The Body as a Bucket
Drawing from a diverse education and many years of experiential knowledge I have created a simplified way to explain the “experience of pain”. Amongst experts, neuromuscular pathology (pain the stems from and within the nerves and muscles) is discussed as the Internuncial Pool. In lamens terms, it explains how and when we recognize (experience) pain. Our neuromuscular (electrical movement) system is predicated on Milliamps (mA) of electricity. If you were to look at the body as a house, the spinal cord and brain stem would be the electrical main into the house with the nerves to all the soft tissue (muscles & fascia) being the wires behind the walls. Within the house (body), the safe amperage that flows through the main cord is ~80 mA, anything above that the energy is dumped into the wires behind the walls (soft tissues). This extra energy slowly creates an overload in the muscles & fascia. We then begin to feel what is felt as pain. Slowly starting as discomfort (ache) that comes and goes between days and eventually intermittent hours. If left unattended this “overload” of energy begins to change how the house, your body feels and performs.
Additionally, there are factors in life that amplify the intensity of the pain. This is what I call the
“Bucket Effect®” (see picture). The body being like a bucket holds this added amperage (mA) and, if we don’t do something to empty it, it fills, and pain ensues at an expedited rate and intensity.
There are many “life” factors that raise the body’s mA level. Our ability to cope with (or capacity to handle) each factor dictates the amount of influence the additional energy (mA) will have on the body. Additionally, any old injury will have an established pathway that will be the first to assume the extra energy. This is why intense emotional life events (stress) influence a pre-existing injury site, experienced as an occasional flare-up.
Of course, there are the moments when we have trauma like smashing a finger, “ouch.” This comes about suddenly, the mA’s spike, and we reflex away from the stimulus. These occasions do not play into the Bucket Effect® unless the trauma is significant. Predominantly the low intensity, nagging upticks of life factors are the main influencers on the Body as a Bucket®.
A person’s tolerance for the factors of influence (those things that fill the bucket) is based on time under tension, learned coping skills, state-of-mind, overall immune, and general systemic health. I have found that when a patient comes in with long-standing pain, I need to quickly switch gears and understand all of the factors that play into their current status. It is critical to Understand the entire biopsychosocial gamut involved in the pain experience. To understand the importance of this here’s a note that a patient sent weeks after his successful Living Pain Free journey. This note depicts just how sensitive and fragile our systems are.
…my fingers are still stiff in the morning when I wake up. But they loosen up in just 2-3 minutes of playing with my rice bucket. Throughout the day, I can close my finger knuckles tight, and also, close a tight fist, quicker and easier with each passing week. 
I make my handwork every day with either hard yard work, kayaking, motorcycling, cutting trees with a chainsaw or the pole, or burning tree branches. Big fires!  
My hand still gets tired by the time I go to bed but is always ok when I wake in the morning. 
I would never have thought this would take so long. But time is passing, and it is improving with time. I just need more time. Since I began seeing you, my hand has not only improved SO much - but I have a life again. For the most part, I forget about my hand. It does virtually anything I want to do. 
It feels so good to scratch and feel my fingernails.  I am beginning to sleep better too it was hard for a few weeks after stopping the gabapentin. I still only sleep 5.5 to 6 hours, but I don't lay awake in the middle of the night. I catch a nap around noon, outside under a shade tree. My hand is doing ok. The butterfly picture you sent is a good representation of the lions in my life that like to lurk around! - Gary
The Living Pain Free Method is the permanent solution to pain. Stop “coping” with pain, “hoping” for the best, and forcing your loved ones to suffer with you.
This “forever” solution skips the flurry of bills, pills, and surgeries that steal your time and money when you get comfortable with akinesis. Click here to learn more about the Living Pain Free Method and get “moving” in the right direction.
Dr. Vincent Catteruccia
Founder, The Living Pain Free Method
(844) 44 WEEKS (844) 449-3357
