Family Chiropractic Centre

PARADIGM FOUND

I hit an icy patch of road a few winters back and lost control of my car. I went back and forth across the road several times, getting closer and closer to the shoulders. I ended up in the ditch after the fifth swerve and came to an abrupt stop. My inability to stay within the confines of the road (much less my own lane) demonstrates a loss of homeostasis.

Most of our bodies' functions (breathing, heart rate, blood sugar levels) operate in a homeostatic fashion. By this I mean that the body tends to maintain its internal environment in a steady (stable) state. Any deviation past certain limits triggers control mechanisms that direct that function back toward its stable state.

A good example of this is our blood sugar level, which is kept within narrow limits in a healthy person. After a meal including carbohydrates (bagel, potatoes, etc.) the increase in blood sugar triggers the release of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin causes blood sugar to move into the muscles, liver, and other tissues, thereby decreasing sugar levels in the blood. This, in turn, causes insulin secretion to stop. Thus, blood sugar and insulin levels delicately balance each other within optimal levels.

Diabetics exhibit a loss of homeostasis, the ability to keep the blood sugar within normal limits. This is the result of a pancreas that does not produce enough insulin. At sometime after insulin secretion is lost, diabetes becomes apparent: in other words, the disease is noticed when the car goes off the road.

Let's look to the dictionary for a definition: health= the state of the organism when it functions optimally.

Hence, diminished function is ill-health. If function is diminished long enough, disease sets in. If the disease progresses long enough, symptoms develop. In our example of diabetes, we see the loss of function (decreased insulin secretion) leading to disease (diabetic retinopathy, where small blood vessels in the eye clog up), and eventually to the development of symptoms (blindness).

Let's look at another example to help differentiate between health and disease -- chicken pox. A child encounters chicken pox virus for the first time, then develops cold symptoms, breaks out into a rash that eventually goes away, and the child develops immunity to chicken pox.

Note that while the child may be acutely sick, feverish, and unhappy, her immune system is functioning in top form, to the best of its capabilities. The child was not diseased, and by definition was healthy throughout.

It becomes apparent that the body is marvelous in its ability to maintain itself: the heart keeps pumping, lungs keep filling, we stay near 98.6F, and about a million other things happen each minute that allow us to stay alive and kicking.

And the whole symphony takes place without much conscious input from us. So who's in charge? What is driving all those homeostatic mechanisms? What is it that allows us learn to juggle, decides what to do with the french fries we ate with dinner, and how quickly to breathe?

To find out, let's go back to when life (yours) began.

When your mom and dad donated the egg and sperm cell that became you, a fertilized cell formed. This cell divided into two, four, eight, 16, and eventually millions of identical cells. The nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and nerves) develops first and controls the differentiation of all these cells into their ultimate form, whether ear lobe cells or stomach cells. Where these nerves reach, messages are sent which direct the identical cells to change and differentiate.

After about nine months of this, a baby emerges and the continued growth and development of this child is directed and controlled by the nervous system. Even after full growth is achieved, our bodies continue to maintain themselves and adapt to our changing environment all under the control and direction of messages that pass back and forth along the nerves.

And this remarkably adaptable, self-regenerating organism is endowed with an innate ability to heal itself. If you cut a steak and leave it sit for two weeks, you see rot. If you cut your hand and look at it two weeks later, you see healing. The only difference between your hand and a steak is life. Health is life manifested as homeostasis in the body, under the guidance and direction of the nervous system.

• Paradigm Lost
• Taking Aim at Sacred Cows
• Life Heals