THE ELEPHANT IN THE LIVING ROOM

You may remember that proverbial animal occupying most of the living room yet unnoticed by family members. In a version of this story, a visitor to a museum of natural history enjoys exotic butterflies and spiders on display but overlooks the elephant.

The medical science of today all but ignores the musculature as if it were the elephant from this story.

Any doctor would tell you he knows everything about biceps, triceps, and trapeze muscles since his first semester in medical school. So, what is their actual role in the body, be it healthy or sick? "That’s easy," he would say. "Muscles belong to the musculoskeletal system. Swollen joints, pinched nerve roots and immune system disorders cause ligament inflammation, muscle spasms, and pain. Just eliminate the cause, and the muscles will recover on their own."

Muscles: an old picture.

In other words, most doctors believe that muscles play a purely passive role and therefore hardly deserve any attention as opposed to the immune system, the nervous system or the hormonal system, which must be explored in every detail.  However, muscles are too numerous and they are involved virtually in body processes. This means that overlooking them is very similar to overlooking that elephant in the museum. Too bad, I’d say.

The true role of muscles

Your muscles are not just dumb horsepower providers. They are also a mighty biochemical plant, a furnace that burns the by-products of body chemistry as well as any surplus stock of nutrients.

The word "muscle" comes from the Latin musculus, a small mouse.

Don't think of muscles as just dumb horsepower. They are also a mighty biochemical plant, a furnace that burns the by-products of body chemistry, as well as any surplus stock of nutrients. Dieting and fasting alone will never truly help you lose weight. All your courageous weight control efforts would be futile indeed without increasing the relative share of muscle tissue in your body.

Once you discontinue your diet, in a month or two, your weight will be right back where it used to be. The muscles provide a tonus to your nervous system. If they are compressed, you will not be able to sleep or even relax. This is why we dream of a vacation at the seaside or in the mountains (or at least of going to the sauna). When our muscles relax, we are in paradise. Mind it, a person who has learned how to relax his compressed muscles through meditation or simple autogenic training can enjoy this paradise even in the midst of an office crisis.

The seeds of future disease

If your muscles are spasmed from overexertion or fatigue, expect joint inflammation, pinched nerve roots and autoimmune rheumatoid reactions.

Now to the main point: if your muscles are spasmed by overexertion or fatigue, you are guaranteed to experience joint inflammation, pinched nerve roots, and autoimmune rheumatoid reactions. How come? When you use your muscles beyond the limits of their capabilities (like lifting heavy objects or making an abrupt movement while engaging in sports) or when you have suffered a fall or a car accident, some of your muscle fibers are traumatized – they suffer something akin to an internal bruise.

Our smallest muscles are attached to tiny bones inside the ear. Our strongest ones are the sural and the chewing muscles.

Such bruises are seeds for a future illness. Inflammation and a muscle spasm develop around the bruised area, the muscle hurts and impedes your movements. You gradually get used to this condition and start moving in a "sparing" mode. It doesn’t help, however: sparing certain muscles overloads others that also start suffering from inflammation and spasms. Your capacity for movement gets even more compromised. The noose is tightening, and spasms and pain expand from one muscle/joint to another, finally leading to joint inflammation. How can you prevent all of this?

Eliminate the spasm

Your attitude to your body is the key. You've noticed how many problems start with a muscle spasm, that is, a contraction of a motion-starved muscle? When you feel your stomach contract, you know it is high time for a meal -- or else. Unfortunately, the energy supplied by food landing in the stomach does not necessarily reach our muscles.

Muscles feed on motion. Motion supplies them with blood, energy, oxygen and relaxation.

Free your muscles. Power is in peace.

Patanjali, the founder of classical yoga

Muscles feed on motion. Motion supplies them with blood, energy, oxygen, and relaxation. You need to make your muscles work to keep them fed. When you go to the gym it's like taking them to a restaurant! Think of muscles as your horses. If you feed them once a week or do not even remember the last time you did it, do not be surprised if they rebel or get sick. 

Muscles that are rarely used

Neck, back and shoulder muscles are the ones most prone to spasms, since they experience the greatest stress but move relatively less than their counterparts elsewhere. You need to learn how to relax and move these so-called core or skeletal muscles. This is not as easy as it may seem: unusual positions and movement are required to make these "unusual” muscle structures work. I often refer patients to an exercise program detailed in my first book “On ailments, pain and healing.” Using this program, even a middle-aged person who is not in the least “into sport” can learn how to move, stretch and relax his neck, back and shoulders. 

I also recommend to each patient some customized simple exercises to “cleanse” and relax his paravertebral muscles (those close to the spine) as easily as brushing teeth in the morning.

Regular care of your muscles means an everyday joy of health and physical power. Well-fed horses would always give you a good ride!