Nerves and Pain

I recently went on a fishing trip with my father. He is an auto-mechanic for 30+ years so naturally hanging with him for a weekend lead to an interesting car metaphor. I had plenty of time to let my mind wander on the trip. I thought about an interesting and similar situation that can occur in our body. Our nerves are like the warning sensors in the car. When the gas goes low a light comes on with a notifying bell. I respond by putting more gas into the car and the light disappears, a simple solution.

Here is where things get a bit interesting. What if I put gas into my car, but the warning light does not go off? Certainly there may be a problem with the car, but it isn’t that the gas is low. This is often the case with chronic pain. This is the number 1 reason why people come to the clinic. I’ve got to tell you I LOVE IT. It sure is a challenge when the pain mechanism is running so strangely but its so rewarding when you find the problem and fix it. It reminds me of my dad, diving into the engine of my car, testing electrical wires, looking intently into the true cause of the warning light.

Finally, as a teenager I hated bringing my car around my dad. He could detect problems that there were no sensors for. There were aspects of the car he was monitoring that I was totally unaware of. He could tell my car was functioning better than I could, simply because he knew what to pay attention to. This is one of the best analogies I could think of for continued care in the clinic. In my opinion, we could use a heavy dose of wisdom in today’s medical system. And those whom keep us healthy need to pay attention to the signs that there is a problem.

Mark VanOtterloo Licensed Acupuncturist Diplomate of Oriental Medicine