Stability And Balance As A Function Of Our Physical Health.
Why do we need that balance? How important is that balance to us?
The idea of having a stable baseline is firmly ingrained in our psyches. The baseline provides a sense of stability for us in our day-to-day lives. For example, a salaried employee gets paid a baseline salary of X dollars per month, and from there, they are able to properly plan and budget for their expenses.
This stability is something that an entrepreneur would not necessarily have, especially when they are starting a new business. Getting a stable customer base of Y customers per month, each spending an average of Z dollars, is not something that can be achieved as quickly as an employer being contractually obligated to pay an employee X dollars per month as a salary.
We do desire stability — not just in consideration for our financial health, but for all other aspects of our own health, including our emotions, our relationships, and our physical health.
Emotionally and relationally, we do know that it isn’t the easiest to work or live with someone who is emotionally volatile — much less so when they don’t see their volatility as a problem at all.
But in terms of our physical health, getting a balance out of the many different cells in our bodies and the biochemical signals that they generate while they are doing their work in our body can be a difficult thing to achieve.
On the macro level, we do need to know how to exert self-control.
It would be nice if we know when to start and when to stop something at their optimum points — much like the Goldilocks Principle:
The problem is… we do have internal processes that know when to start — but some of them do not have controllers that tell them when to stop.
For example, smoking opium may be a good way for some people to relieve stress because of the opioid chemicals that an opium smoker can take in.
However, when a person doesn’t know how or when to stop, they become addicted. And we do see people being addicted to so many different things — it could be sex, it could be binge eating, it could be alcohol, it could be financial greed. All these things are pleasurable. They give us a dopamine and a feelgood sensation thereafter:
But an imbalanced overuse of that activity to generate more dopamine rushes can ultimately lead to an addiction, which brings with it more problems than pleasure, and also will affect our health in many other negative ways.
On the micro level, we have a good ability for self regulation.
The cells in our body are living microorganisms that operate dynamically. They are taking in nutrients on a regular basis and generating waste as well as other useful biochemical signals for our body to function properly.
The cells in our immune system function in a similar way, especially with regards to the inflammation response:
They produce biochemical cytokines that promote or quell inflammatory responses, which are generated in response to any form of injury or threat that the body faces.
When there is no threat from the surroundings, the concentration of the cytokine signals operates at a baseline level.
When an infection arises, there will be a spike (or a blip) in the pro-inflammatory cytokine concetrations as the body seeks to deal with and eliminate the infectious threat.
When the infection has been dealt with, the blip will drop back to baseline levels.
In this way, the immune system of a healthy human can be self regulated pretty well.
But yet, things that we do can change up the self regulation capabilities of the immune system.
We’re all cognizant, for instance, of the fact that we can be heavily stressed out. Or eating poorly. Or sleeping poorly. All these are various aspects of our lifestyles that we have the power to control.
And these lifestyles are major contributors to how well the immune system can regulate itself, because they are able to signal the production of more pro-inflammatory cytokines to disrupt the current baseline.
When a lifestyle choice turns into a consistent habit (whether voluntarily or involuntarily), we will see a step change with regards to that specific input.
How that input affects our health is determined by the strength of that input and the time lag that is encountered with that input.
For example, if a lack of sleep causes the body to produce more pro-inflammatory cytokines, we might feel the effects the next morning as a blip. If we were to maintain a good sleeping habit consistently, the inflammation that is generated from our sleeping is kept to a minimum.
However, if we were to experience chronic, or consistent sleep deprivation, things would be different. Our bodies would be producing more pro-inflammatory cytokines over time, and the concentrations of these pro-inflammatory cytokines would be elevated in our blood over time, consistently.
And that changes up the baseline. To the point that one can experience brain degeneration over time:
When the baseline is changed permanently, can we expect things to operate normally as they should have been?
A marriage, for instance, is the commitment of 2 people to build a life with each other — faithfully. When one person is found to be having an extramarital affair, that creates an unwanted input into the entire process and results in a step response.
Can the spouse maintain the same level of trust in a relationship with their adulterous partner now?
It’s almost technically impossible, especially with that new step input of distrust.
In the same way, when there is a new step input that disrupts the equilibrium baseline of the current system, things will start to behave differently.
We do have to be conscious about how our lifestyle choices can affect our health. Making the right choices promotes stability and a healthy baseline. Choosing the wrong things can affect the stability of the baseline and can cause further unpleasant things to happen!
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