Our bodies are chemistry labs.  Everything we eat, drink, breathe, come in contact with, have emotions about — everything — causes biochemical reaction in our bodies. 

For example, by the use of enzymes and other chemicals we make in our digestive tract, food breaks down to nutritive molecules and chemicals small enough to travel though our bloodstream to get into each little factory in our bodies, called cells.  Within our 50 to 75 trillion cells which are specialized into groups for varying functions (liver, kidney, muscle, skin etc) these nutritive chemicals provide the necessary fuel and raw material to

• destroy invading bacteria and viruses
• heal damaged tissue
• grow new tissue
• remove waste products
• keep every internal organ functioning at its peak
• move messages along our nerve pathways unimpeded
• provide energy for all the activities we chose to have in our individual and unique lives.

The oxygen (another chemical) we inhale keeps our brain in peak form and assists all the aforementioned functions.

Caring touch, co-operative interactions with those we like and respect all generate the good feelings and emotions which create hormones that circulate through our bodies and benefit our whole being.

These are the ongoing biochemical influences we want.  They support us.  They allow us to live the lives we make for ourselves.

Now, what about those biochemical changes that take our bodies away from health and vibrancy?  Most often today, pathological changes take place in our tissues due to factors like:

• Poor nutrition — highly-processed food and drink depleted of essential minerals, vitamins and other elements
  

• Emotional turmoil — unprocessed grief, loss, anger, helplessness, anxiety, worry
  

• Physical malfunction — repetitive incorrect motion on the job, lack of varied and proper exercise and movement, too much heavy labor
  

• Mental stress — name your problem about work, home, school, relationship that you just can’t solve

Some conditions are caused by traumatic injury (which also lead to their own biochemical influences), but the great majority of today's chronic diseases are caused by external and internal influences on our body’s chemistry, which we can take charge of.

What happens when we experience stress and strain on any part of us?

Our physical body is controlled by an intricate electro-chemical communications network, comprised of the nervous system and the endocrine (hormonal)system.

These two systems talk constantly to each other exchanging messages to:

• speed up or slow down varying activities
• deliver more or less substance to an area
• call in the troops to deal with an invader
• haul away the garbage at collection time
• gather in the conference room and solve a problem
• rest and sleep

Our communications network becomes disrupted and confused with mixed messages when subjected to any of the stressors we talked about, for any length of time.

We are well designed to deal with most stresses we experience for short periods of time, but today's world bombards us with cumulative stresses that just won't go away, giving our bodies no time in between perceived threats to cycle back to the relaxation response.

The body cannot bear up long-term under this siege and thus we see the chronic aches, pains and illnesses that we are loudly urged to “sweep under the carpet” with pharmaceutical drugs (unnatural chemicals) that allow us to forget they exist – until the drugs wear off or stop working.

So what can I do about it? you might ask.

Imagine a seesaw, a teeter-totter.  It's basically a plank of wood with its center point resting over a trestle.  Now put a child on each end.  What happens when one child exerts more energy on her end of the plank?  It lowers to the ground, leaving the other child up in the air.  What happens if neither child does anything?  They both remain horizontal on an inactive toy getting bored and doing nothing.  What happens when one child constantly uses more force than the other and is lowered to the ground all the time?  Right.  No fun.  The enjoyment of the game is in the rhythmic up and down motion over a perfectly positioned fulcrum.  It brings giggles and hours of fun, energy and movement.

Your Autonomic Nervous System is that seesaw with two distinct parts, or ends, which cannot both be dominant at the same time.  One part is always resting while the other part is working.  Their names, instead of John and Jane, are Sympathetic and Parasympathetic.  Let's take a quick look at who they are and how they play.

Fun for Sympathetic is when he takes charge, gets you ready for, and keeps you in, the fray.  He quickens your heart rate, increases your blood pressure, speeds up your breathing, sends alert signals through your hormones and nerves to get the muscles of your legs, pelvis, back, arms and shoulders pumped up, contracted and ready to spring into action.  To do what?  To run away as fast as you can or stand and face the source of your fear and anxiety, prepared to shred it.

On the exchange swing, it's Parasympathetic's turn to shine.  Her talent is to calm everything down, digest that last meal you had, lower your blood pressure, take full, deep breaths of life-giving oxygen, switch back into top gear all those internal functions of liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines, uterus, ovaries, prostate, etc, that shifted into standby and minimum function when Sympathetic took the power position.

OK.  That's all well and good but how does all this relate to your "pain in the neck", "pain in the butt" irritable bowel syndrome, ongoing headaches, degenerative joints, arthritis and so forth? 

Well, that little kid, Sympathetic, is using his force to overpower his partner on the other end. The teeter has stopped tottering and your body is being held endlessly in readiness, waiting for the green light to run for your life or fight tooth and nail.

But society says it's not ok to do either, and the dangers and anxieties keep coming at tsunami volume:  that nasty quip your supervisor made yesterday, the broken front door lock, the bills that are piling up, the driver who cut you off last night, your spouse who won't do what you want, countless offenses that you can't forgive.

These are all things you can neither run from nor physically fight to the death.  Our body’s inherent mechanisms for handling danger just don't fit as solutions to our modern, daily threats.  But it keeps trying.  As a result, the up-down rhythm is lost and there is no resolution of the protective processes that are in place.  All those physiologic changes that shorten your muscles, thicken the connective tissue, increase the pressure in your heart, move blood away from your core to the limbs stay in place and are reinforced and compounded with every subsequent offense, apprehension, anxiety. There is no automatic resolution in the body bringing it back to a state of calm.

Remember - just as both ends of the teeter-totter are always in opposite positions, thus it is for the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic parts of your Autonomic Nervous System.  They each must have their turn rhythmically and consistently in order to keep you going, and healthy.  Otherwise, there's no pleasure in the game, no energy for it, and the game ends.

So, where are we now?  With this basic understanding of influences on our chemistry and health, I invite you to look at your own seesaw.  Is there a smooth easy rhythm to it or is it stuck in one position?  What's keeping or not keeping your seesaw going?  What one or two things can you do today to begin the shift of power back to a balance point?  When both parts exert equal power, you feel alert and ready to handle the trials of your day with a sense of calm and certainty. 

Without detracting from the necessity of nutritious food, clean water, appropriate sleep and rest, a major key to your wellness is this one important factor in the functioning of the Autonomic Nervous System: 

•  your perspective is the fulcrum over which this plank of opposite and complementary physiologic tasks swivels up and down .  It's not necessarily what happens in our lives that causes long-term stress.  It's often how we perceive, attribute meaning to, and deal with those happenings.  Our thoughts and interpretations set in motion the chain of biochemical reactions that manifest either in physical illness or vibrant health.

You have more power over your health and wellbeing than you might realize, and your body is designed to heal itself.  We all need support, and sometimes by a professional.  With the right support, your body can get back on track.  Give it what it needs to serve you well and long and enjoy your life in good health.

Brenda Armstrong