The Energy Dimensions of Health

Did you know that your heart beats an average of 100,000 times every day of your life?  Or that your liver does over 30,000 enzymatic reactions per second?  That you take 17,000 breaths per day? 

Now pause a moment to reflect on the energy that must move through the body to perform these critical functions that keep you alive moment-to-moment. 

We tend to think about the body primarily in physical terms, often overlooking the fact that energy is required for the body to maintain health, as well as to repair injury and heal. 

What about the cellular level of being?  Have you ever wondered about the cells that make up your being?  Scientists have recently estimated that there are 37.2 trillion cells in the average human body. 

These trillions of cells are organized into various tissues, into different organs, into specific systems which work together in an integrated order to maintain your well-being.  This internal self-organization occurs via energetic communication at the cellular, nervous system and chemical levels.

And then we come to the smallest level of the atom. A recent study from Washington University reported that there are approximately 100 trillion atoms in each human cell.  Energetically, each one of these atoms has a positive, negative and neutral electrical charge.

So why is that that we question the possibility of an energetic dimension of health?

Consider how traditional Western medicine already uses energy for both diagnosis and treatment. There are diagnostic tests that read the energy frequencies of the brain (EEG) and the heart (EKG); and an MRI uses the body’s natural magnetic properties, reading the energy from the water molecules in the body to produce detailed images.  Types of medical treatments that involve the use of energy include pacemakers, TENS units, lasers and radiation.  A key aspect of these energetic methods of diagnosis and treatment is that they are both visible and measurable.

The Eastern medicine model emphasizes energy itself – often described as qi, chi, and prana – and the energy system of the human body – the meridians and chakras.  The conundrum is that these are subtler energies that are invisible and less measurable.  From this perspective, the energy that flows is understood to carry information through the body, supporting its natural self-regulating and healing capacity.

Maybe Hippocrates was referring to this more energetic concept of health when he wrote that “Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.”?