THE MIND/BODY CONNECTION AND IT'S INFLUENCE ON HEALTH
 

      The ability of the mind to influence the body has been well documented in medical literature. However, the mind/body connection is not a new concept. Its history dates back, at least, to Ancient Greece, where physicians recognized and explored the synergistic links between the two. Although this philosophy was never completely abandoned it had been largely ignored for most of the 20th century as medical science made its tremendous strides. However, beginning with the 1960's, the psychological and medical communities began to work together in an effort to understand, quantify and harness the marvelous capacity of the human mind to heal the physical body. Just as it would be foolhardy for a person to forsake traditional medicine in favor of the unconventional, so it would now appear of equal folly for both the medical practitioner and ill patient not to explore the non-traditional avenues that are now opening to us.

     Part of the mind's effect on health is direct and conscious. For example, we can consciously choose to take health enhancing actions such as eating right, maintaining proper body weight, quitting smoking, getting sufficient rest, exercising, reducing stress, etc. These decisions control about 90% of the factors that determine our state of health.

     The mind does not act only through our conscious choices, however. Many of its effects are achieved directly on the body without any awareness on our part. Every tissue and organ in the body is controlled by a complex interaction among chemicals circulating in the bloodstream, the hormones secreted by our endocrine glands. This mixture is controlled by the "master gland", the pituitary gland, located in the middle of the head just below the brain. The output of pituitary hormones, in turn, is controlled by both chemical secretion and nerve impulses from the neighboring part of the brain, called the hypothalamus. This tiny region regulates most of the body's unconscious maintenance processes, such as heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, temperature, and so forth. Nerve fibers enter the hypothalamus from nearly all other regions of the brain, so that intellectual and emotional processes occurring elsewhere in the brain affect the body.

     The hypothalamus and pituitary gland interacts with the limbic system which is directly below the center of the brain. The limbic system plays a role in the mediation of emotions. This limbic/hypothalamic/pituitary axis comprises the autonomic nervous system. The chemicals in the brain which control our moods, actions and perceptions are made not only by the brain but also by the immune system (as well as other systems of the body). This means that we have a clearly established cybernetic feedback loop between the central nervous system and other systems of the body. As a result, not only do psychological and emotional states affect the body in this loop, but the systems of the body in turn influence psychological states.

     Now, let's take a look at the immune system. The immune system consists of more than a dozen different types of white blood cells concentrated in the spleen, thymus gland, and lymph nodes, that patrol the entire body through the blood and lymphatic systems. They're divided into two main types. One group, called B cells, produce chemicals that neutralize poisons made by disease organisms while helping the body mobilize its own defenses. The other group, T cells, consists of killer cells, and their helpers, which destroy invading bacteria and viruses.

     Recent research has shown heretofore unknown nerves connecting the thymus and spleen directly to the hypothalamus. Other work has proven that white blood cells respond directly to some of the same chemicals that carry messages from one nerve cell to another.

     The immune system then, is controlled by the brain, either indirectly through hormones in the bloodstream, or directly through the nerves and neurochemicals. One of the most widely accepted explanations of cancer, the "surveillance" theory, states that cancer cells are developing in our bodies all the time but are normally destroyed by white blood cells before they can develop into dangerous tumors. Cancer appears when the immune system becomes suppressed and can no longer deal with this routine threat. It follows that whatever upsets the brain's control of the immune system will foster malignancy.

     This disruption occurs primarily by means of the "chronic stress syndrome." The mixture of hormones released by the adrenal gland as part of the fight-or-flight response suppresses the immune system. This was all right in dealing with the occasional threats our ancestors faced from wild beasts. However, when the tension and anxiety of modern life keep the stress response "on" continually, the hormones lower our resistance to disease, even withering away the lymph nodes. Moreover, there is now experimental evidence that "passive emotions", such as grief, feelings of failure, and suppression of anger, produce over-secretion of these same hormones, which suppress the immune system.

     We don't yet understand all the ways in which brain chemicals are related to emotions and thoughts, but the important point is that our state of mind has an immediate and direct effect on our state of body. We can change the body by dealing with how we feel.

     There are two ways in which we can get our minds and bodies to communicate with each other - through emotion and imagery. Emotions and words let the body know what is expected of it, and by vividly imagining certain changes we can help the body bring them about. Both emotions and imagery are transmitted through the central nervous system and may relate to work that Robert Becker, an orthopedic surgeon and researcher, has done. Becker studied the body's electrical systems. His work led directly to the use of electricity to heal broken bones that have failed to knit. Becker found that hypnotized patients can produce voltage changes in specific areas of the body on command. If these voltages control the chemical and cellular processes of healing, as Becker believes, then we soon may have a scientific explanation for hypnosis cures and the placebo effect.

 
            Mind/body therapies to potentiate physicl healing are usually of the so-called “altered-states” variety. An altered state of consciousness, (ASC), also named altered state of mind, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking beta wave state. The expression was used as early as 1969 and describes induced changes in one's mental state, almost always temporary. A synonymous phrase is "altered states of awareness". Examples of altered states therapeutic methods would be hypnotherapy, guided imagery, visualization and relaxation therapy. Hypnosis, however, has a unique advantage over other mind/body altered-states techniques above and beyond its capacity to elicit emotions and make imagery more vivid and powerful - and that is "Direct Suggestion". Properly worded direct suggestions to the subconscious mind enables it to actually order the body's immune system to fight and destroy invading cells, viruses, tumors, bacteria and so forth and to start repairing diseased or injured tissue, organs, nerves, bones, etc. and this is a very powerful and important advantage. The treatment of warts is a graphic illustration of the self-healing power. Believed to be caused by viral invasion, warts qualify as a "real" physical condition. They are visible, touchable and lasting. Yet they respond to hypnosis. It is one of the great mysteries of science that warts can be ordered off the skin through the utilization of direct suggestion under hypnosis.
   
     We've alluded to the fact that imagery is an integral part of the healing process. Anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss noted that much of folk medicine throughout the world is based on "psychological manipulation of the sick organ" by means of an extremely vivid image brought into the mind while the patient is in a deep trance. Dr. Carl Simonton adopted similar techniques after learning that users of biofeedback often were able to communicate more effectively with their bodies by means of an image than by directly trying to influence a certain organ or function. One woman, for example, learned to control a dangerous irregularity in her heartbeat by picturing a little girl swinging rhythmically on a playground swing.
 
     A 1984 study by Dr. Nicholas Hall of the George Washington Medical Center in Washington, D.C. found that imagery increased the number of circulating white blood cells and also the levels of thymosin-alpha-1, a hormone especially important to the auxiliary white cells called T helper cells. Thymosin-alpha-1 also helps produce feelings of well-being, showing that the immune system can directly affect one's state of mind, as well as vice versa.

     One rationale for mind-body regulation through imagery is that it elicits mental and emotional responses which generate chemical responses in the limbic system, thus activating the pituitary and bringing about physiological responses. These physiological responses are then perceived and responded to, in turn, completing a cybernetic feedback loop.

     To effect change in the system, it is possible to intervene anywhere inside of it. However, for us hypnotherapists, the easiest and most obvious intervention point is at the level of perceptions, emotions, cognitions or images. The hypnotherapeutic rationale suggests that for every change of the mind, emotion, body and spirit, there is a preceding or concomitant change on the conscious or the subconscious level. As a result, emotions, thoughts, behaviors, bodily reactions and automatic physiologic functions are all accompanied and/or preceded by an image which is possibly, but definitely not necessarily, visual. Our mental attitude is a powerful influence on our physical health. Attitudes and emotions can either act as a mighty shield against and heal us from illnesses of all kinds - from headaches to cancer or, conversely, can bring on all manners of aches, pains, illness and disease.

Dr. Bruce E. Kaloski

V.P. / Only Nature’s Finest

www.onlynaturesfinest.com

successtrak@earthlink.net