Adaptation
Adaptation
The Most Underappreciated Concept in Health and Fitness
Mr. Skeptical looks at my title and simply shakes his head.
Irritated, I give him a look that could kill. “What?”
He pouts his lips and says, “Why are you going to write about adaptation?”
“Why not?”
“I suppose you think you’re special because you had to adapt to prison life.” Mr. Skeptical says it in the most sarcastic tone imaginable and uses air quotes for prison life.
“No. That’s not the plan at all. I will write about how the human body adapts to different environments and situations.”
“And who are you to talk about that? Why you?”
Mr. Skeptical is such an idiot. Yet, after rolling my eyes I realize he has a point.
Subconscious Fat at 30,000 feet
Studying chiropractic gives me a background on how the body adapts. In chiropractic philosophy, we were constantly reminded how the body has an innate intelligence. Innate intelligence is the body’s inborn wisdom to adapt to its environment and circumstances. All living things have an innate intelligence.
Mr. Skeptical adds, “Well, the word innate intelligence makes me think of something weird like it’s not scientific. Like you might start to throw religion into it.”
“The founders of chiropractic were worried about that. They wanted to make sure chiropractic would never become a religion or get mixed into and become part of medicine. They worked to keep chiropractic separate and distinct.
“However, the term innate intelligence is simply another way of describing the wisdom of the body, lifeforce, life, or the intelligence a living thing is born with. It may sound esoteric to some, but it’s an excellent term when describing how living things adapt to different situations.
“If a person is dead and you cut the body, it won’t react. If the person is alive and you cut the body, it’ll react.”
Mr. Skeptical sighs. “Too obvious. Give us a better example.”
Subconscious Fat at 10,000 feet
A great example is sickle-cell anemia. Medicine looks at it mainly as a disease. However, chiropractic views it differently. The reality is that sickle-cell anemia is an adaptation because those who have the sickle-cell trait are immune to malaria.
“So, you’re saying that sickle-cell anemia, the disease, is really an adaptation?”
“Yes, and it can be both. However, most individuals with sickle cell will at least live to produce offspring, while malaria can kill a human at any age. One could argue that sickle-cell anemia is a safety net so that malaria won’t kill everyone.”
Mr. Skeptical adds, “It just seems weird to me that after all I’ve heard about trying to cure sickle-cell anemia victims, I’ve never heard that they are immune to malaria.”
“And that’s not the only example. Another example is the relationship between cystic fibrosis (CF) and cholera. CF is a genetic disorder characterized by the production of thick, sticky mucus that can clog the lungs and digestive system. While CF itself is a serious and often life-threatening condition, individuals who are carriers of the CF gene have been found to have increased resistance to cholera, a bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. And here again, those who have CF tend to live long enough to produce offspring, while cholera kills anyone at any age.
Subconscious Fat at Eye-Level
How our bodies adapt should be something on everyone’s mind. When I get a client who appears stuck with muscle growth or weight loss, I look at adaptation. Maybe the guy who wants to lose weight is jogging, thinking that’s supposed to help.
“Most people would think jogging helps one lose weight,” comments Mr. Skeptical.
“It can help one lose weight at first if one is obese. However, it’s a different story when you think about how the body adapts to running.”
“How so?”
“To start, fat weighs less than muscle. Consequently, the human body will adapt to running by removing muscle and replacing it with fat to help run further and for longer periods. (To learn more about this, see post on Sprinting VS Jogging.)
“If a person wants to gain muscle but has been lifting weights their whole life, they should change it up and try variable resistance with bands. Using bands will spur more adaptation for faster muscle growth.
“We also adapt a great deal to what we eat. A person who grew up eating only vegetables may find adjusting to a carnivore lifestyle difficult. This would be expected. It still doesn’t mean that what’s best for this person is to continue eating vegetables.”
Mr. Skeptical frowns, “But if a person starts eating meat and feels bad, then why should they continue to eat meat?”
“They must realize that their body will go through a readjustment phase. The body needs time to adapt. A person may get diarrhea, for example. However, diarrhea is usually just the body producing too little or too much bile. It’s a problem that’s easily fixed or goes away on its own after the body adapts.”
“Yeah, well, diarrhea means I’m sick. I need to change something. It’s proof that something is wrong.”
“It can also be the opposite. If you eat something poisonous, diarrhea might save your life because you flush it out of your body.”
Practical Suggestions and Conclusions
I’m smiling because Mr. Skeptical has no comeback. I love it when I shut him up.
If you want to change eating or exercise habits, then realize your body will undergo a phase of adaptation. And that’s okay. You might have severely sore muscles or an upset stomach.
This is why making these changes in a community or with a coach is a good idea. I offer both in that I give men over 40 a chance to be in a community via Zoom meetings with others going on a similar journey, and I offer one-on-one coaching.
We adapt to different situations based on our circumstances and goals. Consequently, we sometimes need help.
Be aware.
PS Links in Facebook and Instagram. Full disclosure: Chat GPT was used to research and enhance this post.