Homeostasis
Why Understanding Pain May Be The Missing Link To Unlocking Better Health and Finding Joy.
‘Pain is God’s Megaphone to the World.’
-CS Lewis
We live in a world that frequently tells us we should be pain free and happy. Look critically at most commercials and you will see an underlying message that tells you that their product or experience will improve your happiness, reduce your pain and help you live a ‘better life.’ Instead of understanding, getting proper support, and learning from our pain experiences, we are encouraged to shut them down whether it be with a drug, a surgery, a cream, etc. Worse yet, many of these supposed cures were created and marketed by people who lack a complete understanding of the pain experience. This leaves those experiencing pain and sadness feeling frustrated, isolated, and judged. It leaves us in a society that struggles with healthy compassion and it also tends to keep those with pain or sadness stuck. The messages across media and ingrained on our society are that if we have pain or sadness something in us is wrong and needs to be fixed or shut down. But so often those quick fixes don’t work. For instance roughly 50% of spinal surgeries are unsuccessful. Why? Are pain free and always happy the right goals? Or should we seek a different relationship with pain? Do we even ask the right questions when faced with pain?
Homeostasis
Since I was a young child my dad cultivated in me a curiosity and love of biology (aka: the study of life). He always made sure I had a good understanding of the word homeostasis. I can still hear him saying to my young self. ‘Meredith, what is the most important term in biology?’ To which I would reply, ‘Homeostasis!’
I will take it one step further and say that it is the most important term in life and everyone should know it and understand it. Homeostasis is the desire for every living thing (human, plant, cell) to be ‘in balance.’
The official definition according to Britannica is: Homeostasis, any self-regulating process by which biological systems tend to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are optimal for survival.
So in layman’s terms: Homeosostasis is a series of ever changing systems inside of your body that are not controlled by your thinking mind, but can be impacted by your choices and thoughts, that you (or any living thing) use to stay alive while adjusting to an ever changing world. If it’s successful the living thing survives, if not, either suddenly or slowly, the system fails.
Now back to Britannica:
“The stability attained is actually a dynamic equilibrium, in which continuous change occurs yet relatively uniform conditions prevail.” (AKA: there is A LOT going on silently and relatively unseen in your body to keep you running).
The general idea of this self-regulating process was explored by French physiologist Claude Bernard in 1849 and the word homeostasis coined by American neurologist and physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon in 1926.
"Any system in dynamic equilibrium tends to reach a steady state, a balance that resists outside forces of change. When such a system is disturbed, built-in regulatory devices respond to the departures to establish a new balance; such a process is one of feedback control. All processes of integration and coordination of function, whether mediated by electrical circuits or by nervous and hormonal systems, are examples of homeostatic regulation.”
Here is where pain comes in.
In humans, pain is an essential and unique tool in the feedback control loop. Let me explain why it is unique.
Typically these systems are working in the background of our lives. For example: When you start to run in a healthy system your heart rate and respiration rate automatically increase in order to deliver more oxygen to your muscles as their demand increases due to the change in pace. When you stop, the heart rate and respiration rate slow down. All of this happens without you having to think. You don’t stop and say, ‘hey, heart can you please pump a little faster, diaphragm can you move faster, lungs can you exchange oxygen faster?’ They just do it for you. Cooler still, not only do these rates just change, but they will continually make micro adjustments based off of information from your cells to maintain optimal oxygen delivery to your tissues as you change speed or terrain. All without you thinking about it.
So where does pain come in? Pain alerts your cognitive brain (and even the brains of those around you) to a potential issue. It takes these systems that are running in the background without your thought and says, ‘Hey you, wake up, there is something going on here and I need your help.’ As C.S. Lewis so eloquently stated. ‘Pain is God’s Megaphone to the world.’ Yes it is! It is a way in which our brain alerts us to something that has changed that we need to make adjustments for. Sometimes our systems need help. Pain is how these systems alert us.
None of these systems is simplistic and pain is no exception. Like any intricate system, it also has the ability to make mistakes, or get stuck in a setting that makes other systems function poorly. This is the most intricate, complex and amazing alarm system ever invented. You would not expect to have a system like this in your house and not spend some time getting to know it. So it is essential that we all spend some time getting know and respect the system within us. That is my mission with this Blog. To teach you and give you the tools to both understand, adjust to, and even fix this amazing alarm system and your health. If you are wanting to maintain homeostasis it is essential that you understand the system that was created to alert us to potential issues. When you understand this, understand your body’s needs and its communication system, you have the tools to take charge of your pain, your joy, and your health.
Are Pain Free and Always Happy the Right Goals?
The short answer is No. Pain free and always happy are not the right goals. The right goals are to accept that both pain and sadness will be an essential part of a healthy life. Complete avoidance of either is not healthy and denies a crucial piece of our healthy existence. Conversely, succumbing to either pain or sadness as a constant in our lives is also not healthy and ignores what our system is trying to teach us. As noted above, there is constant change going on within us to maintain health. When we understand the changes, how they impact us, and our ability to impact them we have stepped towards mastery of our health. If we do not know these things then we are susceptible to illness, bad advice, and persistent pain and sadness.
In the next few posts we will discuss what pain is and how it works. (Hint, it’s NOT what you thought). What questions we should be asking when we experience pain, and the many tools we have to create change. As noted, pain is a very complex system that we are still learning about. I will do my best to simplify and stay on top of the latest research. If you are seeking a change in your pain then be sure to read on. Pain education alone has been shown to lessen pain severity.
With compassion,
