Ankylosing Spondylitis and Recovery

I witnessed the power of the body to heal itself when I recovered from the chronic condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis, or AS.

“Chronic” is a term which means that medicines cannot cure it. But there are people who have recovered from AS and other chronic conditions naturally. How does it happen? Can the body actually heal itself without drugs?

When you cut your finger, the wound will naturally seal itself back together. It’s a clear example of the healing power in our bodies. It is always operating in and through us regardless of the medical treatments we take.

I began to understand the body’s power to heal when I studied anatomy and physiology in school. I learned:

The body you had last week is different from the one you have today. In a process called cellular mitosis, the cells in your body continue to birth new cells which die off naturally throughout your lifetime. The fact is that in a few years you’ll have manufactured a completely different body altogether.

Your body rebuilds itself over and over throughout your lifetime. Watch a child grow up and age over the years; what you’re seeing is the process of cell regeneration that occurs with the passing of time.

Some cells reproduce more quickly than others. Those which lined your stomach three hours ago have been replaced with new ones whose daughter cells will soon arrive. Other cells take longer reproduce, but with time every cell in your body undergoes transformation.

Brain cells adapt to their environment in response to what you learn and what new behaviors you acquire. Researchers call this process “neuroplasticity.”

Neurologists have learned that chronic pain in the body can be reversed through neuroplasticity. When chronic pain is “wired” into the body, neuroplasticity can restore the system to normal behavior, and reverse the pain.

Researchers say that chronic pain is the end result of the brain repeatedly firing signals over specific neural pathways until it becomes a habit.

It’s like driving a car on a dirt road; the more you drive over them, the deeper the ruts become. The repeated pain sensations in your body build an “information highway” in the brain, but it is not necessarily permanent as researchers once believed.

New habits, new exercises and new behaviors can help to change the signal pathway and reverse the pain.

If you have AS, you have created “pain signal highways” in your brain. But just as victims of brain injury can re-learn to speak and walk, you can learn to build new signal highways to reverse the chronic pain.

As the cells within you give birth to new ones, you’re constructing an entirely new and different body, which takes a couple of years to complete. Exercise can help. Movement is proven to change the landscape of your body, regardless of previous illness, injury or genetic factors.

If you have Ankylosing Spondylitis, you can build a healthier body than what you’ve got now. Along with movement, basic mind-body techniques can be used to help reverse the chronic pain and stem the symptoms of AS. The sooner you catch the symptoms, the easier it is to accomplish.