The use of non-prescription, non-surgical care such as yoga, meditation, and chiropractic is rapidly becoming the suggested initial treatment. These approaches are being recognized for their ability to have profound effects on stress, anxiety, and pain amongst other conditions.
Government organizations are starting to recommend chiropractic as a first line treatment.
The National Institute of Health writes,
“2017 clinical practice guidelines issued by the American College of Physicians strongly recommended spinal manipulation, based on low-quality evidence, as initial treatment for patients with chronic low-back pain.”
Check out this link: https://nccih.nih.gov/…/Yoga-Meditation-Chiropractic-Use-Ad… for some data and evidence behind these approaches.
Approaches that realize the body is a vast interconnected system of checks and balances where alterations in one process can have a cascade effect throughout the entire body are becoming the preferred initial treatment. Our mental and physical health are so interconnected that practices like mediation and reflection can dramatically impact our mental and PHYSICAL health. Reflection is important because it allows us to determine where we might need to improve but MORE importantly what we excel at and what has improved in our lives..
“We undertook an open pilot trial of loving‐kindness meditation for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Measures of PTSD, depression, self‐compassion, and mindfulness were obtained at baseline, after a 12‐week loving‐kindness meditation course, and 3 months later. A large effect size was found for PTSD symptoms at 3‐month follow‐up (d = −0.89), and a medium effect size was found for depression at 3‐month follow‐up (d = −0.49). There was evidence of mediation of reductions in PTSD symptoms and depression by enhanced self‐compassion. “ -Journal of Traumatic Stress
So start simple. Take an active role. Pick the low-hanging fruit first.
Dr. David Satterfield, D.C.