PsychoNeuroImmunology (PNI)
The Biology of Thought
© 2003 Theresa Lorraine

In my last paper, I wrote about the direct correlation between PTSD and fibromyalgia. I said, basically, that as the trauma continued the brain changed in such a way as to create chronic pain. If our brains changed once, can we not change them back again? Well maybe. I'm not convinced we can be who we were before the trauma but I am convinced we can change again. It was thought and experience that changed us once. Cannot thought and experience change us again? No one else is in charge of our thoughts. We are in complete control of those. No one, no experience can dictate how we chose to see the world. Experience can be devastating and others around us can be cruel. Our bodies can go south on us and we can live in excruciating pain but in the end, we are the only one who thinks our thoughts; in fact, we are the only ones who are even privy to most of them unless we choose to let others in on what we are thinking by speaking those thoughts out loud. Sometimes the only control we have in life is what we choose to think.

Psychoneuroimmunology is the emerging science of the interaction between the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems and yes, thought. Basically, what the field of PNI tells us is that every part of our immune system is connected to the brain some way, whether it is through the nervous system or the endocrine system. Our brains secrete hormones in response to our thoughts. According to Jaime V. Pitner, MICP, RHC (Dealing with Thoughts http://www.hypnocenter.com/del_pitner.htm), thoughts can come from almost anywhere, the conscious or the unconscious mind. Consciously we may be exposed to an external stimulus, in a conversation with someone, reading, TV, or consciously reviewing things in our mind. Once the initial thought presents itself in our conscious mind, our unconscious mind (always doing what it thinks we want to do) tries to help us by presenting additional related thoughts, memories, and feelings. 

Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg of the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine has used several types of imaging systems to watch the brains of subjects as they meditate or pray. By measuring blood flow, he determines which regions are responsible for the feelings the volunteers experience. The deeper that people descend into meditation or prayer, Newberg found, the more active the frontal lobe and the limbic system become. Relaxation produces the chemical norepinephrine with which low levels are implicated in depression. A mirror image to the stress (fight-or-flight) response, a "relaxation response" has been identified which may enhance immunity. The relaxation response was discovered and named by Herbert Benson, M.D., and his colleagues in 1974. They were studying a pattern of physiological changes that occurs in people practicing transcendental meditation (TM).

This pattern of changes has been found to represent a very beneficial state, one that is virtually a mirror image of the stress response. The relaxation response includes the following changes:

* Reduced blood pressure
* Reduced respiratory rate
* Reduced heart rate
* Reduced oxygen consumption (burning of fuel)
* Reduced blood flow to skeletal muscles
* Reduced perspiration
* Reduced muscle tension

For most of us dealing with PTSD and/or fibromyalgia, money is a challenge. Paying for a course in Transcendental Meditation, consulting alternative therapists or attending workshops is often beyond our means. I believe it's our minds that mold our brains. We can be in control of our minds free of charge. It's our thought that moves the neurons and acts as a catalyst for growth. Men through history have believed this but never had the technology with which to prove it. We are now at the point where we have proof that thought does indeed bring about sometimes astonishing changes in our bodies.

I can hear you now, ”Oh that mind-body connection stuff again. I tried it and I didn't see a difference". The thing is, we're not often aware of the differences. And we're not always aware of just how to use our minds to get better control of our bodies. Norman Cousins wanted to know the why's and the how's in a more scientific way too and out of that need to know was born the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) at UCLA. Here, doctors have used the tools of the medical trade to actually measure what our minds can do. They've measured the change in body temperature, heart rhythm, pulse rate, and blood pressure that are a result of the thoughts people are thinking. They proved that there really are physical changes that take place. They measured the blood of experimental subjects before and after specific mental exercises and saw the differences that couldn't be "explained away". Now we know with substantial proofs that what we think really does affect what our bodies do. This is helpful on several levels. It explains to a certain extent "faith healing". It explains what the terrible experiences did to us (those thoughts are powerful too). And it also supports that we can "think ourselves" well. The trouble is how? How many of us have ended up feeling even worse about who we are and what our circumstances are by trying to "think ourselves well" and failing? Not only that but can we think ourselves all the way well? Are there permanent conditions that will never change? Yes, I think there are permanent disabilities that will always be with us. For example: I think those of us with fibromyalgia will always have it. What I believe we can do, however, is think ourselves through the rough parts of it. I think the weather may always affect my knees. I think therefore, that when the barometer is falling, I need to spend more time in meditation in order to release more enkephalins (our natural pain relief, compliments of our brains). Does this mean I shouldn't take medicine or supplements or do physical therapy? Not on your life, or mine either. It means we need to be watching our attitude about ourselves and our lives, doing all that we can do to learn to be in charge of our minds while we also do that which the doctors have advised. I don't see that it's at all constructive to refuse to take magnesium if my body is deficient in that mineral while I try to "think" my body into working efficiently without the magnesium. Why not just take the pill? The problem I've seen in an awful lot of papers and books on positive thought and the mind-body connection is that there doesn't seem to be any common sense in its application.

Those of us who deal with both PTSD and Fibromyalgia can profit from some of the mental and spiritual exercises that have been proven to bring about real physical changes. The catch 22 we must NOT fall into is that we are failures if we don't become towers of physical strength and paragons of perfect health. If we get the flu, it's not because we've failed. Perhaps the fact that we heal from that flu is due to the effort we've put into strengthening our immune system. If we wake up one morning to find we're in an awful flare, it's not because we failed. Perhaps we'd not be walking at all by now if we hadn't become more vigilant about the thoughts we have been thinking. If we fall apart in the grocery store with a panic attack and have to leave the store and make our way to the safety of our home, we haven't failed. How many more panic attacks would there have been if we hadn't been watching our attitudes and thoughts. Would we even have gotten to the store in the first place? It took a long time for each of us to get where we are today. Are we not going to give our bodies the same amount of time to rebuild? When I started doing this kind of work, I gave myself 3 years to see remarkable differences. Now since I was only 15, 3 years seemed a life time. It was the little things I began to see after only a few weeks, that kept me going for the full three years, and then on for the rest of my life to date. I gave up all this "alternative stuff" when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, thinking it hadn't been working. The longer I went without making sure there was time in the day for relaxation and meditation the stronger the influence of the fibromyalgia and PTSD became. I've just begun to change my habits back to the good ones I had as a young woman but I'm not expecting to be healed when I wake up next Tuesday. It doesn't work that way. I'm expecting to love my life and enjoy what I can enjoy next Tuesday though, with or without the Fibro.