Stress and Disease Chapter 3

1
Stress and DiseaseChapter 3
2

• By comprehending that human beings are energy,
  one can begin to comprehend new ways of viewing
  health and illness.
• -Richard Gerber, M.D.

3
The Nature of Disease and IllnessA little
history

• Western medicine was forged by the Cartesian
  Principle
• Louis Pasteur All diseases are the cause of
  microbes. This later became known as The Germ
  Theory
• Claude Bernard Disease manifests in a poor
  environment ranging from poor eating habits to
  emotional distress
• Western medicine never bought into Bernards
  theory
• In the 1930s the term psychosomatic was coined
  to describe diseases and illnesses precipitated
  by mental/emotional aspects

4
The Nature of Disease and Illness

• Western science has not been able to fully
  demonstrate a concrete connection between stress
  and disease, though closer steps are slowly being
  made in mind-body medicine

5
Stress and Disease Connection

• Roughly 80 of all doctors office visits are
  related to stress
• Current research indicates that between 70-80 of
  all health-related problems are either
  precipitated or aggravated by emotional stress
  (e.g., type II diabetes, colds, flu, migraines,
  lupus, cancer, etc.)
• The body is the battlefield for the war games of
  the mind.
• Brian Luke Seaward

6
The Dynamics Between Stress and Disease

• To understand the relationship between stress and
  disease, one needs to understand that several
  factors act in unison to create a pathological
  outcome including
• Cognitive perceptions of a threatening stimuli
• Activation of the sympathetic nervous system
• Engagement of the endocrine system
• Engagement of the immune system

7
Psychoneuroimmunology

• A term coined by Robert Ader around 1980 to
  explain the integrative dynamics of mind and body
• Pelletier defines psychoneuroimmunology as the
  study of the intricate interaction of
  consciousness (psycho), brain and central nervous
  system (neuro) and bodys defense against
  external infection and internal aberrant cell
  division (immunology)

8
Changing Paradigms in Health and Disease

• While today there are many who still ascribe to
  the Germ Theory (and variations of it with DNA
  defects), new research continues to reveal that
  the biomedical model of health and disease is
  incomplete.
• Research into various forms of complementary and
  alternative medicine (CAM) reveal that the
  dynamics of illness and healing cannot be
  confined to the biomedical model (the body is a
  machine with parts to be fixed or replaced)
• The body is not comprised of many physiological
  systems, its one system!

9
Four Theoretical Models

• The Borysenko Model (immune system)
• The Pert Model (nervous system)
• The Gerber Model (psycho-mind)
• The Pellitier Pre-Model (piecing things together)

10
The Borysenko Model

• Borysenko outlined a dichotomy of stress-induced
  dysregulation and a matrix describing the immune
  balance regarding four classifications of
  diseases.
• Stress alters the vulnerability of the immune
  system to both exogenous and endogenous antigens
  (cortisol destroys white blood cells)
• Further research reveals that acute psychological
  stress decreases NK cell activity through a
  profound effect on cytokine production.

11
A Brief Exposure to the Immune System

• The immune system is a network of several organs
  throughout the body (e.g., bone marrow, thymus,
  spleen).
• Lymphocytes are one of many Leukocytes. Most
  noteworthy are the T-lymphocytes and
  B-lymphocytes.
• Only about 2 of lymphocytes are in circulation
  at any one time.

12
A Brief Exposure to the Immune System

• The family of leukocytes
• T Cytotoxic cells (T-cells that release
  cytokines)
• T-Helpers (CD4)
• T-Suppressors (CD8)

13
Borysenkos Stress and Disease Dichotomy
14
Borysenkos Immune Activity Matrix
15
The Pert Model

• Perts model, based on her research and others,
  strongly links the nervous system with the immune
  system.
• Various cell tissues comprising the immune system
  can synthesize neuropeptides to alter (- or )
  immune function.
• Various cells throughout the body (stomach,
  spleen, etc.) can also synthesize neuropeptides.
• Positive emotions can enhance immune function
  (molecules of emotion)

16
The Pert Model

• The Pert Model is supported and enhanced by other
  researchers including the work of Kiecolt-Glaser
  (Ohio State University).
• Medical students, stress and decreased immune
  response
• Stress and the decreased rate of wound healing
• Stress and the acceleration of the aging process
• Many other studies on stress neurophysiology

17
The Pert Model

• Whereas before Perts findings, it was believed
  that cortisol played the crucial role in
  immuno-suppression, it is now thought that
  structural changes in neuropeptides, influenced
  by emotional thought, play the most significant
  role in immuno-incompetence.

18
The Gerber Model

• Gerbers Model uses a holistic approach or
  systems-theory approach to health
• The mind is not a series of biochemical reactions
  in the gray matter of the brain. Rather, the mind
  is an energy comprised of both conscious and
  unconscious thoughts, that uses the brain as its
  primary organ of choice.
• This energy, a subtle energy, surrounds and
  permeates the body.

19
The Gerber Model

• Changes in energy, through changes in thoughts,
  affect the physical body
• Disease is a disturbance in the human energy
  field, which cascades through the levels of
  subtle energy to the body, via meridians and
  chakras.
• Disease doesnt begin in the body, it ends up in
  the body.
• We dont have a mind in a body, we have a body in
  the mind.

20
The Gerber Model (diagram)
21
The Gerber Model

• A brief lesson in Subtle Anatomy
• 1. The Human Energy Field
• (the human aura-electromagnetic energy)
• 2. The meridian energy system
• (based on Chinese medicine)
• 3. The Chakra energy system
• (based on Ayurvedic medicine)

22
The Gerber Model

• Stress-related symptoms that appear in the
  physical body are the manifestation of unresolved
  issues that have occurred earlier, as a result of
  disturbances at a higher energy level.
• Thoughts and perceptions and emotions which
  originate in the various layers of subtle energy
  cascade through the mind-body interface and are
  decoded at the molecular level to cause
  biological changes (disease) in the body.

23
The Gerber Model

• What puzzles health experts is why two people
  experiencing the same stressor can end up having
  different illnesses. When looked at though the
  Gerber Model, based on ageless wisdom of energy
  healing, perhaps this begins to make more sense.
• Gerbers model is also based on the contemporary
  work of Carylyn Myss, Donna Eden, Mietek Wirkus,
  Roslynn Bruere and others.
• Gerbers Model is now the primary focus of
  research involving various forms of CAM.

24
A Brief Lesson on the Chakra System

• Chakra Body Region Emotional Aspect
• 1. Crown Chakra Crown Spirtual issues
• 2. Brow Chakra Head Cognitive issues
• 3. Throat Chakra Thyroid Self-expression/
• Assertiveness

25
A Brief Lesson on the Chakra System

• Chakra Body Region Emotional Aspect
• 4. Heart Chakra Heart Anger issues
• 5. Solar Plexus Chakra Adrenals Anxiety
  issues
• 6. Naval Chakra GI Tract Self-esteem
  issues
• 7. Root Chakra Sex Organs Security issues

26
Support for the Gerber Model

• Electromagnetic pollution affects ones health
• MRIs are based on electromagnetic energy, quantum
  physics and the law of entrainment
• Military design of weapons based on human energy
  field
• CIA use of remote viewing based on non-local mind
  
• Scientific studies validate many aspects of
  Subtle Anatomy

27
Gerbers Model of Stress and Disease

• Thoughts are particles of energy. (Negative)
  thoughts are accompanied by emotions which also
  begin at the energy levels. As these particles of
  energy filter through from the etheric level to
  the physical level, the end result is
  immunoincompetence.
• -Richard Gerber, M.D.

28
The Pellitier Pre-Model

• In 2003, 15 years after he first created this
  pre-model, Pellieter stated that the Western
  medical model is still stuck in the old paradigm,
  not fully embracing the tenet of mind-body-spirit
  holism.
• Pellitier believes that a number of issues must
  be fully addressed and understood before a
  complete stress and disease model can be
  understood.
• Facts which fly in the face of the premise that
  the body is a machine and consciousness is a
  epiphenomenon of neurochemicals in the brain.
• These phenomena are commonly known as the Ghost
  in the Machine.

29
Ghosts in the Bio-Medical Model Machine

• These events leave people scratching their
  biomedical heads
• Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)
• Spontaneous remissions (e.g., cancerous tumors,
  etc.)
• Placebos nocebos (belief systems)
• Cell memory
• Subtle energy healings non local prayer
  healings
• Immunoenhancement

30
Conclusion Drawn from Pellieter

• The only logical approach to understanding the
  stress-disease/mind-body phenomenon is an
  approach in which the individual is considered
  greater than the sum of its physiological parts.
  One must consider the spiritual dimension of
  health and disease as well.

31
Target Organs and Their Disorders

• Initially or ultimately one or more organs in the
  body is the recipient of stress-based
  neurological and hormonal activity that causes
  wear and tear, to the point where it no longer
  functions optimally.
• Disorders, at the present time, appear to fall
  into two categories
• Nervous system disorders and
• Immune system disorders

32
Nervous System-Related Disorders

• Bronchial asthma
• Tension headaches
• Migraine headaches
• TMJD (temporomandibular joint disorder)
• IBS
• Coronary heart disease

33
Immune System-Related Disorders

• The common cold and influenza
• Allergies
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Ulcers and colitis
• Lupus
• Cancer