research studies or studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.

We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how they may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to discuss the subject matter above further, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez, DC, APRN, FNP-BC, or contact us at 915-850-0900.

We are here to help you and your family.

Blessings

Dr. Alex Jimenez, DC, MSACP, APRN, FNP-BC*, CCST, IFMCP, CFMP, ATN

email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com

Licensed as a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) in Texas & New Mexico*
Texas DC License # TX5807
New Mexico DC License # NM-DC2182

Licensed as a Registered Nurse (RN*) in Texas & Multistate 
Texas RN License # 1191402 
ANCC FNP-BC: Board Certified Nurse Practitioner*
Compact Status: Multi-State License: Authorized to Practice in 40 States*

Graduate with Honors: ICHS: MSN-FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner Program)
Degree Granted. Master's in Family Practice MSN Diploma (Cum Laude)

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez, DC, APRN, FNP-BC*, CFMP, IFMCP, ATN, CCST
My Digital Business Card