How the Body Heals Itself (But Sometimes Needs a Little Help!)
Your body is an incredible system of intricate components that keep it working around the clock. One of the most amazing aspects of the human body is how the body heals itself! With 30-40 trillion cells in the body, each is working nonstop to keep our systems in equilibrium. Whenever we experience injury, those cells get to work healing or replacing themselves to get us back to good health. Impressive, isn’t it?
So if the body can heal itself, does it need any help? Sometimes it does! Let’s take a look at how the body heals itself and what we can do to help it along and potentially speed up the process.
Learning How the Body Heals Itself
Whether it's healing from a cut, muscle strain, or something more ongoing like needing chronic back pain relief, learning how the body heals itself can be beneficial to knowing how to help it along. If we know what the body needs to heal, we can make subtle adjustments to boost the healing process.
So then what are a few ways how the body heals itself? A few ways are:
- Cells can heal themselves and replace damaged ones
- Our immune system fights off viruses and bacteria
- Blood delivers oxygen and nutrients throughout the body
- Sleep helps the body heal faster
Cells Healing the Body
When cells become damaged or destroyed, one of the ways how the body heals itself is by replacing or replicating those cells with healthy ones. For example, if you get a cut, the platelets in your blood stop the bleeding by clotting. White blood cells then remove the damaged or destroyed cells and new, healthy cells start to repair the tissue. We don’t see this working in a row like that, but that’s the body healing process behind a wound healing!
It doesn’t just take an injury to have cells healing the body. Our bodies are actually in a constant state of removing damaged cells and producing new ones to create healthy tissue.
Body Immune System Healing
While you might think of your immune system as healing so much as protecting, it's actually a major factor in how the body heals itself. Your immune system is more than a defense mechanism preventing you from getting sick. It’s also the body’s primary defense system against foreign viruses and bacteria once we’re already sick, too.
For example, while you might think having a fever or inflammation is indicative of your immune system having failed, it’s actually its way of fighting off the viruses or bacteria that have caused the problem. A fever is your body temperature rising to kill off bacteria while inflammation is a similar process but more localized.
That said, having a fever or inflammation is also uncomfortable and potentially painful. In this manner, it’s important to learn how the body heals itself so that we can do things to help it heal more quickly, thereby reducing inflammation, breaking a fever, or removing other negative health ailments. This can come from enhancing the lymphatic system, part of the immune system that helps fight off and flush toxins from the body.
Correlation Between Blood Flow and Wound Healing
One of the best ways for how the body heals itself is by circulating blood. Yes, we need blood circulation to stay alive, but finding ways to increase blood flow helps deliver oxygen and nutrients more efficiently throughout the entire body and heals it faster, as well.
Improving poor circulation can help reduce inflammation, alleviate pain, lower blood pressure naturally, and improve heart health. It can also help heal herniated discs as it rehydrates spinal discs and allows tissue to heal more rapidly.
How Does the Body Heal Itself During Sleep?
How does the body heal while you sleep, you ask? Even if we’re out for the night, our bodies are working nonstop. When we sleep, however, the brain is able to release hormones that encourage tissue growth and repair blood vessels. These processes are not only how the body heals itself, but how the body heals itself faster!
Sleeping also produces lower demand on your heart to pump blood, relaxes your muscles, and can slow down your breathing. All these combine to help your body focus on healing itself more effectively and efficiently.
How to Help Your Body Heal Itself
Learning how the body heals itself is crucial to finding ways to help it heal faster. There are loads of ways to help your body heal itself, even as you relax!
Want to relax your mind? Try meditating or lighting a candle for some aromatherapy. While you may not think it’s going to help your body heal faster, relaxing your mind and body allows your body to focus on healing rather than keeping active. The perfect time to integrate these ideas is during a relaxing night time routine. Having a regular night time routine helps you unwind before bed and can also improve sleep quality, helping the body heal while you sleep.
Staying active is another way to help the body heal. This may mean taking into consideration limitations from injuries, however, as you don’t want to overdo it and potentially cause an injury to worsen. For example, if you’ve strained a muscle, try doing simple exercises to help increase mobility and flexibility. This not only helps keep the blood flowing in that area, but allows the muscles to stretch gently and heal more quickly. If you can, maybe a brisk walk is a good idea to keep your muscles engaged without having the hard impact of running. Regardless of what you do, make sure it’s within your limits and that you have a post workout recovery routine ready to cool down properly.
If you want a tool to use to help your body heal itself, consider trying a zero gravity chair. As you recline to the zero gravity position, your legs are elevated above your heart level and weight is distributed evenly along your body. How does this help, you ask? Zero gravity chairs may help drastically improve blood circulation, one of the primary catalysts for bodily healing. In fact, just 20 minutes each day in a zero gravity chair can provide the same back repair that occurs in 8 to 10 hours of sleep!
In addition to improving blood flow, you can use a zero gravity chair to help boost your immune system, improve lung function, get better sleep quality, and even get glowing radiant skin!
Our body works nonstop to keep us in top condition and keep up with our own busy schedules. It’s important that we learn how the body heals itself so that we can take steps to help it out! Whether you’re starting a night time routine to unwind before bed, meditating to center yourself and relax your body systems, or choosing a zero gravity chair to experience a wealth of health benefits to help the body heal itself, you’ll find it can make all the difference in how you feel on a daily basis.
Bonus tip: Helping your body heal faster is great but learn how to improve your health with simple lifestyle changes and see how you can feel better all around!
