Moving the Body Helps Reduce Stress – New Research Explains Why

Wherever we look, we are advised that exercise and yoga helps to relieve stress. Have you ever been puzzled why this might be?

Peter Strick, a professor and chair of the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute has researched the topic to try to find out how as he could not comprehend how the two things might be linked.

Stress occurs when the small glands that  sit on top of the kidneys release adrenalin into the blood stream.

Movement is controlled by the motor area of the brain in what is called the primary motor cortex.

Strick and his team did not think that the primary motor cortex would influence the adrenal glands, However, they discovered a network in the primary motor cortex of the brain that does actually control the adrenal medulla by a complex ‘feedback’ mechanism.

Therefore our brain does influence the adrenal medulla and as a result stress and some illnesses really can be said to be “all in the mind”.

Stick said “Something about muscular control in the muscles of movement has an impact on stress responses so there is evidence that core strengthening has an impact on stress”.

When someone is depressed, they walk with their shoulders hunched over. When you feel confident, you stand upright and look the world in the eye and you automatically feel better.

This study demonstrated that core muscle activation is likely to affect stress by the feed back to the adrenal glands. Standing up straight may mean less activation of the glands and therefore less stress and if we slump and our core is weak, for example if we spend ages slumped at a computer, we may feel more stress.

There are many ways that people deal with stress – there are so many neural pathways that have direct lines to the stress control system which makes dealing with stress very interesting. The bottom line is that as Strick says “how we move, think and feel has an impact on the stress response through real neural connections”.

Therefore if you are feeling stressed, chiropractic treatment can help by enabling you to improve your posture and helping you to move better, which in turn means less adrenal gland output of stress hormones and you feel better!