andreamarie
Senior Member
- Messages
- 195
Sorry re spelling. I'm upset. The study is described as investigating the Mind/Body connection. I feel like they are just laughing in the face of any serious research.
...Its unfortunate that the Wessley's of the wordl have forced us back into this old Cartesian mind/body duality and that we immediately get on the defensive when the brain is mentioned. After all the brain is just one of the parts of the body that allows us to act and interact with our environment.
Given robust objective outcome measures - who can complain if it is shown to have some benefits (and yes I do appreciate the politics).
Hate to be the odd man out here but I do believe that there are a number of common techniques that can help alleviate the symptoms of any disease and there is a fair amont of evidence implicating an abnormal stress response in ME. That doesn't rule out another organic causal, precipitating factor nor does it suggest the Gupta programme can deliver a cure.
If you read Gupta's original paper (can't find the link at the moment) he is taking about structural changes in neural connections to the amygdala, that is structural organic changes, and isn't the amygdala pat of the body?
Its unfortunate that the Wessley's of the wordl have forced us back into this old Cartesian mind/body duality and that we immediately get on the defensive when the brain is mentioned. After all the brain is just one of the parts of the body that allows us to act and interact with our environment.
Given robust objective outcome measures - who can complain if it is shown to have some benefits (and yes I do appreciate the politics).
I agree. The two don't have to be in opposition ie brain/miind vs body. The brain IS part of the body and they do influence each other both ways too. I though Gupta believes that a virus or toxin injure the amgydala, which would be a physical thing?
Good comment, last I checked the brain was considered a physical part of the body. Although I find it strange that Gupta took such a narrow view of the 'reprogrammed stress response' problem. Really it is the hypothalamus that would be implicated in that situation, or the amygdala+hypothalamus combination. But the amygdala has been a hot topic the past few years.
And I like that point that the over-emphasis on the stress aspect of ME/CFS has forced many people to regress to a physical-only explanation. They must then ignore the past 30 years or so of systems biology, the emergence of integrated views of how the mind/body duality really works. There is no voodoo in that, the mind literally can change the physical structure of the brain, and the environment can influence the way the mind works, thus stress matters, and is probably involved in triggering many chronic health problems, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. And much of our stress response is programmed in during childhood, so if as adults we end up in some situation or environment that is perpetually stressful to us personally, we have little to say about how we will respond, the body just reacts based on early life programming. Add to that genetic immune and detox abnormalities and a high pathogen load (the famous 'flu-like illness') and the combination can rewire the brain, via the hypothalamus. Really, I think the amygdala is just the gate-keeper, it is the hypothalamus that creates the dysautonomia.
I've also followed Ashok Gupta's Amygdala Retraining Programme. I can honestly say that it opened my eyes to how negative my general attitude was. I didn't think I was a negative person until I started to methodically examine my thoughts. The programme is not a quick fix. It takes a certain amount of discipline and commitment to get to a better place. It's about taking responsibility for yourself and your health.