How Stress Affect Your Health

Shared by Dr. Trent Yeomans

We live in a world where it’s easier than ever to feel good for a moment. Between long workdays, endless notifications, streaming services, and social media, many or our East Dallas patients are experiencing a level of mental stimulation that previous generations never faced. Scrolling social media, quick hits of junk food, constant notifications, binge watching shows, all of these give us fast dopamine, which is the brain’s reward chemical.

The problem is, the easier it is to get, the less effective it becomes.

Research by Anna Lembke and others has shown that repeated exposure to high dopamine, low effort activities can actually lower our baseline dopamine levels over time. What that means in real life is the things that used to make you feel good, like working out, being productive, or even just getting outside, start to feel harder and less rewarding.

This is where I see it impact people the most. When your baseline drops, motivation drops with it. You feel more fatigued, more distracted, and more overwhelmed, even if nothing major has changed in your life.

On the flip side, the things that actually help your body long term, like exercise, movement, and taking care of your health, require effort but create more stable and lasting changes in how you feel.

In the office, I see this play out physically too. People are more sedentary, more stiff, dealing with more neck pain, headaches, and low back pain, which makes it even harder to get moving and break the cycle.

That’s what Think Well is really about. It’s not just mental, it’s how your body is adapting to the inputs you give it. When you start choosing harder, more intentional actions like moving your body, getting outside, and limiting constant stimulation, you reset that baseline. You move better, you feel better, and your body handles stress the way it’s supposed to.

References

Anna Lembke
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. 2021.

Our Message

When you are looking for a Chiropractor near you that you can trust, choose one who will not only get rid of your back pain, neck pain, or headaches but who will also guide you to living a healthier lifestyle to keep you out of pain. Our East Dallas Chiropractors located in Lakewood, near the corner of Mockingbird Ln. and Abrams Rd., are here to teach you that taking care of your mental health and getting the proper nutrients are just as important as the chiropractic adjustment to stay healthy.