In
the last blog, we broke down the organization of the Nervous System and
discussed the Sympathetic Nervous System, what it does and why. The
flip side of the the Sympathetic Nervous system is the Parasympathetic
Nervous System and to describe what it does, I’m going to twist the
metaphor on you. Sorry.So go back to the Newsroom in your mind’s eye and change all of the characters in it into little kids. The whole thing is a bunch of 4 to 7 year olds playing make believe Newspaper, in my head they are Muppet Babies (if you are not of the Muppet Baby generation try plugging in Little Rascals.) The Central Nervous System and Editor-in-Chief is Kermit, of course. His two right hand guys, the Peripheral Nervous System are the muscle man Fozzy and the Autonomic Nervous System is Scooter. Working under Scooter, we have the Sympathetic Nervous System which even though is only one guy, for the sake of my imagination he is double cast with Gonzo and Animal.
Now remember, whenever the Sympathetic Nervous System sees fit, it screams “STOP THE PRESSES!!!!!” And craziness breaks out. Everyone else in the room throws whatever they are doing into the air and starts working furiously on the new story.
Imagine the mess. Muppet Babies pretending to be Newspaper people with Animal and Gonzo at the emergency lever. Who cleans up this mess? If you can remember you 80’s cartoons correctly, Nanny does. But we hardly ever seen Nanny in the cartoon. In fact she is just a voice and green stockinged legs, because she is a smart Nanny and she waits for the kids to fall asleep before undoing what they did. What is the point of following them around and picking up the flying papers and pencils until they are done throwing them around?
That is what happens with the Parasympathetic Nervous System. When the Sympathetic Nervous System is done, the body slowly goes back to it’s regularly scheduled activities and then, even later, when all the day to day stuff simmers down, it’s cleanup time. The body’s “rest, digest and repair,” mode kicks on.
Heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, all decrease, pupils constrict, and digestion kicks on. These are the conditions necessary for the body to heal itself.
An important aspect of the Parasympathetic Nervous System is that unlike the Sympathetic Nervous System it doesn’t have On switch. To be healthy we should spend at least as much time in a Parasympathetic state as we do in a Sympathetic one, but that is not usually what happens since we need to create the conditions for the Parasympathetic state i.e. all the kids need to go to bed. And once again, in our modern lives were are all under constant stimulation. Even things we think relax us, like trolling the internet, and watching TV are actually stimulants, and do not promote the Parasympathetic Nervous System.
So how do you help create the conditions for your body to turn on its Rest, Digest and Repair mode? If you are a do-it-yourself type, meditation, certain types of yoga, and other relaxation techniques will help, but if you feel like you are always stuck in go, go, go there are many modalities available at Cofrancesco Chiropractic and Healing Arts that can help you turn off your inner Animal and activate your inner Nanny. Chiropractic, Bowenwork, Reiki, Massage, Naturopathy all have ways of balancing out these two facets of your nervous system.
