This is one in a series of articles I will be writing about in an effort to shed some light and help you understand how your body works for you.
We all wonder why after an injury has healed and after several weeks of feeling pretty good, bang it flares up again, why? This is what is called The Physiological Law of Facilitation (the path of least resistance) The law explains why old injuries flare up under stress.
When an impulse has passed once through a certain set of neurons in your brain to the exclusion of others, it will tend to take the same course on a future occasion, and each time it does, the resistance will become less.
An analogy of this would be the image of rain on a dirt hill each time it rains the pathway becomes more entrenched, larger, and more intricate spreading out to nearby pathways.
So once a nerve learns a pain pattern it has a tendency to repeat it even in the absence of the injury. So the effects of stress to your mind and body can be a trigger for this response to kick in. But wait, there is good news!
The Law of Facilitation can be maneuvered to help a neuromuscular therapist make the benefits of their treatment last longer. You may be wandering how can this be?
In therapeutic intervention, treatment of patterns of imbalance which result from trauma, or from habitually stressful patterns can be addressed. So your body should adapt to changes taking place in the musculoskeletal system and create new pathways.
The body likes sameness, which produces habitual patterns. When a pattern is established, it does not take as much stimulation to activate the response.
It’s important to note that we do not diagnosis or treat illnesses or pathological conditions. If you believe you have an illness or pathological condition you are advised to consult with your appropriate medical professional.