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Broken, or Built to Heal? · Truth in Motion with Dr. Jocelyn

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Truth in Motion with Dr.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jocelyn, where insight, clarity, and wisdom help you thrive.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, let's dive in.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday we looked at what's more than we can see.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We watched Willem Einthoven make the heart's invisible electricity show up on paper.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We saw acupuncture points line up with real planes in the body's connective tissue, and we heard Jesus say, power has gone out from me.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Invisible has never meant unreal.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Today we look at something every one of us carries every single day: a body that heals.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1970s, at the Children's Hospital in Sheffield, England, Dr.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Cynthia Ingleworth ran the emergency department for children.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Children's fingers get caught indoors, and sometimes the very tip of a finger is cut off.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: The usual approach was surgery.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Stitch it closed, graft skin over it, tidy it up.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: But Dr.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Ingleworth and her colleague did something different.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: They cleaned the injured finger, held it in place with a sterile splint strip, covered it with a nonstick dressing and a mitten bandage.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then they let nature take its course.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: What happened?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: In young children, a fingertip that wasn't damaged below the first joint would often grow back on its own.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: One five-year-old who got this gentle care after losing a fingertip grew a new one, complete with a nail, in about three months.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: A three-year-old with a similar injury treated with surgery was left with a permanently deformed finger.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Dr.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ingleworth wrote up her findings in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery and Time magazine reported on it in 1975 under the headline The Regenerative Finger.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sit with that for a moment.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the most powerful thing a doctor can do is protect the body and get out of its way.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why does this matter?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because what we believe about the body decides what we do when it hurts.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: If we believe the body is broken, we wait for someone to fix it.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: We hand our healing over to someone else and we feel helpless in between appointments.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: If we believe the body is built to heal, everything shifts.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: We start asking, what does my body need?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: What's in its way?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: How can I help it do what it already knows how to do?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Many of us have heard a sentence like this.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: You'll just have to manage this for the rest of your life.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that's the honest truth.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: But when it's the first thing we hear and the only thing we believe, it quietly tells us our body has given up.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then so do we.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want that to be anyone's first assumption.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not when we're carrying a body that renews itself every day.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's not wishful thinking.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's partnership with our own body and with the people who care for us.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where I stand.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I believe your body is built to heal, and everything it does is its most adaptive response to what it's been given.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Even the symptoms that we hate, even the ones that scare us.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I believe the body is not attacking us, it's doing the wisest thing it can with what it has.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: You are not broken.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: You are a living healing being.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I say you are the healer and I am the facilitator.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: My job is to help clear the way so your body can do what it was designed to do.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to look far to see this.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's happening in us all the time.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Cut a finger in the kitchen, and within minutes the bleeding slows and stops.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Within days, the skin closes, and then with within weeks, there may be only a thin line left.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody told your body how to do that.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: It knew.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: A broken bone, once it's set, it knits itself back together.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: The cast doesn't heal it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: The cast just holds it still while the body does the work.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's the liver.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: When someone donates part of their liver to save another person's life, surgeons remove a portion, often an entire lobe.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: At UPMC in Pittsburgh, donors give anywhere from 25 to 65% of their liver, depending on who's receiving it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then the most amazing thing happens.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: According to the Cleveland Clinic, both pieces, the part left in the donor and the part given to the recipient, grow back to full size within about two to three months.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Two people, one liver divided, and two whole livers a few months later.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're carrying around.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: A body that knows how to rebuild itself.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the healing in our bodies happens quietly, without a single cut or break.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, as you listen, your skin is shedding old cells and making new ones.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: The lining of your gut, which takes a beating from everything we eat and drink, is constantly being renewed.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Your bones are being broken down and rebuilt little by little all the time.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Your blood is making fresh cells to replace the ones that wear out.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody schedules it, nobody has to remember, it just happens day and night for our whole lives.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: We are not finished products slowly wearing out.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are living beings renewed every single day.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where it gets interesting.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Some of what we call sickness is actually the body healing.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Take fever.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us were raised to treat a fever like the enemy.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Bring it down, get the number back to normal.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: But researchers have been asking for decades what fever is actually for.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: A physiologist named Kluger and his colleagues studied it in desert lizards.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And in 1975, they published a paper in the journal Science with a simple title, Fever and Survival.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Later in 1978, Kluger's team found one reason fever helps.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: When the lizards were infected, the iron in their blood dropped.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Bacteria need iron to grow.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when the researchers gave infected lizards extra iron, more of them died.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, part of what a fever does is starve the invaders.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a malfunction, it's a strategy.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: The same is true of so many things we fight.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Swelling after an injury brings blood and repair cells to the damaged spot.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: A cough clears the lungs.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Vomiting empties the stomach of something harmful.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Pain tells us to stop, rest, and protect what hurts.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: The body isn't failing when these things happen.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's working.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's take this one step further.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: What about symptoms that don't go away?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: The ache that's been there for years, the digestion that never settles, the fatigue that won't lift.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how I see it.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Even then, the body is still making its most adaptive response.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's doing the best that it can with the conditions it's been given.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Think back to our garden.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: If a plant keeps turning yellow, the plant isn't broken.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's responding honestly to the soil, the water, and the light that it has.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Change the conditions and the plant responds again.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Our bodies work the same way.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: A body under constant stress, without enough sleep, without the right nourishment, carrying old hurts it was never able to release will adapt to all of that.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And some of those adaptations will feel like symptoms.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the question isn't why is my body betraying me?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: The question is what is my body responding to?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: That question changes everything.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: It turns us from victims of our symptoms into partners with our body.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: So why doesn't everybody just heal on its own?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes something is in the way.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: A wound that keeps getting reopened can't close.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: A body that never gets to rest can't repair.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Conditions that keep repeating keep producing the same response.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the body is missing what it needs to do the work.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Nutrients, sleep, movement, safety, connection.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes there's an old injury the body is still holding on to, like we talked about yesterday.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: The body walled it off to protect us and it hasn't yet had the chance to let it go.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's where good care comes in, not to override the body, to help clear the way, supply what's missing, and give it a chance to finish what it started.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's also why I believe in starting with the gentlest, safest options first.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: When we trust that the body is built to heal, we don't need to start with the strongest force.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: We start by supporting what the body is already trying to do, and we move to stronger steps only when the gentler ones aren't enough.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like Dr.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Illingworth, sometimes the wisest care is the care that protects, supports, and then waits.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it takes time.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: A fingertip took three months.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: A liver takes a few months.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Healing that's been waiting for years may need patience too.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a failure.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's how living things grow.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's one more thing that can get in the way of healing.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: The way we talk about our bodies.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to how many of us talk this way.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: My bad knee, my stupid back, my body hates me.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm falling apart.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a hot mess.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a dumpster fire.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is just my life now.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: We say these things without thinking, but our body is listening.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the lemon from Tuesday?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: A picture in the mind made the body act.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: What picture are we painting?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Every time we call our body bad or broken or against us.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So try a different picture.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of my bad knee, try my knee that's been working hard.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of my body hates me, try my body is trying to tell me something.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of I'm falling apart, try, I'm in the middle of healing.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's not pretending.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's telling the truth about a body that was built to heal.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: For me, all of this points back to the one who designed us.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: In Exodus chapter 15, verse 26, God says to his people, For I am the Lord your healer.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in Jeremiah chapter 30, verse 17, he promises, For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I believe God didn't just make us, he built healing into us.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Every cut that closes, every bone that knits, every fever that breaks is a small sign of a much bigger design.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: We were made to be restored.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: This week we tend the garden.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Today, let's look for the evidence that our garden heals.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's practice.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Find a scar on your body, maybe a small one on your hand, maybe one from a surgery, or a fall when you were a child.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Put your finger on it.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, this is proof.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your body was hurt here and it healed.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't need instructions, it knew what to do.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then say quietly, thank you.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know how to heal.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's something in your body right now that hasn't healed yet, place a hand there too.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Ask it gently, what are you responding to?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: What do you need?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then listen.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Today we looked at a body that heals.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: We watched children grow back their fingertips when a wise doctor protected them and got out of the way.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: We saw a liver divided between two people grow back into two whole livers.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: We learned that fever isn't a malfunction, but a strategy.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: We remembered that our bodies are being renewed every day and that our words matter to a body that's listening.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we saw that even our stubborn symptoms are often the body's most adaptive response to what it's given.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we saw why it matters.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: When we believe we're broken, we wait to be fixed.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: When we believe we're built to heal, we become partners with our own body.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow, we finish our week on what we assume about living bodies.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: We take on two last assumptions that what we feel is just subjective and that our bodies respond only to physical things.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we meet a man whose tumors melted, came back, and melted again with nothing but water and belief.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow we look at your body as a witness.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'll meet you there with you every step of the way.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the conversation going.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Find your next steps in notes from a fellow traveler, my blog.