Across all domains in life it is inevitable that we will experience recovery from injury and illness. Nervous system balance is a complementary factor in this process.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CME/CE credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits.
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Throughout this article series, the skills, strategies, and tactics to pursue health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance have been described in detail. One element which will be experienced by all individuals across all domains in their life is that we will experience situations in which we will be recovering from either injury or illness. Most frequently this includes more minor conditions with rapid recovery. At times, however, this may include significant illnesses or injuries, perhaps even including admission to hospital or surgical procedures. It is important to consider how to apply the skills, strategies, and tactics within the paradigm provided by the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete in these scenarios.
At the outset, it is important to consider that in situations in which we are recovering from either injury or illness that our biological state will typically shift towards protective and defensive states. In most instances, this is a completely adaptive and necessary shift in biological state. It is also important to acknowledge the attributes which naturally emerge from these states as has been described throughout this article series.
In order to further understand the adaptiveness of these biological state shifts, it is important to consider that the initial sympathetic nervous system response to illness and injury is necessary. This reaction in part is needed in order to initiate an inflammatory response which is a preliminary stage in the natural healing cycle. As discussed within the concept of nervous system balance in a past article, what is essential is that the inflammatory response is adaptive and proportionate to the nature of the illness or injury. In addition, the duration of the inflammatory response is crucial to consider. If this response is too prolonged in nature, the negative impacts associated with chronic inflammation will occur as has been described previously.
While the sympathetic nervous system response is at first necessary to initiate inflammation in response to injury or illness, anchored and grounded states are ultimately needed for restoration, recovery, and homeostasis. On the surface, this may suggest a discordance between our initial physiological responses to injury and illness and our longer term needs in order to recover. In reality, however, the balance which exists between the shift into protective and defensive states in contrast to the need for anchored and grounded states emphasizes the importance of nervous system balance. The shift towards anchored and grounded states is essential for restoration and recovery for many reasons. In large part, this reflects the importance of the proportionate inflammatory response noted above. As described in past articles, the shift into anchored and grounded states is associated with activation of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway, thereby limiting the duration and intensity of the initial sympathetic nervous system mediated inflammatory response. While inflammation is needed to initiate the healing response, it must be dampened in order for the subsequent healing stages to occur, such as tissue repair and maturation.
While the above discussion has focused on the balance between the sympathetic nervous system response and subsequent shift towards anchored and grounded states in order to balance the healing response, it is important to also consider that appropriate medical treatment specific to the nature of the illness or injury is essential. Managing biological states are not a substitute for the appropriate and timely medical care needed for treatment related to the injury or illness. In fact, the acute medical care and leveraging of our nervous system balance can be seen as complementary in the recovery process.
The above discussion informs how the concept of nervous system balance is complementary to acute medical care in response to illness and injury. An initial sympathetic nervous system response is needed in order to initiate the early stages of the healing process, specifically inflammation. Shifts towards anchored and grounded states are subsequently essential in order to appropriately titrate and modulate the initial inflammatory response as well as shift the body’s physiology back to states conducive towards repair, recovery, restoration, and homeostasis.
As nervous system balance can be seen to be an important contributor to recovery following illness and injury, the skills, strategies, and tactics described throughout this article series become important in this regard. Also contributory towards this process is a means through which to objectively measure the degree of nervous system balance. As discussed in past articles, this is provided through heart rate variability (HRV).
It has been established that in response to injury and illness, HRV initially decreases. This is consistent with the initial sympathetic nervous system response to these situations. If we have trained our psychological skills and body-based practices, our baseline HRV will tend to be higher. In addition, we will have greater nervous system balance. As a result, while we may experience an initial dip in HRV in response to injury or illness, our nervous system balance will restore the situation back to anchored and grounded states when physiologically appropriate. This will be observed in an objective means through a return of HRV to baseline states. As such, HRV can become an important metric, not only to determine our baseline status, but also our response in the recovery process to injury and illness.
As can be readily appreciated, the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance will be inevitably associated with a need to recover from illness or injury. Having developed greater degrees of nervous system balance and ability to activate vagus nerve function, these attributes will become complementary in the process of recovering from these situations. Not only will this allow for a faster recovery, but this will also likely result in a more complete recovery. Both elements become very important when we consider the need to return to our pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance as efficiently as possible. As such, the attribute of nervous system balance is an essential contributor to our recovery from illness and injury.
To learn more, including about biologically complementary coaching for healthcare professionals and others in high demand domains, please visit www.darindavidson.com.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CME/CE credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits.
For downloadable, actionable strategies and tactics to leverage biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance, visit the resource store, Launch here. Chapters are arranged by topic so those of interest can be selected and each are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits through Learner+.