It’s that time of year again! If you haven’t
already, you will soon be seeing lights popping
up everywhere! Lights on houses, lights in
stores, lights on trees and bushes, lights in
windows! Lights everywhere! A festival of lights!
Often during the holidays, people seem to light
up as well with the joy of seeing family and
friends or receiving a surprise gift or the delight
of a first snow!! It’s always such a pleasure to
see someone who is truly joyful and while
science hasn’t discovered all that is involved you
know it when you see it. People actually glow!
Some people naturally glow more than others.
This is due, in part, to the fact that skin shines
when it’s smooth enough to reflect light. On the
other hand, skin can get dull when it is rough
due to dead skin cells piling up. Children and
teenagers glow more easily because their
constantly making new skin cells (about every 28
days) which itself is AMAZING! You are
constantly recreating yourself!
But people of any age can glow. You’ve may
have heard the expression “she lights up a
room” or “he lit up” when the ice cream was
served. However, people are especially prone to
“lighting up” when they are filled with love. For
example, your parents were probably radiant as
they looked into each other’s eyes on their
wedding day. And they surely beamed when
they first laid eyes on YOU!
Super AMAZING though are the results of recent
studies that showed that the giddy feeling we
have when we love someone (or something)
triggers a physiological process that can benefit
your skin (i.e., increase your glow factor.) The
simple act of loving someone or something
increases the production of a chemical called
oxytocin. How smart is your body that it does
that!?!
Oxytocin is also known as the “attachment
hormone” because surges of it are responsible
for the bonds between people in love, or
between mother and child, and even between
people and their beloved dogs (or ice cream.) So,
your very smart body produces exactly what it
needs for this incredibly unique situation.
AMAZING!
Interestingly, oxytocin can also help lower the
production of stress hormones that have a
negative effect on your skin and reduce some of
the inflammatory factors that slow healing. With
regards to your skin, less inflammation means
less irritation and that means MORE GLOW!!
Oxytocin, and lots of other chemicals that
control how we feel and look, are made by
glands and to function properly glands require
clear communication from the brain via the
nerve system. Sometimes, bones in your spine
can misalign and distort the communication
between the brain and the glands, then your
body chemistry won’t be what it should be.
That’s why seeing your family chiropractor
regularly is so important. He or she will check
your spine to ensure that misalignments, called
vertebral subluxations, are not interfering with
the proper function of your nerve system. A well
aligned spine allows your glands to function
efficiently and you to let that little light of yours
shine, Shine SHINE! Happy Holidays to All!
—By Judy Nutz Campanale, DC, ACP
