How Christmas can increase pain and symptoms?

Christmas is a guarantee, whether you’re religious or not, the festival happens every winter. And many people come back in the New Year and talk about more symptoms and how it wasn’t the break they’d hoped for.

So what’s going on?

Firstly, on a simple level many people going into the Christmas period in a tired or run down state. It’s often been a while since their last holiday, the nights are closing in and the weather is poor. Vitamin D levels are dropping and they are generally a bit run down and ready for a break.

You are what you eat?

Even if you’re someone (like me) who normally eats a great diet, limits alcohol and caffeine, Christmas is always a habit disruptor. Most people eat more sugar and drink more alcohol than normal.

Let me focus on sugar. Sugar is inflammatory, the more sugar you consume the more inflamed your body will become. If you already have underlying pain complaints a good dose of sugar will amplify what is already going on. It’s also a nervous system depressant, so it will down-regulate your nervous system, or put more simply - it won’t work so well, so you may also feel sluggish, tired and just under the weather.

Exercise

I get that we all need a holiday, but often in this period people stop moving as much as normal. Exercise is so important for general wellbeing, but also lack of movement can irritate low back pain and generally we tend to feel more fatigued when we don’t move so much

Family Stress

Yes Christmas is a time to get together with family, and for some people that is all they need and they feel great. It’s a time for celebration and fun, and they thrive on it. For others that’s not so true. If you’re someone that struggles with your family and does a duty visit at Christmas, or just has a challenging family, your stress levels often go sky high at this time of you.

Or maybe you’re the one who does all the work. You buy all the presents, you wrap everything, you host everyone on Christmas Day, maybe Boxing Day too and maybe more. And by the end of the Christmas period, you are simply exhausted because everyone else has had a great time

Your Chiropractor Took a Holiday

Any yes, I’m guilty of needing a break at Christmas too.

For some people this will be a bigger issue than others. If you’re someone I’ve described above, you may have either had a flare up of symptoms, or you maybe early in your chiropractic journey and your body has not yet achieved a level where it can self-regulate and missing a few visits is a challenge.

Whatever your reasons, don’t worry. It’s part of life and there are always going to be times when you can’t get the adjustment you want. In times like this, look at what you can do. Many people do the SRI exercises and they really help at times like this. But there are other things you can do to support your health such as walking, yoga or Pilates, fresh air, rest, limiting sugar, alcohol and caffeine, social time that supports you to name but a few. It’s about learning what your body needs over time to support your health and healing