Objectives

• Every function and action of your body is in a delicate balance. This is achieved by every action being combined with an almost equal opposite reaction.
• The autonomic nervous system regulates your internal organs, and the two parts are the activating sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the calming parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).
• Sustained activation of the ANS causes illness and disease.
• There are ways of recruiting the PNS to counteract this process and heal.

The areas of the nervous system are named by location but are just different areas of one system. It consists of:

• Central nervous system
• Autonomic nervous system
• Spinal cord
• Peripheral nerves
• Sensory receptors

The autonomic nervous system

Every aspect of it is equally as critical for survival. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates all the internal organs and chemical balance of your body. It is named as such because all of its functions are automatic. A few of its actions include regulation of:

• Heart rate
• Bowel and bladder function
• Regulation of acid/ base balance
• Respiration
• Sweating
• Blood pressure
• Immune response
• Level of alertness
• Rate of metabolism (energy consumption)
• Electrolyte balance

There are two parts to the ANS that are constantly active and counterbalancing each other – the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) systems. The SNS is often referred to as the physiological gas pedal. Its role is to activate your body’s defenses to fight off threats of any kind. The threats can be physical, mental, or emotional. For this discussion, we’ll categorize societal threats under physical threats. The threats may be real or perceived, but your SNS will respond in a similar manner.

Activated

This activated physiological state is called, “Flight or fight”. When your body is exposed to prolonged elevations of inflammation, metabolism, and stress hormones, different physical and mental symptoms will be manifested. When it is sustained, people develop serious illnesses and diseases, including chronic pain. The late phases of SNS activation are called, “freeze or faint” where there is systemic collapse of bodily functions. It is the body’s final survival attempt.

Calm

The most effective way of combatting and preventing chronic disease is to stimulate the PNS, which has the opposite effects of being anti-inflammatory, lowering metabolism, stimulating regenerative hormones, and calming the nervous system. The PNS is the physiological brake pedal. Remember that both the SNS and PNS are both almost equally active most of the time to maintain an incredibly delicate balance (homeostasis).

Your body has to be in a regenerative state of safety in order to heal and replenish itself. It is the common denominator of the various effective healing approaches and there are many ways to achieve this state. The foundation of the calming PNS effects is the vagus nerve. It is the 10^th cranial nerve that originates in the midbrain, below your main body of the brain. It is connected to every internal organ in your body, including the immune system. Recruiting and reinforcing the vagus nerve is the most powerful way of inducing a relaxation response to counteract threat physiology.

Inducing relaxation – breath work

Research suggests we can induce this relaxation response of the PNS through various breathing exercises. Some of them include:

• Voluntary relaxed slow breathing exercises (e.g., diaphragmatic breathing and alternate nostril breathing and applications of mindfulness practices.¹
  • Engaging in slow breathing exercises during stressful experiences (mental or physical) at a rate of 6-10 breaths per minutes helps optimize ventilation gases, arterial oxygenation, gas exchange. Higher arterial oxygenation stimulates the PNS.
  • Given the evidence and benefits of slow breathing exercises on health and well-being, and decreased mortality in diseased states, it is surprising that the medical community has not prescribed this effective and simple tool as part of a standard care of medical treatment for those struggling with acute and chronic diseases. Slow breathing exercises are a vital part of optimizing health.
• Slow long exhalations especially linked with deep short inhalations
• Alternate nostril breathing
• Breathing slowly through your nose – also stimulates Nitric Oxide release, which is powerfully anti-inflammatory.
• Meditation with deep breathing. Try using a counting method (such as 4 counts breathing in and 4 counts out; or 4 counts in, hold for 7, and release for 8); alternating nostril breathing (block one nostril while breathing in and the other nostril while breathing out); or just focus solely on your ²

Other PNS recruitment strategies

• Quiet humming – stimulates the 7^th cranial nerve at the back of the throat, which is close to the vagus nerve
• Certain relaxing pitches of quiet music like a lullaby stimulate the 8^th cranial nerve, which is also near the vagus nerve.³
• Other calming activities will stimulate the PNS
  • Mindfulness/ meditation
  • Biofeedback/ medical hypnosis
  • Visualization
  • Slow-movement martial arts

Understanding that using these tools directly effects your flight or fight response, helps you to engage and use them daily. Again, this is working with your physiology and the effect on your psychological state is secondary. Your physiology is what determines your mental state. It is desirable to stimulate the PNS as much as possible.

Recap

One of the basic premises of successfully solving chronic pain is taking control of your own care. One step deeper is directly stimulating the calming effects of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). There are multiple ways of making this happen, with breath work being one of the most accessible and it works quickly. However, you are addressing just one aspect of the body’s response to stress, which is the physiology (output). It is temporary and just part of the solution.

Addressing the input and the state of your nervous system are bigger picture strategies, but it is critical to have easy and direct access to your PNS.

 Questions and considerations

1. Have you wondered why techniques such as breathing, mindfulness, meditation and soft music are effective in calming you down? It is because they directly stimulate the ANS.
2. These tools are only part of the solution, but a critical aspect of it. It is helpful to be able to quickly calm your body’s threat response. You can bypass hours of misery.
3. Part of the flight or fight reaction is elevation of inflammation throughout your body, including your brain. Your nervous system is hyper-reactive, and your sense of peace and well-being is gone. Your physiological makeup is a driving force behind your mental state.
4. The good news is that you have many ways to recruit the PNS through addressing the input, the nervous system, and output. You can regain control of your health and life.

References

1. Mason H, et al. Cardiovascular and respiratory effect of yogic slow breathing in the yoga beginner: what is the best approach? Evid Based Complement Alternat Med (2013); 2013:743504. doi:10.1155/2013/743504.
2. Zaccaro A, et al. How breath control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiologicalcorrelates of slow Frontiers of Neuroscience (2018); 12: 1-16.
3. Vickhoff, B, et al. Music structure determines heart rate variability of singers. Frontiers in psychology (2013); 4: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00334.

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The root cause of disease

Two aspects of this sequence determine the expression of symptoms. One is the magnitude and duration of your stresses (input), and the other is the reactivity of your nervous system. There are three possible outcomes (output) – safe, neutral, or threat. Living creatures are in the neutral zone most of the time and gravitate to safety whenever possible to rest and regenerate.

The perception of danger (threat) causes the nervous system to send signals to prepare for battle and wage it if necessary. The common term is, “fight or flight,” and your body’s response (activated) is intended to feel unpleasant enough (anxiety) to compel you to take action to resolve the situation. The goal is to remain in this agitated state for as short a time as possible. But what if you cannot solve the problem and you’re chronically fired up? Your body stimulates even more of a response to regain control, and you are hyperactivated (angry).  Unpleasant sensory input progressively impacts your body at three levels.

• Response
• Symptoms
• Illness/ Diseases

When the threat is short-lived your response will be appropriate to the situation and quickly disappears when it has passed or resolved. Almost every internal and external action of your body is automatically directing you in a manner, so you don’t feel many unpleasant sensations. It is called the nociceptive system. If you do sense danger, you are programmed to resolve it immediately. Examples are looking away from the sun, spitting out rancid food, pulling your bare foot back from hot pavement, frequently shifting in your chair to avoid skin breakdown, and avoiding predators.

When threats are prolonged, you will experience symptoms such as back pain, tension headaches, anxiety, poor appetite, nausea, urge to urinate, sexual dysfunction, burning sensations, skin rashes, dizziness, ringing in your ears, and insomnia. There are over 30 different physical and mental symptoms that can occur.²

When threats are sustained, you have a significant chance of becoming seriously ill or developing a disease. It is well-documented that chronic stress kills people and unfortunately the symptoms of an illness or disease also add to the threat load. This is particularly true in chronic pain.³

Dynamic Healing Overview

The nature of your body’s physiology under threat

Environmental cues of threat set off a defensive response. Immediately, before you are even aware, your immune system girds for the possibility of injury by initiating inflammation (to protect cells against invaders (bacteria, viruses, cancer cells), elevates metabolism to provide fuel for defense, increases the speed of nerve conduction–which increases your alertness but also your pain sensitivity, and elevates the levels stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, histamines). Much of this defensive state is modulated by small signaling proteins called inflammatory cytokines.

So how do you think you feel when you are in this physiological state? Your heart is racing, you are sweaty, tired, anxious, overwhelmed, nervous, stomach feels tight, blood pressure is elevated, pain is worse, and your breathing is rapid. The bottom line is that you don’t feel great when your body is in this heightened neurochemical state. Are these symptoms imaginary? Not a chance. None of them.

Defining threat

Examples of physical threats include viruses, bacteria, being attacked by a predator – human or animal, hunger, lack of shelter, poverty, lack of opportunity, being bullied at work or school, racism, authoritarianism, trapped in a difficult living or family situation, and physical maladies.

Mental threats are processed in a similar manner as physical ones with the same physiological response.⁴ They are more problematic in that humans have consciousness, many of our thoughts and emotions are unpleasant, and unlike visible threats like tigers or a severe storm, we cannot escape our thoughts. Repressed thoughts and emotions are even more impactable on your body’s neurochemical state. Many of our unpleasant thoughts are based on cognitive distortions or “stories” about our lives. Unfortunately, whether the threat is real or perceived it has the same deleterious effect.⁵

Systematically addressing the root cause – circumstances versus coping capacity

First, it is always important to undergo a medical workup to make sure there is not a structural issue such as vascular disease, pinched nerve, tumor, or an infection.

Second, regardless of the findings of the workup, maintaining your body’s metabolic, immune, and nervous system balance is important. If you require a procedure, your odds of a good outcome will be maximized.

Third, all three aspects of chronic illness must be addressed. Here are some examples of interventions for each one.

Input (what are you uploading into it and what are you holding onto?)

• Forgiveness
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Expressive writing
• Never discussing your pain or medical care

State of the nervous system (calm or hypervigilant)

• Exercise
• Sleep
• ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy)
• Processing prior trauma

Output (physiological profile – safe, neutral, threat)

• Breath work
• Mindfulness/ meditation
• Humming
• Vagal stimulation
• Certain pitches of music

Finally, you must take charge of your own body and health. Chronic diseases are complex, and you are unique. You are the only one who can figure out a solution. The first step is understanding the nature of chronic disease. The solutions lie In implementing strategies that address the root cause of disease and lower inflammation,⁶ which destroys tissues throughout your body. It is more doable than you think. Not taking charge may have severe consequences.

Modern medicine is continuing down the wrong road

Modern medicine is mainly addressing symptoms. This approach works well when there is an identifiable structural problem that can be fixed. But the vast majority chronic illnesses/ diseases result from being in a prolonged fight of flight state and structural approaches cannot and do not work. The burden of chronic disease continues to rise without an end in sight.¹ Why do we continue to travel down the same road?

The tragedy is that It is an eminently solvable problem at a fraction of the risk and cost. There is  deep data revealing the common neurophysiological nature of chronic mental and physical diseases. Most of modern medicine is ignoring it.⁷ A significant percent of interventions have no supporting data. Integrative medicine and similar approaches are much better at systematically addressing the dynamic interaction between a person and his or her circumstances. Treating symptoms is necessary but won’t definitively heal you. The more accurate term for current “mainstream medicine” is “disintegrative medicine.”

Dynamic Healing Medicine

Dynamic healing medicine requires listening and knowing you. Feeling safe positively affects your neurochemical profile.⁶  It is important to understand both your circumstances (input) and your coping skills (nervous system resilience) to develop a healing relationship with your provider.

My book, Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain,⁷ provides a foundation and framework to understand and implement your own solution to chronic illness.

The DOC Journey course and app are frameworks that reflect updated neuroscience research. They include a guided course, videos tutorials, webinars, and access to supportive group sessions. We have been delighted that we have been able to provide clearer explanations for chronic mental and physical pain and allow patients to more quickly find their way out of The Abyss.

Join us in bringing Dynamic Healing into mainstream awareness.

References:

1. O’Neill Hayes, Tara, and Serena Gillian. Chronic disease in the United State: A worsening health and economic crisis. Americaactionforium.org; September 10^th, 2020.
2. Schubiner H and M Betzold. Unlearn Your Pain, 3^rdMind Body Publishing, Pleasant Ridge, MI, 2016.
3. Smyth J, et al. Stress and disease: A structural and functional analysis. Social and Personality Psychology Compass (2013);7/4:217-227. 10.1111/spc3.12020
4. Eisenberger NI, et al. An experimental study of shared sensitivity to physical pain and social rejection. Pain (2006);126:132-138.
5. Burns, David. Feeling Good. Harper Collins, New York, NY, 1980.
6. Porges, Stephen. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe. Norton and Co, New York, NY, 2017.
7. Hanscom, David. Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain. Vertus Press, Seattle, WA. 2016.

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The post Dynamic Healing first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Dynamic Healing appeared first on Back in Control.