Health Tips

On achieving wellness • 1 of 3
It’s Monday morning at 6 a.m. You are suddenly awaken to the sound of some absurd monotone beep or top 100 pop song that you have programmed your alarm clock to bellow into your ear. What is your first instinct as you awaken? What is the feeling that you get deep down in your gut as you realize that its time to start the workweek? Some of us have the uncanny ability to take this in stride, wake up without even the notion of slamming the snooze button and skip into work with a smile on our face and a cup of Starbucks in hand. However, most of us can’t report such abilities. In actuality, most people get a general sensation of stress as we wake up in the morning and before we go to bed at night. Though we deal with this on an everyday basis, it is imperative to note that stress in of itself has become a serious health concern and is on the verge of being considered an epidemic in our societies today.

So what is stress? Stress can be defined as an adaptation of an organism (you) to a stimulus or stressor (life). Our body has an amazing capability to deal with or adapt to stressors; however, with chronic stress we lose such abilities and eventually succumb. Once we have exceeded this point, symptomatology begins to appear. Common symptoms of a chronically stressed patient include, but are not limited, to reflux, gastritis, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, insomnia and many others. Sounds familiar?

These are some of the most commonly treated conditions that face our society today and for the most part, these conditions seem to be treated pharmaceutically. It’s important to understand that symptoms need to be considered a friend more than a foe. Symptoms are merely the bodies attempt to alert us that there is a problem in need of correction. If you were driving down the road and your engine light came on, would you simply put a piece of tape over it or would the more appropriate response be to find out why the light came on in the first place and correct the problem? The same can be said for our own bodies. Maybe its time to consider changing our paradigm of what health is and can be. Maybe its time to start taking some personal responsibility for our own health!

Hopefully this has given some insight and provoked some thought on how to achieve a wellness lifestyle. Parts 2 and 3 of this series will include information on which stressors to avoid, how these affect the body on a physiological level, and how to make simple but yet effective changes to rid ourselves of such stress. Remember, our bodies are very resilient, we can take huge strides towards achieving optimal health and it’s never too late to start.
 
Dr. Jordan H. Kaplan
Chiropractic Physician
GRUSKY CHIROPRACTIC CENTER PA (305-598-2005)