The spine of a child develops rapidly in the first 18 years of life. Puberty kicks that physical development into overdrive.  The average age of puberty is lowering each year due to more hormone-injected, processed and sprayed foods, vaccines, water supplies, and pesticides in our environment. Unless we are living in a bubble some of these may be hard to avoid.

It may seem like such a dreaded stage in life—both for parents and the teens.

As one enters puberty, the body is experiencing a multitude of things:

The body is growing at a more rapid pace than normal, causing the muscles and spine to misalign which can add to already mounting emotional and physical stress during this trying time. The pain may come across as increased emotional outbursts, growing pains, or back pain.

Cartilage is hardening. Puberty is a crucial time for bone development, as the flexible cartilage that had allowed for growth in childhood hardens into true bone.

Hormones raging. There is no better way to describe the hormone distribution that is occurring throughout puberty.  Hormones serve as messengers traveling through the bloodstream.  When the body is out of alignment, hormones cannot travel from point A to point B efficiently.

Sports and physical activities intensify around this stage of life. As the competition increases, the physical toll on the body does too. Many teenagers begin lifting weights, increasing work outs, hitting harder on the field, and taking harder hits themselves.

Heavier school bags. As their school year levels increase, the weight and number of books seem to increase as well. Carrying this amount of weight around is bound to leave a body needing adjustment. When you add in the overall changes occurring throughout puberty, it’s a recipe for extreme discomfort.

Long periods on computers and mobile phones. As teenagers start to spend more time on phones and computers this can start to lead to 'text neck'.

Greater levels of stress. With their bodies going through many changes stress levels can be very high at this time.  While their bodies are young and resilient enough to handle the stress, it can still lead to negative health issues such as back and neck pain, sleep issues, depression, and even migraines.

Here are some tips to help teenagers through this time:

• Providing a well balanced diet while eliminating junk foods will help your child avoid nutritional deficiencies that may affect the normal rate of growth during puberty.  Check out our chiro balance recipe section for healthy options.
• Teenagers need a lot of sleep, 12 hours a night or more, because of the work their bodies are doing to transition to adulthood so make sure they are getting this. There are plenty of herbs to help teens that are having problems sleeping. Popular ones include linden tea, chamomile and peppermint.
• Making sure they are getting fresh air and having breaks from screen time.
• Encouraging use of lockers at school and using back packs with two straps.
• Stretching before and after sports to avoid muscle tightness and injuries.
• Drinking lots of water to keep them hydrated and flush out toxins.
• Gentle adjustments by a chiropractor can help a child throughout the transition of puberty. By keeping the body aligned, there is a higher probability that hormones can quickly re-balance, neurons can properly fire and be received, the body can handle greater impacts, and the symptoms of puberty remain calm and mild.  For girls, what they think may just be back problems may actually be displaced pain from the reproductive organs. These organs depend upon a healthy nervous supply from the lower spinal column. If these nerves going between the reproductive organs and the spine are somehow blocked, it can lead to menstrual pain, cramping, and irregularities. Putting the lower spine back into proper alignment with chiropractic adjustments will relieve the pressure on these nerves going to the reproductive organs, relieving both menstrual and lower back pain.

At Chiropractic Balance we offer a special rate for teenagers. We tailor our care for teenagers to help them cope better with the stresses and changes happening in their bodies during this time. .