Author: Dr. Bryce Hendy, DC, DNCert
Most conversations and interventions for women’s health center around hormones, nutrition and exercise; which are all very important. There is one thing that is often overlooked when looking at the whole picture for Women’s health; The nervous System, which quietly influences a lot of the other components. If your nervous system is not functioning well or properly, the rest of the processes will have a hard time functioning properly or at all in some cases. For Women this can look like navigating stress, hormonal changes and shifts, pregnancies and managing busy day to day schedules, all these things can really affect your nervous system.
So how does the nervous system directly affect Women’s health? Well, the nervous system acts as your command center and it helps control and coordinate things such as; hormone signaling, digestion, sleep cycles, stress response, muscle function and reproductive health. The spinal cord acts as the main highway for most of this signaling from the brain out to the body, so if there is a traffic jam because there is some sort of interruption or interference in the highway, those signals are either decreased or stopped altogether. This is where chiropractic care can help with Women’s health; to make sure that the spine is moving and functioning properly to ensure that the pathway for signaling is free and clear.
Your nervous system has essentially two “modes”: Fight or flight and rest and digest
Fight or Fight: this is the sympathetic mode or nervous system. Which is involved in stress. Such as when your cortisol levels are increased, digestion slows, muscles tighten, hormones become dysregulated or sleep quality drops.
Rest and Digest: this is the parasympathetic mode or nervous system and this is where healing happens. When your body is in this state: hormones regulate more efficiently, digestion improves, inflammation decreases and your body can recover and repair.
The problem we see today is that many women are either stuck or spending too much time in the fight or flight mode. Between work, workouts, parenting and daily stress, the nervous system rarely gets a break.
Stress can also look a lot different in everyone, and the nervous system overload that some would expect to see in women is not always the case. This overloaded nervous system can also show up like: persistent neck and shoulder tension, low back pain, fatigue even with enough sleep, bloating or digestive issues, headaches, feeling “wired but tired” and hormonal irregularities. These are signs that your body is not adapting well to its current state and needs assistance getting out of the fight or flight mode.
Chiropractic care focuses on how the spine moves and how the nervous system functions. When spinal joints are restricted or irritated they can increase stress on the nervous system. The goal is not just pain relief, its helping the body shift out of stress and function more efficiently.
At Acacia we take an integrative approach to your health: this includes chiropractic care, soft tissue and manual therapy work, help with exercises and corrective movements, but also we have the capability to run blood work and find out the hormonal picture to go along with the physical and nervous system picture to help give us a better understanding and idea of what your body is going through. This allows us to fully tailor your care to you and your unique needs.
Women’s health is more than hormones. It’s about how well your body can adapt, regulate, and recover and that all starts with the nervous system. Chiropractic care is one way to support that system, helping your body shift out of stress mode and into a state where it can truly function and heal. Because when your nervous system works better, everything works better.
Located in Scottsdale, Acacia Natural Medicine, combines naturopathic and chiropractic expertise with personalized therapies including dry needling, cupping, hormone replacement therapy, PRP, prolotherapy, laser, PEMF, and massage; to help you thrive, not just survive. Trusted by the Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Mercury, and Chicago White Sox, we set the standard for integrative health care in Arizona.
