Do you suffer from chronic back pain? If so, stress might be a contributing factor. In fact, there is a strong link between stress and chronic back pain, and understanding this connection can help you to break the cycle of suffering. Whether you’re looking for spine specialist in NJ or elsewhere, here’s what you need to know about how stress affects your back health.
What is Stress?
Stress is an emotional response your body has when presented with a challenge. It can occur in reaction to both positive and negative situations alike, such as getting married or facing financial hardship. When faced with these situations, your body produces hormones like cortisol that trigger certain physical changes in order to enable you to cope better with the situation at hand.
The Effects of Chronic Stress on Your Back Health
Chronic stress takes a toll on more than just your emotional well-being; it also impacts your physical health — including back pain. Because of its close relationship with other conditions such as depression and anxiety, chronic stress often leads to unhealthy behaviors like smoking or overeating which can contribute to poor posture or muscle tension which can result in aches and pains throughout the body. High cortisol levels can weaken bones by decreasing calcium absorption over time, leading to increased vulnerability for fractures or joint pain – especially in the lower back area.
Why Understanding This Connection Is Important
It’s important to understand how stress affects your mental and physical health if you want to break the cycle of suffering from chronic back pain. By recognizing signs of excessive stress (such as difficulty sleeping or irritability) early on and taking steps towards addressing them before they become unmanageable can help ensure that you don’t develop any long-term issues related to poor posture or weakened bones due to prolonged exposure of cortisol production caused by high-stress environments/situations around us in our everyday lives.
How To Reduce Your Stress Levels And Relieve Back Pain
Fortunately, there are simple steps that you can take every day to reduce your overall level of stress – resulting in less tension on your muscles and joints – thereby reducing the severity or frequency of any existing back pains:
•Exercise Regularly:
Exercise helps reduce anxiety by releasing endorphins which act as natural mood boosters while increasing circulation throughout the body – helping improve flexibility & mobility too!
•Meditate:
Taking some time each day for mindfulness practices such as meditation will allow you clear out negative thoughts & focus on creating peace within yourself – relieving tension from all areas (including those parts affected by back pain).
•Listen To Music:
Listening to music helps distract from stressful situations while providing soothing sounds that may further relax tense muscles & joints – reducing discomfort associated with any existing issues surrounding one’s spine/back region(s).
Conclusion
Understanding how chronic stress plays a role in exacerbating existing conditions related directly or indirectly to one’s spinal anatomy allows us insight into proactively preventing developing additional problems down the line – whether looking for a spine specialist in NJ (or anywhere else) becoming aware & educated on various preventive measures is extremely important for those who are already experiencing symptoms associated with upper/lower-back discomfort due largely attributed through prolonged exposure towards overly-stressful scenarios commonly found amongst our lives today!
