We get sick in stages: there is a waterfall relationship between the immediate impressions of a situation; to what with time becomes a more chronic, physiologic imbalance; to what eventually becomes a true pathological (illness causing) change. An example: if I have an sudden shock or scare, then heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tone will naturally all go up, but they should all gradually relax and return to normal over the course of a few hours. That would likely change if a shock or scare began to happen every day, then soon the body's steady state changes, it gets reset—perhaps to a place where there are persistent challenges with falling asleep, or painful tight muscles that become the norm. And if my “reset” physiology stays imbalanced long enough we meet irreversibly illness, like a heart attack, a tumor, or high blood pressure that cannot be brought down. Most medical interventions happen in this third stage,though obviously working to change the process earlier (upstream) is a more ideal, and potent place to work.