Every parent wants their child do well in school. Are you doing everything you can do to ensure success, positive relationships and a healthy school year for you and your family, including minimizing stress?
Our children are living with increased amounts of stress. They are constantly being exposed to toxins in their foods, increased levels of pressure to perform well on exams, fears of being bullied and constant exposure to technology that we know can have serious implications on mental states and sleep patterns. Each of these increased stressors in our children’s lives can set them up not only for serious health implications, but also for decreased academic success.
From 1995-1997 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention performed a study to determine how childhood stress impacted lifelong health and success. In the “Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study” researchers found that stressful and negative childhood experiences have devastating impacts on lifelong health and opportunity. These negative effects are especially damaging to the developing brains of children under the age of 18 years old.
The authors found that “disease conditions including ischemic heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, skeletal fractures, and liver disease, as well as poor self-rated health showed a graded relationship to the breadth of childhood exposures. The findings suggest that the impact of these adverse childhood experiences on adult health status is strong and cumulative” (251). Simply stated, the more stress a child experiences, the more likely that child is to have poor health and successes later in life. What can be done to combat our children’s increased exposure to stress?
The most current research on stress and its effects on the brain finds that “Unfortunately, inadequate control of glucocorticoid stress responses represent(s) a severe threat to the health and wellbeing of the organism” (Herman-“Neurocircuitry of stress”). High stress responses cause nervous system dysfunctions that have a direct negative impact on the brain. Stress creates physical changes in the brain that are very challenging to combat. Fortunately, checking the body for interference to the nervous system from birth and through every phase of life has been proven to have an immediate and direct, positive impact on brain function.
A leading researcher in the field, Heidi Haavik, found that chiropractic adjustments directly influence posture, balance, brain integration and nervous system activation. The brain integration and nervous system activation processes that Dr. Haavik speaks of “directly control our health and ability to think critically and rationally.”
Help eliminate the stress of classes, teachers and rounds of testing. Having your child’s nervous system checked is critical to ensure their academic success, increased health and vitality. Schedule a chiropractic check-up today.
Herman, Cullinan. (1997). TINS Neurocircuitry of stress: central control of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis
Haavik, Murphy B., Holt, K. (2010). Chiropractic Journal of Austrailia, Exploring the neuromodulatory effects of the vertebral subluxation and chiropractic care
Felitti, V. J., & Anda, R. F. (1997.)The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ace/index.htm
Contributed by Dr. Daniel Kimbley and Dr. Eric Plasker
