Anyone who says the healing process is easy and pain-free has something to sell you.
Even a paper cut hurts as the skin repairs itself.
Why is healing painful?
There are two aspects to consider. One, the amount of time it takes for the human body to form in the first place. Two, the natural short-term inflammation response to any injury.
One: The reality-check
The placenta alone takes 3 - 4 months (one full trimester) to fully form. Our gas exchange (oxygen/carbon dioxide), nutrient intake, initial passive immunity and waste removal all take place through the umbilical cord until the last phase when fluid waste is excreted into the amniotic sac.
Keep in mind the skeleton we come into this world with is completely made of cartilage. We have no skeletal muscle tone to speak of. Once on the "daylight" side of the womb it takes 6 months to gain enough strength to hold up our own heads. Our whole spine recurves itself to account for gravity in an upright position. The long bones grow to full length and ossify somewhere between 18 and 25 years.
Two: The repair process
In my mind the idea that the body can re-grow skin after an abrasion, burn or laceration is incredible. The fact that it takes only days, weeks or maybe a month to do so is also quite amazing. It seems that medical science figured out triple-antibiotic ointment to mimic the amniotic sac.
Which could also be what Short-Term inflammation is recreating.
After any physical injury the body produces an inflammation response to clear the area of damaged cells so the natural repair process can occur. This local swelling protects damaged tissue and provides both clean-up and re-build material. Tenderness at the injury site and adjacent tissue is due to the extra fluid, which clears out once healing is adequate for the muscles and connective tissue to resume normal activity.
Recovering from a flesh wound, surgery or accident is a type of healing/cleanse we have all experienced.
There is also the healing/cleanse accompanying an infection of any sort. Referred to as an "external pernicious influence" in Chinese Medicine, this is when an outside invader (virus, bacteria, toxin, etc.) penetrates our internal systems.
The type of healing that takes place has a noticeably cleansing quality. Non-essential systems shut down so the immune response can have undistracted access to the body's energy. A fever flares up to literally roast the invader. The body might demand a water or fluid-only fast, or reject foods that require too much energy to digest.
Invading pathogens stimulate a cellular inflammation response. This happens within the blood, tissues or in the organs. Similar to superficial injury, internal inflammation is characterized by aching, extreme tenderness and physical weakness during the main healing phase. Even strong people are reduced to bed rest if they "catch" a particularly complex pathogen. When we try to ignore the necessary power-down process it further depletes the body and increases the time needed for full healing.
Pathogenic injury is something we can all relate to, especially if someone has a disease that we have also experienced.
So that's some background context for the question "Why does it hurt to heal?"
Do you have an experience you'd like to share?
Please leave a comment.
Blessings and health,
Christian
