Can Stress Cause Back Pain?
Can stress cause back pain? Stress is so common within our western society and it’s something that unfortunately has massively increased due to the fear of COVID recently and the unstable lifestyle it has produced for so many. Not knowing whether you will be able to keep your job or get enough work to be able to support your family is certainly high up there on the stress scale. I believe most of the time we are aware of our own stress however sometimes this stress can be more subconscious and the symptoms it causes doesn’t always lead us to diagnosing stress as the first cause of the problem. So what are the symptoms of stress and does it have a role in back pain and neck pain?
Autonomic System
You have two systems in your body that are part of your autonomic nervous system that works primarily at the unconscious level. These are your sympathetic system and your parasympathetic system. Your sympathetic system is your “fight or flight” system and it’s the system that is designed to get you out of danger. This puts your system in it’s highest gear to prepare you to get out of the danger.
The Culprit
The most simple example is if you were to run away from a lion. In this state your heart rate and breathing accelerates, your blood vessels constrict, your blood pressure sky rockets, your eyes dilate, you become more sensitive to light and sound and your muscle tone increases. All of these changes are designed to get more oxygen into your body, more blood to your muscles, more muscle function and more vision and sound to get out of danger. At the same time your parasympathetic system is being suppressed which mainly turns off your digestive system, immune system and your urinary system. These are the systems that are not important when you are getting out of danger.
This is a very effective system provided it is used in the short term, the problems occur when your sympathetic system is constantly activated and thus suppressing your parasympathetic system long term. This is what we call stress and in our modern day it gets activated less from running away from lions and more from work pressure, family life and relationships.
Common symptoms you may experience are headaches, jaw clenching/ grinding, sleep problems, digestive issues such as IBS, breathing problems, sensitivity to light and sound and increased muscle tone leading to muscles aches and pains.
Stress CAN Cause Pain!
This means that you can get back pain or neck pain that can be completely or partially caused by stress. If this is the case then it’s not going to matter how many times you’re adjusted by a Chiropractor or how much you rub those muscles, the problem won’t resolve until the cause of the problem is addressed. Now you may get some relief Chiropractic but these results are unlikely to stay until the stress is lowered. Watch my video below on my top tips to reduce stress. If you are struggling with this issue, please do get in contact and we’ll be happy to help.
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