“Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older.”
~ Hans Selye
I think the majority of patients coming along to our clinic would relate to this quote from the endocrinologist Hans Selye. When you’re struck down with an episode of severe low back pain and every simple movement becomes a monumental task you feel like you’ve aged over night. Actually, it doesn’t even have to be a really bad pain to make you feel elderly. Tight achy muscles that reduce your flexibility and which make getting out of a seat hard work will make you feel old.
Interestingly, although now-a-days we commonly use the term ‘stress’ and are so used to describing work, lives, or situations as being ‘stressful’, Hans Selye first came up with the term in the 1930’s. ‘Stress’ is actually only about 80 years old! He came up with a model to describe the biological effects of stress on the body when he introduced his General Adaptation Syndrome in 1936.
We’re all surrounded by varying degrees of stress and our bodies are designed to react to stress. In its purist form this is where the ‘fight or flight’ reaction kicks in when we’re faced with danger. We’re designed to run away from danger or fight back if we can’t run. Unfortunately it’s rarely as straight forward as that. Modern day stresses are not about running away from a tiger they’re more about low grade persist stress in the face of things like a bullying boss, an abusive partner, or financial insecurities.
It’s fair to say that a lot of patients that find themselves coming in to see us at Mulberry Osteopaths with some form of physical crisis will also have an ongoing stress factor in their lives. Stress will highlight the weak spots and make the body more vulnerable to injury. There’s never a good time for an acute episode of low back pain but don’t be surprised if it hits at the worst possible time when you’re moving house, you’ve just lost your job, or there’s a family bereavement.
As osteopaths part of our job is to work physically to help you on the road to feeling better and feeling less old but we also try to give you ideas as to why things have gone in to a meltdown moment. Recognising the stress factors is part of that process as well as possibly offering some advice as to how to cope with the stresses.
