Possible Fernandina Beach Chiropractic Benefits for Hypertension

Hypertension. Blood Pressure. It’s a topic among friends and family members and patient/physician interactions even in yoga classes and via meditation apps. Our tense world has us all wound up, back pain and neck pain creates worry, chronic pain anywhere stresses our bodies, pushing blood pressure higher. Amelia Chiropractic Clinic shares new studies that demonstrate some potential promise of chiropractic and spinal manipulation’s being able to beneficially change blood pressure.

SPINAL MANIPULATION AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Spinal manipulation’s effect on the nervous system, particularly its sympathetic (“fight or flight” reactionary part) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest” calm part) functions of the autonomic nervous system, is gaining awareness in the clinical setting with normal clients and in the sport setting with athletes. A study of delivering spinal manipulation versus a sham treatment with recreational athletes found that spinal manipulation before exercise elicited a shift toward enhanced parasympathetic system function resulting in impaired performance. (1) That is not all bad in the clinical setting! Amelia Chiropractic Clinic knows it is all about when to apply what type of care to get the best results. Parasympathetic dominance to help reduce pain is good for athletes suffering with back pain after their events.  

CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM, HYPERTENSION, AND MANIPULATION

Manual therapies like Fernandina Beach spinal manipulation and mobilization at Amelia Chiropractic Clinic are recognized for their ability to treat, ease, and manage spinal pain related conditions. As an additional benefit, alterations to the cardiovascular system have been documented. With hypertension being the global health concern (and even reason for death) that it is, such changes are possibly quite important. Blood pressure control is complex, relying on the autonomic nervous system for its regulation while genetics and physiology may also influence it. Some patients - 20-30% of them - with blood pressure issues don’t respond to usual medications. Therefore, alternatives are being considered like chiropractic spinal manipulation therapy. An evaluation of the published literature found promising outcomes that inspire more study. (2) A newer study found that spinal manipulation and mobilization made a statistically significant decrease in systolic blood pressure as well as diastolic blood pressure and heart rate variability though these were statistically non-significant in this setting. (3) More research is certainly needed. Systolic blood pressure reflects the force on the blood vessels when the heart beats (top number) while diastolic reflects the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats (bottom number). Doctors usually pay more attention to the top, systolic number, so spinal manipulation’s effect would be welcome if more studies continue to show such effect.   Amelia Chiropractic Clinic offers gentle spinal manipulation treatment via the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.  It’s research-documented and effective for reducing back and neck pain.                          

CONTACT Amelia Chiropractic Clinic

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes how the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management may assist the autonomic system.

Schedule your next Fernandina Beach chiropractic appointment with Amelia Chiropractic Clinic now. Hypertension may well meet its match - or at least back down a bit - with chiropractic spinal manipulation! Let’s figure it out together.