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You Were Made To Heal

"The wisdom of the body is responsible for 90% of the hope of patients to recover. The body has a super wisdom that is in favor of life, rather than death. This is the power that we depend on for life. All doctors are responsible for letting their patients know of this great force working within them." - Dr. Richard Cabot, Harvard Medical School

Why do our bodies heal? Why is it that when you get a cut on the arm, without giving any thought to it, it heals. Or why do you get a fever when you're sick and then your body returns to normal temperature?

I remember one of the very first concepts I learned in Anatomy and Physiology was the concept of homeostasis which is defined as the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.

Basically, when something goes awry in the body, it will always try to return it back to a normal state and the symptoms that we associate with sickness and disease are often the result of the body trying to return to a state of health. For example, with the stomach flu, although vomiting and diarrhea are miserable, that's just way the body is trying to rid your GI tract of the germs. 

The reason for this is because our bodies are made to be self-regulating and self-healing. When you are in the middle of being sick or having a health issue, I think it is really important to remember that your body is trying to heal itself. So instead of thinking what you can take to mask the symptoms, you need to ask what you need to give your body or avoid in order for your body to heal. Try to look at your symptoms to figure out what your body is trying to tell you. 

 So if you are having severe back pain, do you have the pain because of a pain medication deficiency? The answer is obviously no, but the question that needs to be answered is why is there pain? What underlying dysfunction is going on in the body that has led to your body producing pain as a warning signal and how can you fix it?

 I once heard someone say "A good doctor will tell you WHAT is wrong, but a great doctor will tell you WHY". There is always a why when dealing with health issues. Sometimes the why is easy to answer, but other times it is very difficult, but there is always a why. 

 For people who are sick or in pain I encourage you to seek out the why...even if it is not easy. Because if you can figure out why the body is unable to return to a normal state of function and remove it, the body will return to a normal state of function.  

"Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well." - Hippocrates


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