Recovery Happens In Spurts. So Does Aging

We woke up one day older. But we feel much older. We wonder where our energy has gone. We recover from injuries and surgery in spurts. There are many similarities.

Healing begins with the recognition of an injury, then the rush of blood to the site of injury. This is followed by a complex healing cascade in which the damaged tissue is removed and new collagen fibers laid down in its place. Remodeling of those fibers occurs over time with the influx of growth factors and cells, the building of crosslinks (like rebar), and the recovery of that tissue to a more elastic state, in which it can move freely and not be scarred and stiff.

At every moment in this healing cascade, things can either go wrong or be accelerated. Much of our coaching of patients focuses on avoiding the wrong path and stimulating tissue healing. Much of our research is on injections and therapies that stimulate the healing process. How fast can we make injuries heal? 

The fantasy is that in the future we will have a Star Trek-like device that, when waved over an injury, both diagnoses and heals the patient in one pass.

Today, we recognize that active participation in the healing response hastens full recovery, and that directed interventions can lead to a return to sports fitter, faster, and stronger than before you were injured.

In aging, the hope of getting better than one’s younger self is not often realized physically, but is often achieved mentally. With guidance, we can grow smarter about how we move, how we stretch, and how we strengthen. We sometimes grow wiser about avoiding injuries. We become more philosophical about how long it takes to heal and more tactical about using that time to strengthen the rest of our body. 

Aging comes upon us in accelerated ways when we are injured, as we take stock of what we can and cannot do. Thus, the path to old age is often interspersed with moments of depression. The realization of performance loss can be daunting. The optimism we carry with us and the positive outlook we share with others is often the only saving grace.

So as we recover from injury and as we age, we realize that neither path is a straight line. There are important windows of clarity and of opportunity, and those who take advantage of them with insight and action play a lot longer in life.