La Grande Back Muscles Relax with Happy Emotions
Emotions impact our mind and body reactions. Happy emotions produce smiles. Sad emotions produce frowns. These reactions are the outer reactions we most commonly observe. What about other emotional, inner reactions? Researchers are examining these. A recent study about emotions and back muscle reactions caught the eye of Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC who cares for many La Grande back pain sufferers. It is a reminder to consider the whole person - mind and body! – and to sit up straight.
EMOTIONS AFFECT POSTURE
When someone is depressed or just in a sad mood, what does their body usually look like? Slumped forward, eyes to the ground, fatigued? We’ve all seen this. Upright posture does so much to increase positivity and decrease fatigue and anxiety. (1) Body posture may well influence emotional reactions! In an interesting twist in this story of the relationship between muscular states and emotions, researchers found that upright seated postures are advantageous. Upright seated posture as opposed to a slumped seated posture was found to improve self-esteem, arousal, and mood as well as decrease fear. Linguists noted that slumped posture people used fewer and more negative emotion words than upright posture people. They therefore recommended in their study to sit upright when facing a stressful situation as it can keep self-esteem in check, lessen focus on self, lower negative mood and generate a positive mood. Speech rate increased, too. Sitting upright may be just the way to build resilience to stress. (2) Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC notices firsthand how emotions affect La Grande chiropractic patients, especially stressed, sad La Grande back pain patients.
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AFFECT BACK MUSCLES
For back pain sufferers – who are certainly not immune to a down mood! – body responses like slumping are not unusual. In a study of back muscles using electromyography found that negative emotions raised differential back muscle activity while positive emotions didn’t. The muscles were left alone, not having to react at all. (3) While healing, the back pain sufferer’s spine does not need any more stimuli. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC offers gentle La Grande chiropractic spinal manipulation in the form of Cox® Technic to calm its muscles and lessen its pain.
CONTACT Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares the benefits of the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management benefits aback pain patient’s spine, muscle, and system.
Set up your La Grande chiropractic appointment today. If stress or emotions make you slump and worsen your back pain, Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is here to lessen the pain, prompt you to sit up straight (like your parents used to say!), and get you to smile!