It probably seems like an oxymoron to title this post “stress and placebo healing.” Stress and healing seem at opposite ends of a continuum. But the HPA axis generates both stress and healing. It is key to lowering stress and starting to heal.
Adrenal Glands
When the adrenal glands atop the kidneys release adrenaline, activating the sympathetic nervous system, pupils dilate, heart rate increases, and muscles tense. You may tremble as respiration quickens. You are proverbially ready for a fight or to take off in flight.
Worked for Caveman, but when you get into a hassle with your spouse or partner, not a good idea to fight, and not so good to take off running. So you stand there as cortisol stress hormone races through your system egging you on to attack. Awful feeling triggering stuff that ends up news.
Autonomic Nervous System
The way you feel is shaped by the autonomic events in your body. That is why Valium works as a muscle relaxant and anti-anxiety drug. Stanford University Primatologist/neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky suggests this is the clearest example of William James’s body-first theory of emotion. Valium relaxes your muscles and though you are still in the same stressful situation, your body is so loose that your brain tells you that things are not bad at all. Your muscles relax and your brain interprets this as relief of anxiety.
The autonomic reactions in your body to a remark or event that angers you comes on lightning speed, but is slow in recovery back to baseline. This is what makes it so difficult to get a hold of yourself and take back control. You feel the unpleasant autonomic changes and it feels like it requires a reaction. Road rage and other seemingly irrational acts are examples of this high speed escalation.
Stress and HPA Axis
Perception of a Threat
The hypothalamus (H) sits at the base of the brain. It is one of the smallest parts of the brain, weighing only 4 grams of the 1400 gram human brain. But the hypothalamus controls the production of many of the body’s essential hormones, chemical substances that help control cells and organs. The hypothalamus’s primary function is homeostasis, to get us back to and maintain a state of balance.
The hypothalamus signals the pituitary to signal the adrenal glands.
The pituitary (P) gland sitting at the bottom of the hypothalamus weighs in at a featherweight 0.5 grams. Hormones secreted from the pituitary gland help control growth, blood pressure, sex organs, thyroid glands, kidneys, metabolism, temperature, and water/salt.
The pituitary gland is known as the master gland. It signals the adrenal glands (A) atop of the kidneys to secrete a number of hormones into the bloodstream. One of them is cortisol, a stress hormone. Cortisol gives us that first burst of energy when we encounter a stressor, preparing us to fight or flight.
You are walking at night. Something jumps out at you. Your hypothalamus signals your pituitary gland to release glucocorticoids, which are hormones. In response, the adrenal glands release cortisol and adrenaline to help the body increase heart rate, breathing rate, and blood glucose levels to boost energy.
Mindfulness
When Robert Sapolsky, neuroendocrinologist, and his wife who is also a scientist argue, they say to each other to remember the half life of the autonomic system. They are reminding themselves not to prolong the argument because of the discomfort they feel in their entire body even though the argument is over. This helps them not to get in the downward spiral that many couples find themselves in sometimes on a daily basis.
It requires mindful monitoring of subtle cues: quickening heartbeat, uncomfortable queasiness in the stomach — like signs before a seizure– and overriding the urge to act on them. When you are mindful of bodily cues, it is a start to changing your response to the cues.
Mindful monitoring is difficult to do when you are in the midst of a conflict if you have not been practicing on a regular basis. You don’t need to sit and take time out to meditate, though it may be difficult to mindfully meditate without focused practice.
Mindful meditation, or nonjudgemental focusing of attention, helps over time to become aware of how your body is influencing you emotionally. If this is a chronic and severe problem, the right medication can help moderate the nervous system and offer moments to make a rational cognitive shift, rather than viscerally reacting.
Open-focus exercises and attention-training therapy are two structured paths to mindful meditation. I will continue to cover both methods in future posts, as well as ki breathing and meditation.
Related ( to Hypothalamus ) Journal Article (For science geeks only)
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
