Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast
Welcome to the Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast with your host, Dr. Matt Green! Join us as we explore health, wellness, and the power of chiropractic care to help you live your best life
Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast
EP #10: Stress Relief Through Chiropractic Care
Your body's ability to handle stress directly impacts your quality of life, and when stress outweighs that ability, the consequences can be painful and far-reaching. Chronic stress keeps us locked in fight-or-flight mode, releasing hormones that cause muscle tension, disrupt sleep, compromise digestion, and weaken immunity—creating a cycle of physical symptoms that further increase our stress.
Whether you're experiencing acute pain or looking for preventative wellness care, consistency is the key to lasting results. Just as we wouldn't expect dental health from brushing our teeth only during a toothache, we shouldn't expect optimal nervous system function from sporadic crisis-driven chiropractic visits. Ready to break your stress cycle? Visit villagechiropracticokland.com to book your appointment today.
Visit villagechiropracticoakland.com to learn more.
the part of the body that's in charge of doing things like digestion and normal functions. It's going to become less effective and you can imagine that as muscles are constricted and tight, they're not going to allow as much oxygen into the tissues and if that happens over a period of time those tissues will start to degenerate. Muscles that are tight and restricted around nerves you can imagine they're going to cut off that are tight and restricted around nerves you can imagine they're going to cut off that nerve supply and eventually have ridiculous symptoms like sciatica.
Intro/Close:Welcome to the Village Chiropractic and Wellness Podcast with your host, dr Matt Green. Join us as we explore health, wellness and the power of chiropractic care to help you live your best life. Let's dive into today's episode.
Charlie McDermott:Well, welcome back to the next episode of the Village Chiropractic and Wellness Podcast. I'm your producer, charlie McDermott. I'm here with our podcast star, our celebrity, the local celebrity. Word's getting out there, dr Matt, dr Matt Green here and you're killing it with these topics. I got to tell you and I promise I will let you talk, but I'm taking in all this information and I'm extremely busy, as you know, and who is it nowadays? And and finally, after the last episode, I said, all right, I have to make time for me, right, the self-care. And I have been walking around with a shoulder. That's just totally messed up. I could barely turn my head either way and I got on over to my local chiropractor.
Charlie McDermott:So, for our listeners and viewers, I'm based in Florida, so unfortunately I couldn't find a flight to get me to Oakland and I instantly, instantly, felt so much. I was having pain working out, I was having trouble sleeping. You know the things that we put up with and I should know better. You know being the recipient of all this good information. So lesson to the listeners if you are in pain, don't put it off any longer and if you're not in pain, stay out of pain. And certainly if you're in the Oakland area, see Dr Matt. But I asked my wife. I mean I've been raving for the last two days because you hear this all the time, but when you are in pain and to the point where you put up with it, I mean I was an athlete and I still kind of am, you know, and pain is just something you live with, and and and. The difference it has made in 48 hours is ridiculous, and and.
Charlie McDermott:I sleep like a baby. We talked about that in the last episode, you know, as one of the the effects and I thought you know that night episode. You know is one of the effects and I thought you know that night. It's going to be interesting to see if I notice a difference in the quality of sleep and dang if that didn't happen.
Dr. Matt Green:So anyway, charlie, that's great. That's great. It's so good to hear you know. It's so good to hear that the message that I have is being registered. And yeah, it's just so interesting how we function. Some things happen right away and other things need to be said a few times before we take action and then see that it actually makes a difference. It's so good.
Charlie McDermott:Well, we have a great topic today. It impacts everyone at some point in time and for many of us it's just like you know, it's like that background noise. It's always there and maybe we're not even aware of it. So we're going to get into how chiropractic care can help with stress and anxiety. Yeah, you up for that? I am, I am. Yeah, it's one of my favorite subjects.
Dr. Matt Green:Yeah, you up for that, I am, I am, yeah, it's one of my favorite subjects because it is so widespread and everyone, everyone can relate to it.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, so let's start with how stress impacts the body physically.
Dr. Matt Green:Yeah, yeah, let's, let's, let's talk about that. And the first thing that I want to say that's a great question. And the first thing I want to say about that is everything we're going to talk about here is science-based. Sometimes there's a bit of a I don't want to say cynicism, but a critical mind that comes in and wonders if we're, because all podcasts that we've been talking up until now has been about physical stress, and I think that's easy for people to connect those dots. But as soon as we move away from the physical and we move into the emotional, sometimes there's a wondering of like, well, is this really science-based? We're going to do it. We're going to really talk about how that connection between that emotional stress and the physical effects of it. And so here's a great question Charlie ready, when was the last time you felt really relaxed? You felt nice and easy, your thoughts were just flowing in and out, you just felt really good and your body was really tight and tense.
Charlie McDermott:You know it goes back to probably last time I was on vacation. You know you, you unplug, you get away and just yeah all that.
Dr. Matt Green:Did you have that state where your mind was totally at ease but your body was wrenched with tension? They don't really happen together, right like, or just the opposite. Like, let's say, like, you know, your body is just, uh, um, you know, just nice and easy and you just feel super relaxed and you're just feeling that I mean, they just they don't tend to happen together. You know, we either that's a good point, ease and our body feels at ease, or when we're really angry and intense, then our body follows and there's just a an immediate thing that they, they go together. So that's what we're gonna, that's what we're gonna talk about the um.
Dr. Matt Green:Even more details, like how that stress manifests physically, and especially in relationship to the spine and the nervous system, is the one that's obvious. The one we just talked about is muscle tension and it particularly goes to the neck and the low back. Those are the two spots where there's significant hinges in the spine, where the brain needs to use some more effort to protect. It also goes right to the nervous system. Our heart rate is going to go up, our blood pressure is going to go up. The system, the overall system of our nervous system, is going to become overactive.
Dr. Matt Green:The part of the body that's in charge of doing things like digestion and normal functions is going to become less effective. It's going to become less effective and you can imagine that as muscles are constricted and tight they're not going to allow as much oxygen into the tissues and if that happens over a period of time those tissues will start to degenerate. Muscles that are tight and restricted around nerves. You can imagine they're going to cut off that nerve supply and eventually have ridiculous symptoms like sciatica, like carpal tunnel, any kind of like numbness or tingling down the extremities. We're going to be just overall slower to recover because the nervous system in the spine you can kind of think of as a fuse box and, as in your house, if there's an overwhelming amount of electricity that the system can't handle, fuse is going to blow, and that's the same thing, almost the same thing that happens in through the spine.
Charlie McDermott:So and I would guess that would impact your energy level too. Then I mean, if your muscles are always tense, it probably would tend to wear you out.
Dr. Matt Green:Yeah, yeah, somebody just came in the other day. They said just, you got to get rid of the shoulder pain. It's an energy suck, it just has all of my attention and I can't, can't, can't be free, can't be easy. So yeah, and I think the, the, the.
Dr. Matt Green:The way to explain that, like how that stress and anxiety leads to that tension, to that pain and other physical symptoms, is that our nervous system has two modes. Primarily, it's either in its fight or flight into protective mode, or it's what they call the rest and digest or maintenance or just healing mode. And when our body is has an emotional response to stress, it kicks into that fight or flight mode. And when it's in that fight or flight mode it's releasing hormones, adrenaline and cortisol in particular. That causes the muscles to tense. Now here's why Our body's designed to kick into that fight or flight mode in short spurts.
Dr. Matt Green:The classic example is you're, you know you're going along in nature and a bear comes around the corner, or what they used to say is like the saber tooth tiger will come around the corner. It's designed to kick you into that fight or flight mode, get you out of there, get all the attention, the blood, the nerves all going to those muscles that make us run so that we can get out. It's not going to. If you're running away from a bear, your body's not interested in slowly digesting food. It wants to get everything to those muscles to get out of there.
Dr. Matt Green:But what's happening in our life right now is that we are in that constant state of that fight or flight, not getting enough sleep. The alarm goes off, so we drink coffee and then we go sit in traffic and then we get to work and then we're in stress all day. We come home and then we have teenagers oh, I'm talking about myself, but, or whatever those constant stressors are. And if we're not consistently doing things to decrease that stress, then those muscles and that system that is meant to be on and then off is constantly on and the effects are no pain, headaches, decreased digestion, not enough sleep, decreased immune system, you know, and then that keeps us in stress and we have this stress cycle so there it is.
Dr. Matt Green:There's the bad news, yeah.
Charlie McDermott:So, but there's good news for listeners and viewers, and that's chiropractic care. So, dr Matt, explain to us how does chiropractic care help alleviate the physical symptoms of stress yeah, that that's a great question.
Dr. Matt Green:The adjustment is a powerful interrupter. It interrupts that cycle. So we have that feedback that's coming from the body saying telling the brain like, hey, something's wrong. And the brain is evaluating and says yes, something's wrong, I better stay in my protective mode. You know, something's wrong, stay protected. Something's wrong, stay protected. And that adjustment is an interruption to that so that it can give the brain, that nervous system, a gap or a space or a time to step away from that cycle and reevaluate.
Dr. Matt Green:And sometimes for people it's very quick that the body's able to then let go of that mode and go right back to being good. You know, I'm just been adjusting my kids regularly since they were born really, and that's how, that's how they are. I mean they're teenagers and so you know if something arises for them. It's an easy adjustment. The body shifts right back. But you can imagine someone who's 55, works 60 hours a week, doesn't really exercise, doesn't have a very good outlook on life and has a lot of stress, that one adjustment might be good, that right there temporarily to break that cycle. But the system is really well trained to stay in that stress mode. So that's why the value of those regular adjustments to help to continue break that mold. Because I've heard sometimes people say, hey, I think the chiropractic adjustment is temporary, or chiropractic is temporary effects. And I agree it is. It's temporary until it's not Just like you practice Spanish.
Dr. Matt Green:You practice Spanish, practice Spanish, you get a little good. You go to Mexico, you're starting to have conversations, get a little good. You go to Mexico, you're starting to have conversations, get a little excited. You come back home, you don't study anymore, it starts to fade away. You get that good little lick on that guitar. You get it, it feels good and then you don't practice anymore and then it goes away. So it's, the adjustment is powerful to help to reprogram and to get that nervous system to remember. You know it's a natural mode which is not stress mode. Our natural mode is healthy. So, yeah, all right.
Charlie McDermott:Central mode is healthy, so yeah, all right.
Dr. Matt Green:So the adjustments, the treatments, do you find there's anything specific, any specific techniques? Or'm going to imagine each one of their ears just perked up and said well, I think my technique might be the best one. They all work, they all have their own. It's. Our greatest strength as a chiropractic profession is that there's many different ways to approach this end result. And so there's, you know, there's the ones that I use, the ones that other people use. But at its heart, at the heart of the definition of the adjustment, whether you use a tool or whether you use your hands, or however we go about it, they're all designed to do what I just said.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, yeah yeah, I, I. I'm just thinking it back to the other day of uh. You know, I really felt relaxed when I was getting adjusted. Yeah and uh. Yeah, in fact I'm, I'm going back tomorrow. I can't wait, it's the highlight of my week. You know when you're out of pain.
Dr. Matt Green:You want to continue that and uh, yeah, yeah, totally yeah really is. It's a powerful shift away from that fight or flight mode back to that easy rest and digest mode. Yeah, lots of people get up off the table and say, oh, now I can breathe yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah that's great.
Charlie McDermott:So how about uh chiropractic care? What role does it play in a broader stress management or wellness?
Dr. Matt Green:plan. Well, the first uh example that the first thing I think about is that, uh, a woman just came in with her or it was a little while ago came in with her eight-year-old son and they had both been in a car accident. And this kid, when he laid on the table, I put my hands on him and he literally flinched and he jumped. That first visit, I remember, was just put, keep my hand on in one spot and have him breathe and push my hand up and then have him practice getting heavy. And so those first couple of visits were almost just that's all I could do. And so when we were done, you know, he laid on the table. I adjusted him head to toe. He got up off the table and I said do you remember, do you remember what it was like when you first laid on the table? And he was eight? Well, he was nine at that time. So his response was probably age appropriate of like yeah, whatever. But his mom lifted her eyebrows and was like I remember that lifted her eyebrows was like I remember that. And so it's.
Dr. Matt Green:We're so trained in the society to how to go faster and do more and be more effective and go, go, go and push forward. There's not a lot of places where we can. We're trained to sit back and to be able to take a breath and to be able to down shift, and that, I feel like, is a is the powerful role of chiropractic care, especially regular chiropractic cares, for us. The word I use in the office is floppy. I tried lots of different words to help people, like let go. But like, as soon as I say, OK, you're just going to like, let this arm go, floppy, you're just going to let this go. It works for everybody. And I say, ok, this is the place for you to practice your art of floppiness, the art of floppiness, the art of floppiness, yes, and so it's a vulnerable thing to lay down on a table and to look face down and not to be able to know what's happening.
Dr. Matt Green:And so for some people who have trouble letting go of control, it's a little bit of a challenge but it's such a good practice for them. And you know, we don't have a lot of places where we're given mentorship or guidance in terms of self-care, like the last podcast we talked about. So I'm a good guide and a good mentor, especially around that, around ergonomic and exercise, all these things. These are subjects that take time and a process to start to remold ourselves so that we have the identity called I take care of myself. And so, you know, hopefully this podcast gives some good things for us to start to learn and to do, but really for us to develop the identity as someone who I take care of myself, that's a process and I love being a guide and a mentor in in that process. All right, mr guide.
Charlie McDermott:How about simple, actionable tips? Our listeners can use to manage stress, great, great life.
Dr. Matt Green:Yeah, it's great. It's great transition. Uh, first one is the one that I do on the way to work and home and that is the box breath, and a box breath is breathing in for four, holding for four and then exhaling for four and then holding for four.
Charlie McDermott:So, basically, does it matter if you use your mouth, your nose or or whatever?
Dr. Matt Green:whatever works. No, I don't think so. I don't think I don't. I don't necessarily think of one or the other probably breathing into your nose, out through your mouth, whatever feels good. But you're basically breathing in for four and exhaling for four and holding for four in between, on the top and on the bottom. So you're breathing in for four, holding for four, exhaling for four, holding for four. That one. Sometimes I'm challenged, even if, if I'm stressed even to hold the four, uh, and so I'd usually do that until I can just hold the breath on the top and the bottom with ease. That's a good one uh, second one is uh, it's, it's so important.
Dr. Matt Green:I don't have a desk job so I can't speak from experience, but just from my knowledge. It's so important to get up regularly. It's so important. I don't have a desk job so I can't speak from experience, but just from my knowledge. It's so important to get up regularly. It's so important. And if we give in to the stress of staying in one position for a long period of time, our body is going to mold to that and that's going to cause problems. So got to get up. Got to get up every 15 to 30 minutes. Got to just change and break that pattern, and a great way to do that is with a ceiling break. And so the ceiling break is very simple. We're just looking up to the ceiling, squeezing the shoulders together and taking a breath and exhale, and that's it. Get lots of compliance with that with myself, with my kids, because it's so simple and easy and quick. But we're breaking the mold, so much of our stress response is here, and so just to simply open the shoulders, looking up, breathing, that can break the pattern there. So it's a great way to break it.
Dr. Matt Green:Have a water plan. So just take your weight. So I'm about 180. So I just take that, split that in half, so that's 90. So I drink 90 ounces of water a day, and so I just take that 90, like 80 to 90, just split it into four and so that's 20, 22, whatever. So now I have. Oh, here, I have it right here, right. So this is my 25 ounce cup. So I have one in the morning, one before noon, one in my afternoon shift and then one when I get home. So it's my water plan.
Dr. Matt Green:Have a water plan, easy, right? Sometimes I follow it. You know most, hopefully most of the time I follow it. Sometimes I don't, but just to have a water plan, gotta keep that hydration, gotta keep buoyant. Um boy, a lot of stress comes when we are in a state of dehydration and don't know it. So it's good to have a preemptive water plan also. Oh yeah, and then have a wind down routine. So, on my phone, on all of our phones, uh, all of our phones go off at 830 at night. And that is his pajamas, brush teeth, and so that is the key for us.
Charlie McDermott:That's a great idea, so you have, you put it on. Oh, I love that.
Dr. Matt Green:Pajamas, brush teeth. I have it said to Asia by Steely Dan, so everybody knows that's what's going to happen. So it's a time to close the drapes, dim the lights, go in the back, make sure the bed is ready to go, brush my teeth, take off you know, put on pajamas, start to take that shift, and that usually takes 15, 20 minutes and then can go back to whatever we were doing before, and so that helps rather than being busy. And then all of a sudden it's 1030. It's like I got to do bedtime routine. Oh, and there's the dishes, and oh, I had to fold my laundry. And rather than being surprised, so that helps to downshift so that we can go to bed at 10, in between 10 and 1030 every night.
Dr. Matt Green:And boy, this, being in a state of gratitude, there's. There's no, uh, no substitute for that. I'm in a state of stress, and to stop for one moment, I'm so myopic, I'm so focused on that thing that's stressing me out for me to go wait, close my back. I got a roof over my head, I got food to eat. Oh, how right, this very moment. I'm actually okay this very moment, right now. So being in a state of gratitude will definitely do it.
Dr. Matt Green:One of my favorite tools is counting to 100, because those stressful thoughts that are coming in, uh, if I count deliberately one, two, three, four, I tell you it's probably around 25, 30, where then I get those thoughts take me away. So then I go back to one, two, three, and then sometimes I last to about 50 or 60. I get distracted again, bring it back to one, two, and if I could do one, two, three, four, and I can make it all the way to a hundred, those thoughts then have they've lost, they no longer have that grip on me. So that's a great one. Those are my key ones that I feel like are powerful for me in my life. You know I try to follow them as much as possible, but those, those are some of my good stress decreasers.
Charlie McDermott:Love it. They're, they are dynamite. So I'll be using some uh, uh, especially the uh the nighttime routine tonight, cause, you're right, you know it's the end of the day and and before you know it it's late, and then the kitchen and all these other things. It just adds stress that you don't need, versus when you get it done ahead of time.
Dr. Matt Green:My suggestion is that Asia is one of my favorite songs. Just to set the alarm rather than a ding ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding something that's a little stressful, but to set it to one of your favorite songs.
Charlie McDermott:Now, you've got that song stuck in my head now, so I'll be playing that all day long.
Dr. Matt Green:Yeah, all right.
Charlie McDermott:Let's get into the mind-body connection. So how important is that mind-body connection when it comes to reducing stress and anxiety?
Dr. Matt Green:Yeah, I mean probably just like review everything that we just said, you know. I mean the thing that comes to mind is that I say often is that your body's ability to deal with stress. If, if stress levels in your life are greater than your body's ability to deal with them, then you're in trouble eventually. Uh, you're you. It's to eventually lead to which we say in chiropractic profession it's going to, rather than being in the state of ease, you will be in the state of dis-ease, and if you're in the state of dis-ease over a period of time, that will lead to disease. And so everything that we were just talking about here is helping the body's ability to deal with stress be greater than stress itself, and if we can stay in that state, then we're going to have longevity, we're going to have well, like my tagline, we're going to add life to years and years to life.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, because it really is two-sided. You know, it's the managing your thoughts and using those techniques that you shared, and then there's the oh, I'm in pain side. That is the reverse that certainly you can help with, yeah, so then you know kind of final thoughts here. What's the one thing listeners should know about managing stress with chiropractic care?
Dr. Matt Green:that it's consistency. It's consistency. And whether it be once a week, once it'd be once every two weeks, once it's once every four weeks. I don't know if I would suggest more than four weeks, but I just had somebody come in the day that I understand everything you said and I'm going to come in every six weeks. I'm like, okay, great, no pressure in this office, I'm just here to educate. But the thing to support is that it's consistent. But the thing to support is that it's consistent and consistency is the key, whether it be with learning a new language or exercise or brushing our teeth or taking care of our spine or getting into some place like a chiropractic office that can help to decrease that stress, and to continually do that will help keep that body's ability to deal with stress greater than stress itself.
Charlie McDermott:Again, I'm raising my hand here, as the last time I had been to my chiropractor was three months prior and regular routine, and I just got busy and you know, put it off, put it off, and you know, and I was feeling OK and then, all of a sudden, the pain starts creeping back in and I put up with it for way longer, as I shared in the beginning of this episode, way longer than I should have. And then, of course, when I got together with him on what was that Tuesday, he shared the importance of coming on a regular basis and it's yeah, he's gone on as yeah.
Dr. Matt Green:And hopefully that message always comes and occurs as supportive oh yeah, and comes in, and that we all make decisions in our life and sometimes we do those decisions for a certain period of time, and then there's a new level of understanding, yeah, and then it affects the our, our actions, and there are people that come to see me that wait until there's it's a painful state and come in for whatever you know visits, and then they're good. And then there are other people who decided that I'm going to do this on a consistent basis and be on top of it and keep that body's ability to deal with stress, stress itself, and, uh, you know, neither one is bad. They just all have different consequences. And so there it is there, it is there.
Charlie McDermott:It is. So how can your listeners get in touch, seek your help, fill them in.
Dr. Matt Green:Yeah, it's easy. So it's just villagechiropracticoklandcom and that website just has a little button on it called Book Now and it'll just walk you right through the process of if you haven't been in for a while and you're listening and you've seen me before, then it's an easy process to find yourself a spot in the schedule. And if you're new, then it's easy for you. It'll just walk you right through the steps, paperwork to fill out and how to make an appointment and come on in, we'll evaluate and I'll let you know what you need.
Charlie McDermott:Terrific Well, dr Matt. Once again, you just crushed it and really appreciate your time. You are, you are.
Dr. Matt Green:Thanks, charlie, you, you, you know you ask great questions. You know you really ask great questions and you ask them in a great way and it makes it easy for me to express what there is to be expressed. So I appreciate it, thank you. Until next time you had a wonderful one there.
Charlie McDermott:All right.
Intro/Close:Thanks for tuning in to the Village Chiropractic and Wellness Podcast with Dr Matt Green. For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit our website at villagechiropracticoklahodcom or call us at 510-281-1708. Stay well and we'll see you next time.