The Last Drop in the Bucket
The Imperceptible Factor Between Pain vs. No Pain.
The only difference between the time that you’re blissfully oblivious and the moment pain and stiffness strike, is sometimes completely unmeasurable.
One thing is for certain and that is the fact that we are all constantly filling our proverbial buckets with everyday pain triggers, but the body, by design, wards it off and sustains balance by all three means available: mechanical, chemical and emotional, for as long as it can. The reality is that we make our body constantly work hard behind the scenes to keep everyday pain at bay because of the way we live life. For the majority of our years, the body is reasonably healthy and when we have all systems working in balance, we seem able to keep everything in check efficiently enough, so that the bucket is not ever brimming to that precarious point where it would take only one more drop to cause a spill.
Unfortunately with time, stress and continued imbalance, the body starts to become more vulnerable and less efficient at keeping the bucket contents in check.
In this blog post excerpt from my book I discuss in more detail how inflammation can exist without pain but pain does not exist without inflammation. Based on this fact, it’s indisputable that we do have some ability to either ward off the pain, cut it off at the pass or extinguish it effectively right away, and we can do all of this the very moment it hits us - even if it's out of the blue as it often can be - just like that bucket overflowing with water from one tiny final drop.
“How do figure?” you might ask…
I say to you: Control the inflammation that is within reach, and you will buy your body time and more room in the bucket. With fewer inflammation triggers filling your bucket to the brim, you create a buffer against all the inflammatory triggers that you cannot control – of which there are unfortunately plenty.
What are some examples of inflammatory triggers you can control?
Inefficient posture that causes friction which results in inflammation. Food choices incompatible with your chemistry cause pH changes which result in inflammation. Emotions like stress when out of control cause changes in hormones that govern mood, and inflammation can result from that as well.
All of these things are within our control to some degree.
Then there are the things we cannot always predict or sidestep quite as easily...
The second half of the menstrual cycle causes inflammation body wide. Viruses like the common cold cause inflammation. Genetic predispositions like serum positive Rheumatoid factor (which is the familial tendency to develop a type of inflammatory arthritis), are also something we cannot control. But, we can control how much more inflammation we throw in the bucket alongside these irritants that are out of our reach when we take action to moderate things that are within reach like posture, pH and stress.
Now, don’t forget that the body is a cohesive unit that relies on a single system of waste and inflammation elimination, so, if there is inflammation in one area it will affect how efficient other parts of the body are in dealing with inflammation risk similarly to how traffic congestion on the highway will cause spill over traffic on the side streets. Take a look at this post excerpt from my book for some fun visuals about the inflammation congestion that can lead to pain...
Visit Stop Everyday Pain, where you can investigate how to get to know and control your individual inflammation triggers.
References:
Puder JJ, Blum CA, Mueller B, De Geyter CH, Dye L, Keller U. Menstrual cycle symptoms are associated with changes in low-grade inflammation. Eur J Clin Invest. 2006;36(1):58-64.
Evans J, Salamonsen LA. Inflammation, leukocytes and menstruation. Rev Endocr Metab Disord. 2012;13(4):277-288.
