CHIROPRACTIC BENEFITS FOR AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM DYSFUNCTION
The Autonomic Nervous System is a branch of the nervous system that communicates information from the brain to all of the internal organs of the body, without your conscious control over what is happening. A key area of the brain in modulating the function of the Autonomic Nervous System is the PREFRONTAL CORTEX.
The two divisions of the autonomic nervous system work in a constant, tonic state of balance. The SYMPATHETIC nervous system and the PARASYMPATHETIC nervous system. The Sympathetic Nervous System is responsible for supplying the stress response, FIGHT, FIGHT, or FREEZE RESPONSE, while the Parasympathetic Nervous System counterbalances the stress response by providing HEALING, RECOVERY, REST, DIGESTION, and REPRODUCTION.
DYSAUTONOMIA refers to a dysfunctional autonomic nervous system. Research has indicated that dysautonomia is a contributing factor in most common chronic conditions and degenerative diseases. Chiropractic care has been shown to improve the function of the autonomic nervous system, thereby increasing the body’s ability to heal from chronic conditions and prevent further degenerative changes in the autonomic nervous system.
“Our review of eleven prospective human studies shows substantial evidence that autonomic dysregulation precedes and promotes the development of multiple metabolic risks and disorders.”
Wulsin, Lawson, James Herman, and Julian F. Thayer. "Stress, autonomic imbalance, and the prediction of metabolic risk: A model and a proposal for research." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 86 (2018): 12-20.
“The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is structural and rhythmically interfaced between forebrain, internal, and external environments, to regulate energy, matter, and information exchanges, thus expressing the biopsychosocial nature of the individual.” “In addition, autonomic imbalance may configure a final common pathway to increased morbidity and mortality from a host of physical, such as metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease, and psychological conditions, like anxiety or depression.”
Vigo, Daniel E., Leonardo Nicola Siri, and Daniel P. Cardinali. "Heart Rate Variability: A Tool to Explore Autonomic Nervous System Activity in Health and Disease." Psychiatry and Neuroscience Update. Springer, Cham, 2019. 113-126.
“Increased sympathetic activity predicts an increase in metabolic abnormalities over time. These findings suggest that a dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system is an important predictor of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes through dysregulating lipid metabolism and blood pressure over time.”
Licht, Carmilla MM, Eco JC de Geus, and Brenda WJH Penninx. "Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system predicts the development of the metabolic syndrome." The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 98.6 (2013): 2484-2493.
“There is increasing evidence for autonomic imbalance in metabolic syndrome, the exact nature of this sympathetic hyperexcitability appearing to have primarily consequences for the development of obesity and insulin resistance.”
Lemche, Erwin, Oleg S. Chaban, and Alexandra V. Lemche. "Neuroendorine and epigentic mechanisms subserving autonomic imbalance and HPA dysfunction in the metabolic syndrome." Frontiers in neuroscience 10 (2016): 142. 4
“Decreased vagal function and heart rate variability (HRV) were shown to be associated with increased fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1c levels, increased overnight urinary cortisol, and increased proinflammatory cytokines and acute-phase proteins. All of these factors have been associated with increased allostatic load and poor health. Thus, vagal activity appears to play an inhibitory function in the regulation of allostatic systems. The prefrontal cortex and the amygdala are important central nervous system structures linked to the regulation of these allostatic systems via the vagus nerve.”
Thayer, Julian F., and Esther Sternberg. "Beyond heart rate variability: vagal regulation of allostatic systems." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1088.1 (2006): 361-372.
“Two measures of autonomic imbalance predicted multiple poor metabolic outcomes and mortality, making autonomic imbalance a potentially worthy target for intervention studies to reduce risks for cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, and early death.”
Wulsin, Lawson R., et al. "Autonomic imbalance as a predictor of metabolic risks, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and mortality." The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism100.6 (2015): 2443-2448.
During the acute stress response in bony vertebrates, a brain-derived signal increases glutamate uptake into osteoblasts, producing a surge in circulating osteocalcin. Once released, osteocalcin suppresses the parasympathetic nervous system, enabling the stress response.”
https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdfExtended/S1550-4131(19)30441-3