Sensory Overload and Chiropractic Care: Understanding Symptoms and Solutions
Have you ever noticed how triggered you can get when you get home after a long day at work and the kids have 100 different questions? When the TV is at full blast, and the kitchen sink is full of dishes? Or, how irritable your kids get after a full day at an amusement park that should be loads of fun? This is sensory overwhelm. When too much is just too much, the demands have exceeded our ability to process and manage.
The cerebellum (aka the little brain) is located at the base of the skull, where the spinal cord meets the brain. The body's hundreds of thousands of receptors for vision, motion, & positioning constantly send info to the brain.
The cerebellum condenses it and filters it on its way to the brain's cortex. The cortex then decides what the cerebellum will tell the body to do about the information.
When the cerebellum isn't functioning properly, it is unable to filter the information properly to the cortex. This leads to a sensory overload.
Symptoms of this can be:
anxiety
irritability
digestive issues
insomnia
light sensitivity
increased emotional response
wide-based walking
decreased coordination
weak muscles
Of course, the first line of defense is to simplify, simplify, simplify! But chiropractic and acupuncture play a big role in helping us become more adaptable, even in the face of all the Extra-ness that life can throw our way!
The regulation of our emotions and attention is greatly impacted if the hemispheres are out of balance or not "speaking to each other appropriately." For example, children who have ADHD tendencies (sensory overload) are typically left-hemisphere-dominant.
One of the goals of a chiropractic adjustment is to balance the two hemispheres to try to normalize sensory input and emotional regulation. We are trying to get the left side of the brain and the right side of the brain in sync.
In research conducted by Dr. Heidi Haavic, an EEG was used during a chiropractic adjustment. What the EEG studies showed was incredible. Both hemispheres of the brain lit up simultaneously with an instantaneous 20% increase in brain activity! And not only just an increase in activity, a SYMMETRICAL increase in brain activity! This finding is extremely significant because if a child has a dominant hemisphere, after they receive an adjustment their left and right brain hemispheres are SYNCING! The hemispheres are balancing with each adjustment, which leads to healthier emotional regulation and better overall health & well-being!
