The Medical Mechanic

A recent incident had guest writer, LILY, take a closer look at her body...and she realised that the human body is very similar to a car!

My ever-young mind thinks that I am perpetually 20 years old without realising that my body is aging away….until I tried replacing the 20-litre water dispenser bottle without asking for help. I usually balance it on my thigh before tilting it onto the dispenser, and it has to be done fast to avoid spraining my back, so I thought I was being very clever. Well, my last water cooler performance damaged a nerve and my right leg has been handicapped for nearly a month now.

Frustrated with the failure in diagnosis after three rounds of MRI, I threw away the medication which was making me drowsy and zombie-like, and I started investigating the cause and sought alternative solutions on my own. Hey, I made an interesting discovery! Well, not about my leg and how to cure it, but about how similar the human body is to a car!

An average car has 30,000 parts in it and a human body has only 7,500 listed parts, according to the American Association of Anatomists. The nervous system of the body is like a car battery - a car battery has a positive(+) and negative(-) point; in between these points, there is a neutral zone (nothing happens here). The “positive” is always in search of the “negative” and vice versa, which creates a current. In the same manner, all the movements and sensations of the body is governed by the nervous system. There is also a “neutral pole” in our body; it is called the central nervous system.

One definition of a nerve impulse that I found is: “An electrical signal that travels along an axon, like a tiny battery, when a nerve is activated. The movement of ion across the neuron causes a change of voltage that triggers a wave of electricity that passes from the cell body along the length of the axon to the synapse.” Wow! Wait, the best is yet to come…

The speed of nerve impulses vary according to the types of neuron, but the fastest neuron travels at about 250mph (402kph)! In other words, I have many miniscule Ferrari’s racing in my body at any given time. It only takes seconds for me to realise that something is wrong with my leg, but it may take up to months to realise that there is something wrong with my car. Body, oh precious, body, what an awesome creation of God you are! I then realised, “no wonder you could not be located with even three rounds of MRI; you are like an elusive super-fast Ferrari!”.

Even though I was frustrated with the doctor who could not give me a solution for my (self-inflicted) health problem, while my mechanic can tell me how to solve any of my car problems, I have experienced a paradigm shift. Let the Ferrari drivers within my leg practice their driving skills in my nervous system circuit; when their skills improve, my leg will be alright again.

image: neuro-iatreio.gr