Stress & Life Style

It’s well known that stress can be detrimental to health; most of us know that stress can raise blood pressure, weaken the immune system and give us nasty things like headaches and IBS, but what about the role of our musculoskeletal system (muscles and joints) in all of this?

Posture: Think of what happens to your posture when you’re stressed: your shoulders raise, perhaps you hunch forwards and your fists might clench up into tight balls. This requires prolonged muscular effort throughout the day which leads to your muscles fatiguing and aching.

​Breathing: Now think of your breathing- is it calm long breaths or short shallow ones? If you take a deep breath in- does your chest or your tummy expand? (hint: it should be your tummy). If you’re breathing from higher up in your chest, then you’re not using one of the most important muscles in the body: the diaphragm.When we breathe, the large dome shaped muscle called the diaphragm contracts and pushes downwards in our abdominal cavity, stretching the lungs and drawing air in as it does so. In addition, it helps to massage the small intestine and push food along the gut. The negative pressure produced in the thorax by the diaphragm descending helps with lymphatic drainage and circulation.

​Digestion: Another set of muscles that tighten up in response to stress are the sphincter (circular) muscles along your gut. If these tighten whilst material is trying to pass along the gut, it will have the effect of squeezing a toothpaste tube – gas and matter will build up behind these restrictions leading to bloating and alternating constipation and diarrhoea. Reflux (heartburn) is also a consequence as the oesophagus (food pipe) entering the chest gets compressed.