Cures

Your body regenerates. Think about that for a minute. In the presence of injury or just by living life, your body requires constant maintenance whereby it regenerates itself. This is remarkable. Imagine for a minute that you could drop a glass on the floor, it breaks into pieces, but with enough time it is able to put itself back together. Our universe would be completely different if this were the case, yet our bodies are able to do just that. In the case of a condition where the body is unable to heal itself, what if it isn’t a cure that changes this state, but an input/output that provides the information necessary to regenerate?

As a physical therapist I enjoy solving problems. Clients come to me with an issue that is preventing them from doing something and we work together to change that. Traditionally, health care providers fix the problem, like a mechanic fixes your car. I have started to think of this in a different light. It may not be that we fix anything, but that we provide the conditions for the body to take care of itself.

Let’s use lower back pain as an example. This condition is very common, roughly eighty percent of people will experience it at some point in their life. The origin of the problem may simply be that too much pressure resides in one place within the lower aspect of the spine. Due to the high pressure, tissues in the area cannot receive adequate nutrients to heal themselves and regenerate. If a patient arrives with this issue, and I provide an exercise that reduces the pressure, the body now has the capacity to take care of itself. The exercise provides the body with the ability to do what it does best, maintain health. The capability was always there, the conditions just needed to be set in order to allow that to happen.

Health issues arise for all of us, no one escapes that. The really fascinating part is that the body can heal if given the right set of circumstances. There are times when we need someone to alter the environment or provide some useful bit of information for that to occur. I am not so sure cures are something we need to search for. The ability to maintain and pursue health resides within us.

Austin Ulrich, Physical Therapist