Inception Point
The Right Way to Use Health Protocols
Pro-to-col;
n. - the accepted or established code of procedure or behavior in any group, organization, or situation
n. - a procedure for carrying out a scientific experiment or a course of medical treatment.
People love a good health protocol. A nice little hack. An easy answer to that nagging problem. And because people love it, lots of other people sell it. Unfortunately, protocols very very rarely stand up to the tests of time or more accurately, change. Some of that is because when you use a rote procedure to solve the problems of something as dynamic, complex, and adaptive as human health you start from a false premise. Which is that the problem you're trying to solve has presented itself under stable conditions. Meaning, the stuff that caused the issue will be exactly the same all the time so the protocol that addresses those things will always work.
Additionally, when protocols have value the user (you and me) don't understand what protocols are really for. We think they are golden keys that unlock that single secret that solves our issues. They are not.With that said, we do need a way to begin trying. That's where protocols can be helpful. When we use them as inception points for experimenting for ourselves we are open to learning important lessons about what works for us as we engage in the process of exploring performance longevity.
I'm Going Through Changes
Protocols, even ones that are backed by good research are developed in relatively isolated conditions compared to the complexity of life out in the real world. The you of today is not the you of yesteryear nor is it the you that will exist in a year from now. Of course some things about your will be relatively stable (genetics, personality, etc.) but life could be completely different. The context of the living environment on the effectiveness of any given health protocol cannot be, well, should not be, overlooked.
Recently in a class on HRV a student asked a question about the effects of a slow breathing technique I'd mentioned in a previous class. The question was something to the effect of ,"If we do that breathing technique every day for five minutes a day, it will improve HRV right?" My answer, "It depends." I know that answer seems like a cop out and damn if I don't get sick of saying it. But it is the most honest answer I can give under those conditions. The word in his question I most particularly connected to was "will". "It will improve" is not something I could promise this man, even though the research that has been done on the particular protocol I'd mentioned had reliably shown improvement in HRV.
Why was I uncomfortable speaking with certainty? Because I don't have enough information about that individual to say so. Even if I did, Heart Rate Variability is subject to influence from a variety of factors. Our biology is constantly shifting in response to our environment and the stress (and even the potential of stress) it imposes on us. That means in any given week my diet, sleep, relationships, pain levels, and so on all have an effect on the total stress load of my body. The daily "balance sheet" of that stress load, for all intents and purposes is my HRV score. So with all of that effecting my money in the bank how will I know if a breathing protocol will be effective enough to buffer my account?
It won't be because Rob Wilson, or a research paper, or anybody else said so. It will be because you try it for yourself and measure it against an objective measurement, like HRV. The results you get whether positive or negative, will be a reflection of that specific application at that specific time. That's why I said, "it depends." But I also went on to tell this individual that the best answer would be found by experimenting for themselves and see what happens.
Try Again
Protocols offer us a place to start not a place to end up. They tend to be an average of inputs that a person or a group of people have found to be successful over time. But a static solution can never offer robustness to complex system like the biology of a human being living in the real world.
Instead of looking for easy answers, it's better to play with criteria for personal experiments that we run over and over again in an effort to learn more about ourselves and what health tools we can rely on most frequently regardless of conditions as well as what things might work for us under special circumstances. In my Check Engine Light classes I call these Proximal and Distal Tools respectively.
Try all the protocols under the sun. Just be clear about the conditions you're using them in and what you're trying to effect. Then try them again and again and again until you're in the land of forever. I hope that helps you find more clarity on how to use protocols you might find out there in marketplace of health and wellness.
Thanks for reading,
Rob