The Science of Mind Body Medicine

This page is an exploration into some of that research and a clear demonstration of how what we think and feel often winds up as a physical reality in our bodies.

What is Emotion?

For example, you can’t separate panic from the elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate and intestinal contractions that occur during the experience. The feeling and the physical response happen all at once.

Emotions include what we normally think of, i.e., the common emotions such as happiness, anger, fear, sadness, joy, contentment and courage, etc.

And also, the basic “drive states” such as hunger, thirst, and a desire for sex as well as, more abstract states such as spiritual inspiration, awe, bliss and other unexplained states of consciousness.

Scientists now believe that emotions have been part of our evolution from the beginning because they were essential for our survival. The emotions that we think of as "positive" like happiness or bliss reinforced certain behaviors by rewarding us with "good" feelings.

While the "negative" feelings like sadness or fear discouraged other behaviors by making us experience unpleasant or unwanted emotion. In their natural state both of these "positive" or "negative" states tend to be self-limiting. The body turns them off rather quickly.

The Anatomy of Emotion

Molecules of Emotion

Think of receptors as lily pads floating on the surface of the cell with roots that reach deep into the cell’s interior.

There are hundreds of thousands of different receptors on the surface of every cell. A typical nerve cell may have millions on its surface. Receptors function as sensing molecules. They are, essentially the sense organs of the cell.

Each receptor has a chemical which fits into it, a process know as “binding”. These chemicals are called “ligands”, something like a key which fits into the key hole.

Once binding occurs. Information enters the cell.

Ligand

Neurotransmitters: acetycholine, norepinephrine, dopamine, histamine, glycine, GABA, and seratonin. These are generally made in the brain and carry information across a gap between one nerve and the next.

Steroids: testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen. These all start as cholesterol and get transformed by a series of biochemical steps into a specific kind of hormone. For example, Cortisol is converted by enzymes and secreted by the adrenal glands when you are under stress.

The last group, 95%, are peptides. They are ubiquitous and play a role in almost every life process. They are made of tiny pieces of protein, long recognized as the first materials of life.

Pharmaceutical drugs are also forms of ligands. Some, like Vicodin bind directly to receptors (opiate).

Peptides-Informational Substances

Recent research has revealed that each and every peptide no matter where it was discovered is actually made in many parts of the body. Receptors for them have been found on the immune system, the central nervous system and the endocrine system.

An entire new field has developed around these discoveries, called PNI, which stands for psycho-neuro-immunology. Doctors and scientists in this field study the relationships between the mind, the nervous system, the immune system and endocrine system.

A Radical Departure

Further research in this area done by Micheal Ruff, Sharon and Larry Wahl and Candace Pert demonstrated that immune cells make, store and secrete neuropeptides.

In other words, the immune system is making the same chemicals that control mood in the brain. This is why your state of mind can affect your immunity to certain diseases. We now understand that patients who are depressed often also have a depressed immune system.

How Does This Work?

Dopamine (a peptide) creates intense energy, exhilaration, focused attention, and motivation to win rewards. This is why love makes you act boldly and spontaneously, and why you are more inclined to take risks, etc.

In fact, they say it is a good idea to do something adventurous, like ride a roller coaster, on a first date because it stimulates dopamine.

Prozac, on the other hand, jeopardizes one’s ability to fall and stay in love. It dulls feelings and libido, too.

Over time, the dopamine-drenched state of romantic love gives way to the relative quiet of an oxytocin induced attachment. Oxytocin is a hormone (peptide) that promotes a feeling of connection, and bonding.

Drug use is also another example of this. Amphetamines and cocaine amplify what is known as the pleasure center of the brain (locus ceruleus), blocking the reuptake of another peptide, norepinephrine.

This area of the brain when electrically stimulated causes people to ignore the need for food and sleep in a frenzy of pleasure and excitement. Sex and drugs are often intimately linked because this same area of the brain is affected.

This doesn’t just happen in the brain and nervous system, neuropeptides are found not only in the nerves on either side of the spine, but also in internal organs that the nerves connect to.

How do Emotions, Memory and Experience Become Physical?

They term these concentrations “nodal points” or “hot spots” to emphasize that they are places where information converges. All sensory information undergoes a filtering process.

The efficiency of that process is determined by the quantity and quality of the receptors at these nodal points. Those are determined by many things; your experiences yesterday and as a child, what you ate for breakfast.

These concepts of the physical connection of emotion to the body is one of the principle ideas in Chinese Medical Theory. The ancient Chinese doctors mapped these emotional and sensory connections. Acupuncture utilizes these ideas and recognizes the intercommunication between the body, mind and soul.

Can You Acess This System?

Research by Rider and Achterberg (1989) is now beginning to suggest that individuals could focus on a particular immune cell (in this study neutrophils or lymphocytes) and change that cell type significantly.

Information was transmitted directly to the cells. In further studies (Rider et al, 1990) 2 groups were analyzed and told to focus on Immunoglobin A (IgA)(an important immune cell found in breast milk).

The first group was directed to use imagery to increase IgA levels. The second group was not directed. After 3 and 6 weeks the directed group had significantly higher levels of IgA.

This suggests that we can increase the strength of our immune system simply by visualizing it. Our thoughts really do have a direct effect on our physiology.

In addition, techniques such as biofeedback have been used for years to consciously change physical problems through deliberate, conscious thought.

Can You Access the Mind Via the Body?

Chinese medicine utilizes this principle. As does yoga, massage, hypnosis, etc.

There is also an emerging field termed “Energy Psychology” and one of its techniques is called Emotional Freedom Therapy or EFT.EFT is a powerful vehicle for mental and emotional transformation via the physical body.

Western science is finally beginning to understand what ancient masters have been saying for centuries, that the mind and body are deeply linked and, physically, we are literally the sum of our experiences.

These discoveries are only the tip of the iceberg. It is exciting to think what lies ahead because the more we understand these connections, the better able we are to find ways to heal ourselves consciously, without the need for mind and body altering drugs or other "primitive" interventions.