Chiropractic and a New, Less Stressed-Out You Part II

How far can you be stressed before you crack? How much stress can your body handle?

In an article on CicleofDocs.com, (titled Cracking The Code To Breakthrough Health) Chiropractor and Dr. Gentempo said, “Lifestyle stress has three dimensions, physical (how you use your body), biochemical (what you put into your body) and psychological (the mind/body connection). When this stress in its negative form aggregates beyond what your body can adapt to, it adversely affects your nervous system and general health. This state can be observed and assessed by identifying tension patterns around the spine and their related neurological implications. In Chiropractic, we call this state, vertebral subluxation.”

Dr. Gentempo spoke more on the subject in training video for post-grad class, describing the body’s General Adaptive Potential or GAP.

Gentempo spoke from the basis of several principles. One, the body is self-healing and self-regulating, and the nervous system is the master system and controller of the body. However, it is not perfect and doesn’t have unlimited ability. Second, stress negatively affects the nervous system, impacting body’s abilities to thrive.

The body’s GAP could be called its range of adaptability. Each individual has a different range of where they can properly manage stressors from what they put into their body or how they use it. This is why subluxation and dis-ease looks different in each person.

Gentempo uses examples of a gunshot wound to the head or exposure to harsh elements overnight being beyond a body’s ability to self-heal and self-regulate. Those stresses are too much for the body to adapt.

However, the common stresses of junk food, marital tension and more will still cause dis-ease and kill us over time. The body normally dissipates the stress, spreading it out and managing the stress as it rises and falls in waves within the range of body’s General Adaptive Potential.

Yet we have all felt at one time of another when it is all just too much. Our stress spikes beyond our GAP and our ability to compensate.

When the body becomes overwhelmed by stress, it goes into defense mode. This “defensive physiology,” as Dr. Gentempo calls it, causes subluxation or misalignment.

Dr. Gentempo uses the example of an electrical circuit tripping, shutting itself down as protective mechanism, compromising the function of the system to save the house from destruction. A consequences of no electricity, could be that the food in the refrigerator spoils.

And so with a vertebral subluxation, there can be a noticeable consequence—pain, discomfort, disease.
Now imagine a traditional medical approach to the disease, represented by the spoiled food in the powerless refrigerator. The doctor takes out the bad food, replacing it with good food, which in turn spoils again…and again…and again. Picture a endless series of childhood earaches.

When subluxated, the body’s ability to adapt decreases; the person’s GAP narrows. The stress you used to manage before is now toxic. I think we all know that when we are stressed, we tend to make less healthy choices in our lives, whether with nutrition or exercise or any other sphere. While it feels good momentarily, those unhealthy choices actually narrow our GAP even more, bringing more subluxation.

The pattern continues in a downward spiral until we have no GAP. No longer able to adapt to our environment, we are biologically dead.

Let’s go back to the image of the tripped electrical circuit and call on a chiropractor to be our body’s electrician. This approach would be to deal with root cause. The chiropractor goes back to the circuit breaker box, adjusts the patient, in essence flipping the switch to return power to not just the troublesome refrigerator, but the whole house.

Have you experienced a tripped breaker that continues to flip off?

If the surge of stress is still on circuit/nervous system, which originally caused it to subluxate, it will continue to slip. The solution in electrical work is similar to what the body requires; to decrease the stresses on circuit so it doesn’t trip or subluxate.

Dr. Gentempo says that each adjustment opens a patient’s GAP a little. When suggestions for healthier choices are made, we feel encouraged to try them. An upward spiral begins to happens as our GAP widens. Our amazing nervous system learns strategies for increased stress management, upgrading itself to improve the levels of stress we can manage.

Dr. Ryan Dopps also believes in widening a person’s General Adaptive Potential through through adjustments and lifestyle suggestions. He wants to unleash the body’s ability to self-heal and self-regulate, so that people can find true health and vibrant wellness.

If you are interested in finding out more, call Dopps Chiropractic NE to schedule an appointment.

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