So too must we recover from any adaptation we experience due to change, once the conditions return to normal.  Many of our adaptations are temporary changes to best survive the “passing storm.”  Using the fight or flight response as an example, once the danger passes, the blood pressure, pulse rate, and adrenaline levels must return to a resting state.  The digestive system must proceed with its vital activity and our dilated pupils must once again return to normal size.  In other words, the body must recover from the event.

Other factors of the body, such as temperature, pressure, and a multitude of chemical reactions, are in a continuous, never-ending balancing act.  For example, insulin is the hormone that controls the glucose, or blood sugar, level in our blood.  Ultimately, it is glucose that provides fuel for the body, especially the brain.  When we eat something that contains sugar or starch, insulin is released by the pancreas into the blood stream to remove any excess sugar from the blood and store it for later use.   Once the sugar level is within optimum levels, the insulin level in the blood is reduced.  If there is not enough sugar in the blood, a counter-hormone called glucagon is released that draws sugar from reserves and releases it into the blood stream to provide energy for the body.  This see-saw effect of insulin and glucagon is just one example of millions of such balancing acts that occur in the body.

What would happen, however, if once the blood sugar level reached its optimum level, the pancreas continued to release insulin.   By this lack of recovery, more sugar would be removed from the blood than was necessary producing a “condition” called hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. What if after an intense physical or emotional crisis, the necessary increase in blood pressure and adrenaline never returned to states of rest?  This lack of recovery would result in anxiety and hypertension or high blood pressure.   What if during a state of repair, the mechanism that holds the normal rate of cell division and reproduction in check, failed to do its job?  This lack of recovery would result in cancer.  As you can see, many of our long-term chronic illnesses are nothing more than a normal response to change, or adaptation, that never recovered once the change had passed.

When looking at the diseases, conditions, and illness that have been diagnosed by mankind, you will find that ALL of them are caused by either a failure to perceive change in the inner or outer environment, a failure to effectively adapt to the change, or a failure to recover once the change had passed.  This may be an overnight process or it can take many years, decades or even an entire lifetime.  All the circumstances, experiences and events that effect the body, mind and nervous system, may contribute to increased dysfunction and disease, if we do not respond appropriately to the experience.  This Cause of ALL Disease will be discussed at length in the next chapter.

When looking at any disease process, rarely is it caused by one thing.  There are often many physical, emotional, and mental factors that influence the body and contribute to our health and our disease.  On this Clear Path to Healing, we address health on all levels, to assist the body and mind to regain, improve, and develop its ability to perceive, adapt, and recover to change – its Response Ability.

This process of recovery is an effective mechanism to return the body back to its previous state before the adaptation took place, once a given change is no longer present in the environment.  What happens, however, if the environmental conditions do not return to normal and the change does not go away?  What if the wind continues to blow?  What if a new environment is created in which the adaptation must become permanent in order to survive?  In that case, recovery is not necessary, but evolution is.  We will explore this response ability in the next entry.

An excerpt from the book, A Clear Path to Healing, by Dr. Barry S. Weinberg

With Love and Appreciation,

Dr Barry

www.placeforhealing.com

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