Stress, Brain Function and Health
In the last issue we talked about how Ishta Spinal Touch can be used to reduce
the amount of stress on the body. If you missed it you can read it
here. The following piece has been extracted and edited
(by us) from a much longer piece written by Tom Sloan who sells amazing
hammocks. We thought
it was an interesting follow-up piece.
Nature, acting through the process of evolution, seldom discards anything
that is useful and has survival benefit. Unfit life forms or adaptations
tend not to reproduce after their own kind, and eventually become extinct.
As the growth of animals developed over the ages intelligence developed with
them. Starting with just a small clot of cells sensitised to light or movement
clustered around one end of a body, the brain evolved into what we regard
as its lofty eminence today. It is not something, however, which merely exists
to produce abstract thought and inventions. Rather, the brain is responsible
for the maintenance of all life functions.
Stress, Brain Function and Health
Nature never throws away a working apparatus, so in a way we carry within
us the brains of every life form on our family tree, beginning with the brain
stem itself which we share with the early amphibians and reptiles. This part
of the brain evolved five hundred million years ago, and is primarily concerned
with the most fundamental life process of the organism, such as breathing,
heart rate, and awareness of possible predators or food sources. This level
of intelligence was, and still is all that is necessary for life in the seas
and marshes. In a certain way we are considered to be alive, albeit on a
vegetative level, if only the brain stem were operating.
Life is tougher on land, and greater mental organisation is necessary to
survive. We share with all other mammals the limbic system of the brain which
is primarily responsible for maintaining homeostasis. Homeostatic functions
include body temperature, blood pressure and blood-sugar levels; all functions
designed to maintain the life processes in the interior environment of the
body.
But the limbic system, or mammalian brain as it is sometimes called, is involved
in far more than homeostasis. It is also the seat of the emotions and the
organising centre for our response to the environment. While the reptile
may fight with cold fury to protect itself and its territory, mammalian life
forms exhibit far more intricate patterns of territoriality, emotional pair
bonding, and passionate responses to life, including decisions to flee or
fight.
Within the limbic system is the hypothalamus, the brain of the brain, which
regulates body temperature, eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, hormone balances,
heart rate, sex and emotions. Through its control of the pituitary gland
the hypothalamus also controls the glandular activity of all the body functions.
All this activity and these decisions are made by parts of the brain that
can carry on completely without any conscious thought.
Conscious thought is the responsibility of a relative newcomer, the cerebral
cortex, which has evolved within the last fifty million years, and is the
distinctly human part of our brain. Language, perception and intelligence,
which we regard as our most human attributes, therefore, take up only a small
portion of our brain's functioning, while the vast and intricate processes
of life continue without the need for any conscious thought.
It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that all these brain functions
do not interrelate. The brains within brains are intimately conjoined and
interactive. The cerebral cortex itself, which is divided into right and
left hemispheres, communicates with itself via the massive corpus callosum.
Information is stored within the brain in an almost web like fashion so that
while one area may be predominantly occupied with one function, redundancies
and scattered filings keep the brain functioning in the event of damage to
one area.
The significance of this system of operation to our health is profound. Since
our brain systems are not isolated from one another, events that happen on
one level of functioning can and do affect processes on other levels of
functioning. When we worry about decisions we made yesterday our brains go
into a stress mode which affects hormones that affect glandular secretions
that affect or depress the immune system, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
Thoughts of joy or comfort as we rest in the love of our families can trigger
endorphin responses that contribute to our well being. Knowing this, we can
see that if we can affect the brain in a positive way we can do the same
to our health.
Stress and the Immune System
Let us take a look then at the factors which most affect our immune systems.
Throughout the evolutionary development of our brain system, our ancestors
were continually subject to alarming and exciting events which required immediate
attention. During these acute moments of stress a survival system evolved
which involved the raising of blood pressure and heart rate, the suppression
of pain, the increasing of muscular tension, and other physiological stimuli
that prompted our ancestors to violent combat or headlong retreat.
These highly adaptive and successful responses to acute stress are not helpful
in dealing with endemic low level chronic stress. The brain's response to
these real or perceived threats to its survival acts to keep us in an
inappropriate stress state almost all of the time. In this stress state the
vital production of neurotransmitters is negatively affected, which can
compromise our immune functions. Left to continue at this level we can become
increasingly prone to a host of ailments. The only real antidote to these
ill effects is in finding ways to release or relieve the stress.
There was a time in the prehistory of humanity when stress events happened
episodically, and the body could recover in between times. In the historical
period of mankind there has been what could be described as a baseline of
tension as the social interactions of the species became more frequent, more
crowded, and more difficult. As the twentieth century progressed the baseline
stress level rose dramatically from that experienced by a rural person in
the early decades to the constant bombardment of stressors experienced by
the modern urban dweller. In the twenty first century this trend is accelerating.
Consequently the remedies to stress have been harder to find and harder still
to effectively enact.
Is Ishta Spinal Touch the answer?
The human spine follows the laws described in physics for the semi-flexible
rod. This means that if a supple rod is anchored at both ends any curve or
adjustment applied in one area will have an equal and opposite affect somewhere
else along its length. The spine has its centre of gravity in the pelvic
girdle and its centre of balance in the head. Since the brain is given the
job of making sense of the world, it goes to any length to preserve a level
visual plane. When the centre of gravity is displaced and the head holds
steady, the spinal column is increasingly contorted leading to increased
tension in the postural muscles. Attempting to remedy the situation by spinal
adjustments is bound to fail if the same tension remains to do its on going
work of distortion.
The more stress a person is under the greater the forces of imbalance are,
and the stronger is the need for a remedy. A person who is in this state
of stress is said to be bio-mechanically out of balance with gravity. Simply
put, this means that the body will lean to one side and may actually be heavier
by five, ten or twenty pounds on that side. If a person in this condition
of imbalance were to walk the several miles we walk in an average day there
would be a huge differential in the amounts of work done by each side of
the body. This puts great strain on the musculo-skeletal system, exacerbating
the other problems in that person's bio-mechanical and physiological challenges.
It is clear that a lot of the energy that the body has to do useful work
with is tied up in waging an uneven war against gravity. Almost 90% of the
nervous energy that the body devotes to the motor nervous system is involved
in this struggle to remain upright. Releasing that energy to do other work
such as healing can have tremendous positive consequences to the immune system.
Next step is to stop the mind
On the physical level then, as the Ishta Spinal Touch nullifies the recipient's
stress response, the negative effects of imbalance are reversed. The tense
muscles on one side relax, and the flaccid opposing muscles regain their
tone. The recipient is then able to enjoy a relaxed and balanced stance.
If we can maintain this level of balance over time the deleterious effects
of imbalance in the bodies systems can be restored by the innate intelligence.
On the mental level, equally profound changes are occurring. As we have a
difference in the signals reaching each hemisphere of the brain due to postural
distortion, we can get a lateralisation of brain activity. This in itself
can lead to unbalanced thinking and mental response as the two different
hemispheres control somewhat different thought processes. Leaving one hemisphere
with increased energy decreases the functionality of the other.
If, for example we are among the 90% of the population who are left brain
dominant, the analytical, rational, linear sides of our minds would be emphasized
over the feeling, creative, and sensitive sides of our minds. If we are locked
into the right hemisphere, the reverse would be true. In either case whole
brained integrated approaches become more difficult.
That would be bad enough, but it is not the whole story. Not only do we lock
into one hemisphere, we move out of the cerebral cortex into the limbic system,
where survival mechanisms, territoriality, and other non-rational behaviours
dominate. Further, our energy shifts to a part of the rear brain known as
the locus coeruleus, which is a localisation of the fight or flight response,
as well as being the repository of much of our negative programming and
experience.
When our energy is located in that area our self talk is highly negative.
In fact, Nobel Prize Laureate, Alexis Carrel studied the nature of our self-talk,
and discovered that over 95% of it was negative. This is highly reflective
of the stress states that most of us are in most of the time. In bringing
recipients out of that stress state Ishta Spinal Touch, therefore, enables
us to be holistic in our thought patterns, less negative in our self talk,
and more fully human in our mental activities.
Summary
To summarise, the ongoing stresses of our time act continually to keep us
locked into inappropriate mental and physical conditions. We are polarised
in our mental functions, and bio-mechanically out of balance with gravity
in our physical functions. These conditions have a negative effect on our
thoughts and happiness and are injurious to our health and well being. An
Ishta Spinal Touch alignment takes us out of the stress state and normalises
our body-mind relationship. |
