By Michael Donaldson, PhD
Like most living creatures on our planet, humans have the amazing ability to suffer from almost any injury and recover from it. We’ve all heard stories of miraculous saves, people who were injured beyond all hope, yet have bounced back and lived long and active healthy lives. Faith plays a huge role in self-healing. You will see in this article that the body, mind, and spirit all play a massive part in our body's ability to heal.
How the Body Heals
From a strictly physiological standpoint, the body heals in very predictable and straightforward ways. When an injury happens, the body enacts a series of responses to repair the damage. This could be something as simple as a cut, to the loss of a limb, to inflammation in your gut. It doesn't matter if the injury happened to you or was self-inflicted. The body will respond the same way every time. When the cells of our body are damaged, they automatically release a series of chemical messengers that call the healing response to it. Histamine triggers vasodilation and increases vascular permeability. The result is swelling and increased blood flow to the area.
The blood is usually the first to begin fixing things. Various clotting factors will flood the area and replace the structure that was missing with a thin and delicate membrane. This membrane is created from collagen’s tough white fibers. Antihistamines, mast cells, and other immune factors rush to the area to fight any foreign or external bacteria or virus. After the bleeding gets under control and the body registers no more damage done, the wound starts to fill in with new tissue called granulation tissue. If the wound is large enough, this granulation tissue becomes part of the final structure, which is why scars feel bumpy. Once the wound is filled in with this temporary tissue, the healthy tissue begins re-growing and filling in the gap. This normal tissue is created from cholesterol, protein, and antioxidants. Yes, cholesterol is what the body uses to heal. The so-called “bad” LDL cholesterol rushes to the wounds of your body to fix them.
There are many ways the system can break down or go wrong. Autoimmune conditions, allergies, and other health problems can change the way the body behaves. Arthritis and other inflammation cause the body to react as if it's injured. Medications disrupt the natural healing factors of our bodies and sometimes cause additional problems. Especially in the case of cholesterol problems, arthritis, and general pain, medications interrupt our natural healing tendencies. Fortunately, eating a proper diet can help reduce the need for medication.
How Your Diet Plays a Role in Self-Healing
Your body can’t build healthy tissues if it doesn’t have healthy building blocks. And the only way to get healthy building blocks is to eat a diet that’s filled with healthy raw foods. The raw materials we need are vitamins, minerals, amino acids from proteins, healthy fats, and antioxidants. This means your diet should be filled with fruits and vegetables to provide these healthy nutrients. You can’t get healthy vitamins and minerals from processed foods that have had all those healthy components removed so it can sit on a shelf for a long time. What healthy food doesn't include is chemical flavors, preservatives, sugar, alcohol, and other unhealthy junk that's found in processed foods. But your diet goes beyond just providing raw materials. Your diet can influence whether or not you're hurting.
Inflammation is one of the most pervasive health problems of our society. Most inflammation occurs because of poor food choices. The delicate mucous membranes of our digestive system react poorly to processed foods. Those bad foods can cause cuts, scrapes, allergic reactions, and bind you up. The body treats this as an injury and has to repair it. If you’re eating a good diet, you’re not creating this injury. Therefore, the body can work on healing external wounds, like a paper cut, and do it well.
Exercises to Self-Heal
Moving your body and getting proper exercise helps your body stimulate healing processes and clear out waste. Every time we exercise, we build new muscle. The exercise process creates little tears and injuries in the tissue that the body has to repair. The repaired tissue is now stronger. And, even though we want to avoid all damage, exercise is the type of injury that benefits our body.
Walking is one of the best exercises you can start with. It helps increase your heart rate, uses many different muscles, and improves your breathing. Start walking 10 minutes daily, adding a few more minutes each day. Various studies show that walking 7 to 9 miles per week helps prevent dementia, reduces the risk of heart attack, and extends your life.
How Your Mind and Spirit Plays a Role in Self-Healing
The body will heal on its own, but our mind and our spirit play a phenomenal role. Various techniques of using a placebo, faith healing, or directed meditation have been shown in studies to be effective. Scientists can't explain it, but they do know it happens. The placebo effect works by providing someone the illusion that a medication or action was taken that causes an impact on the body. Because the body and mind believe the healing response occurred, it works to make the physical body meet the expectation.
You can use this yourself to become healthier and heal from injury. True belief in your therapy makes a difference. Believe that your healthy diet and exercise program is helping you heal, and it will actually help. Look forward to when your body will be whole, healed, and functioning normally. Direct your focus on healing and being healthy, rather than being sick.
Conclusion
You can heal yourself with the power of belief, a good diet, and exercise. Take care to work with your innate healing process, and you’ll increase your ability to self-heal.
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