Osteopathy for Stress and Anxiety Relief: Benefits and Impact
Chronic stress and anxiety place a significant burden on quality of life. The physical manifestation of these conditions can include, muscle tension and pain, sleep disturbances, headaches, breathing dysfunction, and digestion difficulties. The cascading effects these conditions have on the body highlight the interconnectivity of the body and mind. Through its holistic approach, osteopathy understands and respects this unity.
When the body’s ability to self-regulate is disrupted, multiple systems are affected. The self-regulatory aspect of our body refers to things like heart rate, blood pressure, immune response, and body temperature. Systems that continue, whether or not we’re paying attention.
Normally when there is an emotional or physical stressor, the body works to help cope with that stress by moving energy toward the perceived threat, such as temporarily inhibiting digestion, increasing muscle tension, and directing blood flow. When the stress is prolonged (or chronic) the signalling becomes disrupted.
Osteopathy supports the self-regulatory aspect of the body by restoring mobility, flow and tone of structures related to the autonomic nervous system including the parasympathetic nervous system (calm, rest, digest aspect). Most people are aware of how our thoughts affect the body, but there is growing interest in how the body and its signals influence our mind, including the breath, gut-brain, and fascia.
For instance, our breath can immediately affect how we feel. Notice if you take a sigh or a fuller breath, it can often provide a sense of relief. Osteopathy helps to support optimal breath by helping to release tension in the thoracic diaphragm (the muscle we use to breathe) and releasing tension in the rib cage.
The gut-brain is another example of the body-mind relationship and refers to the bidirectional communication between the gut and brain. This influences not only digestive health but is thought to impact our mood. Osteopathy helps to support this relationship by releasing tensions in the tissues and helping to balance pressures and pathways of the neurovascular system related to the gut.
There is also growing research on how the fascia, which is the network of connective tissue that links the body structures, has a role in providing sensory feedback to the brain. Fascia has 250 million sensory nerve endings which gives a glimpse of the potential influence if there is tension or restriction in the fascia.
The sensory feedback from the body communicates with the part of the brain that is involved in the activation of the stress response and emotional regulation. By identifying and releasing tensions in the fascia, osteopathy may, in turn, impact the pathways stuck in a threat response.
The ability to interpret and tune into your body signals or “gut feelings” (interoception) is a newer area of research and is hypothesized to be disrupted in chronic anxiety and pain. It is thought that this inner guide helps maintain homeostasis and adaptability. Interestingly, receptors in the fascia tissue are related to our interoception.
Although more research is needed, osteopathy may help with overall resilience to stressors by having a role in facilitating interoception and supporting the autonomic nervous system. Osteopathy should be considered as part of adjunctive treatment in helping to cope with chronic stress and anxiety.
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