When it comes to health care, the foundation of the chiropractic profession has always been that a properly functioning nervous is paramount to good health. As a chiropractor, I deal with areas of the spine where the nervous system is disturbed. What do I mean by that?
All information feeds into the brain by sensory input. Anything that disrupts sensory input affects not only our physical wellbeing but our mental state. So spinal nerve interference or what is called Subluxation decreases sensory information to the brain. So the deprivation of sensory input is detrimental and causes things to break down. With chiropractic care, people feel better and notice their mental health improves, which improves their quality of life.
Early in my chiropractic career, I learned the work of the Hungarian, Dr Hans Selye, an endocrinologist. He developed the principle of General Adaptative Syndrome. This principle says that the body constantly adapts the best that it can to external stress. If one deprives the body of sensory input, it fails to adapt to stress, and things break down. Dr Selye found that many of the so-called "lifestyle diseases" had this commonality; physical or mental breakdown.
Today it's accepted that stress has a detrimental effect on the human organism. Chiropractic deals with removing spinal stress that affects sensory input. But what about if collective distress happens to a society? Humanity has experienced such tension in the form of Covid-19. Moreover, it's not just the infection but the reaction to the pandemic that has created an enormous problem.
The widespread shutdowns during the Covid epidemic that resulted in social isolation have profoundly affected our brains and nervous systems. The result is an increase in stress which affects our ability to adapt; that includes how effective our immune systems operate. We have long known that isolation from shutdowns with the lack of physical and social contact has a drastic effect on mental health.
During the Sars1 outbreak in Toronto, Canada, in 2003, depression rapidly spiked. Researchers found that depression––typically 7.5% of the population––rose to 40% in the quarantined group. The result led to more medications, which also cause mental health issues and long-term effects that show only slight effectiveness. Depression and anxiety lead to overuse of drugs which in turn contributes to suicidal thoughts.
A study in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, August 14, 2020, showed elevated levels of adverse mental health conditions, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the Covid pandemic. The prevalence of symptoms of anxiety disorder was approximately three times those reported in the second quarter of 2019 (25.5% versus 8.1%), and the prevalence of depressive disorder was approximately four times that reported in the second quarter of 2019 (24.3% versus 6.5%) .
Think about your own life. If you have been in a Covid lockdown, your life is shut down and wearing a mask shuts you off even more. Little physical contact, social distancing, restricted breathing, loss of a job, and inability to attend school; are all life-altering states. As Hans Selye told us, the result is an increase in stress levels that leads to susceptibility to all sorts of conditions. If you are maladapted due to the lack of sensory input and you do come in contact with someone with Covid––or any other virus––you won't fare as well.
The critical factor is what your quality of life is? How well do you perceive your environment? For many, the lockdown mentality has created a climate of fear, anxiety and loss of purpose.
Let's look at the positive. If you have no underlying severe illness and maintain physical fitness, sound nutrition, get plenty of sunshine, and look after your mental balance, you are much more likely to fend off viruses that are always around us. We should all resist succumbing to the isolation that unscientific and tyrannical bureaucrats have thrust upon us. If you can't handle things on your own, get help, whether it's a doctor, chiropractor, exercise physiologist, nutritionist or psychologist.
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