What is PNI (Psychoneuroimmunology)
The study of the intricate connection between the conscious thought (Psychology), brain and central nervous system (Neurology) and the body’s defense against infection and cell division (Immunology)
demonstrating that stress, depression, anxiety, insomnia and other nervous conditions common in today’s society may all have detrimental effects on immune function.
It has been well documented in healthy individuals that changes in immune function and disease susceptibility are correlated with times of “psychic distress.”
Fear cycle (trauma loop)
The fear cycle or trauma loop starts as a real or imagined fear which creates adrenaline resulting in reduction of oxytocin, which creates tension in the body which causes pain or illness which perpetuates the anticipation of more pain which creates more fear and thus the cycle repeats until it is interrupted repeatedly which breaks that trauma loop stuck in the body. This takes practice and specific tools to learn how to interrupt the cycle as well as to learn your triggers and recreate new neural pathways in the brain to extinguish the pathways that the brain has already created for you as a result of long term stress in the body. I have mentioned the physical effects of long term stress in the body in the last video, the amount of symptoms and dis-ease in the body is phenomenal.
When something triggers our fear response in our brain we move into one of 5 stages of response
The most common people hear about are the fight or flight response, but there are more responses that people are less aware of.
Fight: Facing any perceived threat aggressively.
Flight: Running away from the danger.
Freeze: Unable to move or act against the threat.
Fawn: immediately acting to try to please another to avoid conflict
Faint: The body’s mechanisms are exhausted and the person collapses.
So as you can imagine throughout the pandemic we have all been exposed to a prolonged period of stress, whether real or imagined. So many questions we are faced with on a daily basis and the constant bombardment of fear driven into our minds eventually creates a pattern of fear thus changing the brain and creating a host of issues.
The Vagus Nerve: Your nervous system has two speeds. The sympathetic nervous system which is the fight or flight reaction, automatically helps you accelerate and avoid danger, or provides a burst of energy to combat perceived dangers. The Parasympthetic nervous system is the rest-digest-heal process that slows down the body and shifts it into a response of calm and allows for recover and repair after the danger has passed. The gearshift between the two, is the vagus nerve. If the vagus nerve doesn’t properly communicate, your body cannot stay in a state of balance which then creates feelings or symptoms of pain, fatigue, brain fog, stress, anxiety, depression, autoimmune issues, as well as a number of neurological disorders.
80% of the time we should be in the parasympathetic stage. Almost all disease and dysfunction within our bodies result from not being able to drop into the parasympathetic state. Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt found compromised vagus nerve function in more than 95% of his chronically ill patients.
The parasympathetic state performs these tasks:
- reduces inflammation
- eliminates toxins
- boosts immunity
- reduces depression
- decreases anxiety
- relieves pain
- improves gut health
- boosts energy
- increases adrenal health
- improves heart health
- increases muscle strength
- alleviates trauma/ptsd
- balances blood sugar
- relieves insomnia
- regulates appetite
- strengthens memory
If your parasympathetic nervous system is working at less than optimal levels, you could experience such symptoms as:
- dry mouth or eyes
- clenched or grinding teeth
- lump in throat or difficulty swallowing
- acid reflux
- bloating or burping after fried or fatty foods
- poor digestion
- slow bowel movements
- digestive disorders such as leaky gut, IBS or irritable bowel, SIBO or Crohns
- floating stools
- not being able to tell if you are hungry or full
- frequent urination or incontinence
- difficulty relaxing
- tendency for anxiety
- episodes of a racing heart
- tense muscles especially around the neck and shoulders
- sleep problems, insomnia or nightmares
- low libido or erectile dysfunction
- cognitive dysfunction, ADHD or autism
- brain fog
- easily startled
- chronic inflammation or infections
- sensitive to bright or flashing lights
- migraines, dizziness, tinnitus or vertigo
- high or low blood pressure
- tendency for depression
- vitamin B12 deficiency
- low vitamin D or other nutrient levels
- anxiety/depression/panic attacks
- chronic fatigue
- autoimmune conditions
- fibromyalgia or chronic pain
- thyroid disorders
- weight gain
- heart disease
- diabetes
- cold or heat sensitivity
What we can do to get more into the parasympathetic state: A recent systematic review evaluated the different therapeutic and/or clinical psychoneuroimmunology – based interventions including tai chi, yoga, meditation, acupuncture, mindfulness, religious/spiritual practices, cognitive behavior therapy, coping, and physical exercises. Those interventions were also associated with reduced inflammatory processes in cancer, HIV, depression, anxiety, wound healing, sleep disorder, and fibromyalgia.
A holistic rehabilitation approach is key to successful outcomes.
As epigenetics research by Bruce Lipton shows, the mind does have a profound effect on the health of the body! Statistics have shown time and again that we have the power to activate our DNA into healing modes if we just know the tools to do so. Only 1% of dis-ease is genetic, the other 99% of dis-ease is due to unconscious programming as a result of trauma. We can change that programming. Our unconscious mind records everything, it is always alert and awake, it controls 95% of our lives, it is built upon habituation, it speaks to you in dreams, it has no verbal language, it takes everything literally, it can do trillion things at once, it is not logical it’s the feeling mind, and it is one million times more powerful than the conscious mind.
Psychologist Dr Ryke Geerd Hamer was a German Ex physician who studied 20,000 cancer patients and found unresolved trauma was the leading cause of all types of cancer, he discovered this because a few years after the loss of his son he was diagnosed with cancer and theorized the correlation of which he set out to study and the findings backed up his theory. This created a lot of controversy in the medical industry however because this discovery threatened their very profits which is why to this day the medical industry still has not found a cure for cancer, it’s a billion dollar industry, there’s no money to be made in a cure.
In my book and on my website, I explain more in-depth tips and tricks that assist with a process called neurohacking in which the old neural pathways that are causing the fear and trauma loop get interrupted and this begins to strengthen the parasympathetic state which reduces the frequency of whatever issues you are dealing with, in my case it was debilitating chronic pain to the point of being in and out of wheelchairs, which I was able to overcome in a matter of 6 weeks. If you aren’t programming and creating your own pathways, who is?
