Stress and Back Pain

Stress and Back PainConstant stress leads to the appearance of such diseases of civilization as hypertension, diabetes and others, but there is no connection between stresses and diseases of the spine in the public consciousness.

Stress and disease of the spine

That’s just to be understood that in fact, stress affects the entire body, and the spine is its component, so do not affect his state of constant psycho-emotional experiences and psychological overload can not.

Quite another question is how exactly stresses affect the spine, what can they lead to, and how to properly protect themselves from possible problems with the spine, which are the result of great emotional stress at work or a constant psychological stress on domestic soil?

In order to assess the potential impact of a stress reaction on the body, it is necessary to understand what happens during stress. As you know, stress is a nonspecific reaction, in other words, it can arise in response to almost any effect, and its mechanism is the same in all cases.

It consists in the release of a large number of hormones of the adrenal cortex into the blood. These hormones – glucocorticoids – do everything to help survive the negative impact, they mobilize the body and are created by nature for our protection. Unfortunately, modern living conditions create a situation where natural protection is included too often, and this leads to negative consequences rather than to positive ones.

So, the hormones of the adrenal cortex lead to the release of calcium from the bone into the blood, as a consequence, the density of bone tissue, including the vertebrae and other bones that make up the spine, decreases. Friability of the spine leads to the fact that the likelihood of fractures increases significantly, even with insignificant force, and pain syndrome can occur even in the absence of other changes.

Also, stress leads to muscle spasms, but rather not directly, but through the nervous system. The clamped muscles lead to the compression of the vessels and the spinal cord nutrition, they can also influence the distribution of loads on the spinal column, eventually leading to its deformations (in extreme cases) or the formation of other changes, for example, degenerative-dystrophic in the vertebrae itself, intervertebral discs and other tissues that make up the vertebral column.

How to deal with stress
Fighting stress as such is quite difficult for one simple reason – not everyone can afford to completely change their way of life in order to give up stress. Reduce their impact on the body is also quite difficult, if at all possible.

However, always need to use a comprehensive approach, and in the case of protection of the spine from the harmful effects of stress, it should consist in:

  • correct, complete and balanced nutrition;
  • reception of calcium and vitamin D3 for the prevention of osteoporosis (according to indications);
  • carrying out of massage with the preventive and medical purpose;
  • the use of manual therapy and other alternative methods of treatment in the presence of diseases of the spine for their secondary prevention and treatment.

It is very important to pay special attention to patients who undergo regular stresses, developing individual prevention and treatment programs.

Picture Credit: Matheus Bertelli