Psychosomatic Phenomena

Certain symptoms are psychosomatic. In medical terms, a psychosomatic illness is one caused or made worse by unresolved emotional or psychological issues. The entire topic is also related to our personality, emotions, and stress (or how we deal with life issues in general). Such psychosomatic issues may be the greatest avenue on which the vehicles of illness move. One study cites psychosomatic complaints as the cause of most doctor visits in the nited States. It is estimated that these misunderstood and misdiagnosed medical conditions account for about !"# billion in healthcare costs each year in the nited States. $octors and patients ali%e have come to better understand how the mind and emotions affect physical illness. In &arch "##', the (merican )oard of &edical Specialties decided to create a medical subspecialty in psychosomatic medicine. The designation is intended to foster more specific training, easier identification of e*perts, and improved insurance reimbursement. +aiser ,ermanente, California-s largest health maintenance organi.ation (/&O) with millions of members, has launched a program that uses mind0body techni1ues to help people deal and cope with chronic health conditions. It has proved so effective that it was made available for free to its members and some non0members beginning the spring of "##'. The si*0wee% class teaches mind0body strategies to control symptoms and improve health. $avid S. Sobel, director of patient education at +aiser ,ermanente, states, 2I-m surprised it has ta%en medicine so long to recogni.e what is obvious3 how single0minded and relentless we have been in reducing and separating mind and body in medicine.4 (ccording to $r. Sobel, as many as 5# percent of people who visit doctors show signs of significant psychological distress resulting from or manifesting themselves as physical ailments. &any people still do not understand psychosomatic medicine, often mista%ing it for imaginary illnesses. 6ew hospitals and doctors %now where to send patients who may need psychosomatic care. Insurers often don-t pay for such treatment, and even doctors aren-t sure what methods wor% best for specific illnesses. Scientists now have proof that a strong mind0body connection e*ists. Studies have revealed that many people who have illnesses li%e heart disease also suffered from an underlying depression and that this creates a vicious cycle. The physical ailment creates emotional depression, which creates stress that worsens the physical ailment. 7hat-s most important to understand is that the proper attitude can increase survival time for people with terminal illnesses. 8*periments have shown that alternative techni1ues such as meditation, guided imagery and even prayer can alter the course of illnesses, decrease symptoms, and reduce hospital stays and medication.

27e can-t argue against these anymore, and we can now say that almost everything becomes psychosomatic,4 said &arc Schoen, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the niversity of California at 9os (ngeles. ,sychosomatic conditions are real disorders that are caused or e*acerbated by one-s mental or emotional state. They can include3 (. Symptoms caused by psychological distress, such as stomachaches that occur in a child who doesn-t want to go to school. ). $isease that results from and whose course is influenced by unhealthful behavior. (fter years of battling asthma, &artha, a forty0four0year0old e*ecutive, found out that when she got upset and angry her asthma got worse. 9ater she learned to use self0hypnosis and imagery to rela*, and as a result gained much relief. The need to use psychosomatic medical principles in everyday health is greater now than ever, e*perts say. &ore emphasis on the psychological impact of illness might help patients comply better with treatment and reduce hospitali.ation and rising healthcare costs. Some doctors, however, avoid attempts to apply mind0body medicine by appearing to blame the patient for his or her symptoms. This can be especially true in disorders that are poorly understood and difficult to diagnose, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. nfortunately, the effort to ma%e mind0body medicine available to everyone has been hampered also by the lac% of insurance coverage. 2There is no coverage for stress management unless there is some sort of definable mental disorder you can attach to it,4 according to $r. Schoen. ,sychiatrists hope that approval of the new psychosomatic subspecialty will lead to better reimbursement rates by insurance companies and more inclusion of its treatments. The insurance industry-s position ignores what is now overwhelming evidence that people fre1uently get better faster and spend fewer healthcare dollars when their treatment encompasses their behavior, thoughts, and feelings. If a new drug produced these %inds of effects, wouldn-t the insurance companies cover it:

A Few Powerful Proofs

Several studies over the past few years have demonstrated how strong the lin% can be between the mind and the body. ;. Italian researchers writing in the Journal of Rheumatology reported that depression levels in si*ty patients with osteoarthritis in the %nee were a better predictor of the patients- disability and pain than was the e*tent on their %nee damage. ". niversity of 7ashington researchers found that in two hundred patients with heart disease, measures of an*iety and depression better predicted patients- health status one year after cardiac catheteri.ation than did the severity of narrowing in the coronary arteries.

'. ( $u%e niversity study of one hundred heart disease patients found that rela*ation, cognitive therapy, and lowering of anger and an*iety reduced the ris% of further heart problems by <= percent compared with people given the usual medical care and medication. >. In a niversity of California at $avis study, '=# patients about to undergo surgery were randomly assigned to listen to one hour of different audiotapes before and after surgery. The group that listened to a tape with guided imagery, music, and specific suggestions regarding diminished blood loss and rapid healing had >' percent less blood loss and spent one less day in the hospital compared with those who listened to other %inds of tapes.

How Emotions Affect the Body

?ecently researchers have found that the hypothalamus, located in the base of the brain near the pituitary gland, has many connections with the limbic system. The limbic system is the part of the brain that controls the emotions through the nervous system and the pituitary gland, which in turn controls the rest of the body-s function and movements. /ormones, the chemical messengers secreted by the hypothalamus, travel to the pituitary gland, where they regulate the release of other hormones. To date, eight of these hormones have been identified. The discovery helped establish the lin% to brain activity that can produce hormonal changes that profoundly affect many physical functions, including the immune system response. (gain, that activity comes from a part of the brain that is influenced by emotions, which are also controlled by the limbic system. In his boo%, Quantum Healing, $r. $eepa% Chopra points out that this collaboration between the different parts of the body, which is carried through the cell-s intelligence, cannot e*ist without a source to interact with, which is the mind. Study of this uni1ue connection has resulted in the discovery of numerous collaborating phenomena. 9et-s loo% at some e*amples and scientific case studies. Multiple personalities. &any cases have been studied and verified, particularly by $r. )ennett )raun, a research psychiatrist and specialist in this field. /e observed that as each personality manifests itself@ rashes, warts, and even scars might appear or disappear, along with such disorders as hypertension and epilepsy. If a particular personality was colorblind, normal sight returned when the patient adopted another personality. &any of the patients that he observed manifested a child0li%e personality, and when it emerged, their bodies responded to lower doses of drugs. 6or e*ample, five milligrams of a tran1uili.er made one patient, while in his child persona, rela*ed and sleepy, yet twenty times that dose did not affect the adult personality. The Siamese twins case study. ( bi.arre form of Siamese twins was born in ?ussia in ;A=#. They had four arms and three legs but could stand on only two of them. One leg was controlled by one twin and the second by

the other twin (the third leg was too short and hung behind them in the air). Their upper intestine was separated and they shared a lower intestine and rectum. They had four %idneys and one bladder and often disagreed on when to urinate. They shared a common reproductive system. )ecause their circulatory systems were interconnected, they shared each other-s blood. Therefore a bacterium or virus that entered one twin-s bloodstream would be in the other-s. Surprisingly, however, illnesses affected each differently. 6or e*ample, one became ill with measles while the other did not. If the virus was in both of their bodies and in their shared blood shouldn-t both have gotten sic% at the same time: Obviously, there is more to getting measles than Bust having a germ inside. This phenomenon was repeated over and over with flu, colds, and other childhood diseases. (ll were e*perienced differently. 7hy: ?esearchers continue to search for answers to such seemingly impossible occurrences. I believe that these answers can be found in the mind0body connection, the personality, and the inherent intelligence of the cells. Cow let-s loo% at another so0called mystery. Spontaneous remission. Scores of cancer patients have been told that no hope e*isted for them, but their cancers went into spontaneous remission, causing 2the disease4 to disappear suddenly, leaving the medical profession baffled. /ow is such an occurrence possible, and how does the body heal cancer: 7here does it go when it disappears: Is it a fortunate coincidence, sheer luc%, or a miracle: ( maBor study of four hundred of these miraculous cases, later interpreted by 8lmer and (lice Dreen of the &enninger Clinic, found that all these patients had one thing in common3 every person had changed their attitude before the remission occurred, finding some way to be hopeful, courageous, and positive. 6or the most part, the human body is designed to be self0sufficient and to have both a built0in self0destruction and self0healing mechanism. 6or e*ample, in cases of cancer and diseases that involves neither viruses nor bacteria, our own cells multiply uncontrollably and mutilate them. These forms of diseases are called autoimmune syndrome, which can occur in many forms. Scientists have been wor%ing furiously to devise a new drug that will tell the cells not to stop what they are normally doing (in other words, to behave) and to reverse the process, such as in autoimmune diseases li%e arthritis and cancer. (s noted, they have had success only in one form of leu%emia. 7hat do you thin%: Can we stop that process, reverse it, and create spontaneous healing ourselves: In order to obtain the answer to this important 1uestion, one needs to understand how the mind and body communicate, and what we are made of that can ta%e care of these huge and complicated healing tas%s. )en ?affi www.brea%throughissues.com