Jim Oschman, Ph.D. ONDAMED and Energy Medicine Anti-Aging Conference

I see the repair of the wound or the defense of the body against disease as elaborate processes that cannot be understood without reference to energetics. These vital mechanisms operate automatically, usually without our conscious awareness. Defending the body against disease and rapid healing of injuries are obviously key issues in anti-aging. There are two requirements for the body to respond appropriately to damage or disease. Tissues must be able to conduct injury potentials and chemical messages from a site of injury, and tissues must allow the migration of cells to the site of the

injury. Injury potentials are examples of subtle but measurable electrical communications that regulate the countless processes involved in sustaining life. The migrating cells are of two basic types. Cells of the immune system, such as neutrophils and leukocytes, are needed to destroy bacteria and clean up debris from tissue damage. Cells such as fibroblasts and osteoblasts are needed to repair and replace damaged tissues.

If communication processes or cell migrations are compromised, an injury will heal slowly. And, if the injury is slow to heal, a low level chronic inflammation may set in. Obviously tissues that are even modestly inflamed or bruised or inflexible are not as effective at these vital processes as they could be. Inflammation is a key part of the wound repair process, and is fundamentally an energetic phenomenon. The reason for this is that the key inflammatory molecules are free radicals, which are molecules that have an unpaired electron. Free radicals and other molecules such as histamines cause the swelling, heat, redness, tenderness, pain and loss of range of motion produced by inflammation. Low levels of chronic inflammation arise because free radicals can leak from a site of injury to nearby tissues and start to break down healthy cells. This causes more signals to go out to the immune system, attracting more immune cells, which secrete more free radicals. This vicious cycle gives rise to "silent inflammation" and has been identified as the basic cause of many different diseases and disorders. This includes diseases that were not previously considered inflammatory.