In an article that was published in October of 2010 in the journal “Psychological Science”, collaborating researchers from Harvard and Columbia Universities found that humans and animals can up-regulate (i.e. stimulate) the production of healing chemicals by intentionally assuming open, wide, spread out expansive positions and postures. For instance, holding the shoulder up and widening the chest muscles for as little as two minutes. In that short period of time, according to the researchers, you can drop your stress hormone levels and increase testosterone and other anabolic building hormones. All this can be done just by holding the body in certain positions.
When was the last time you went to a doctor’s office for your arthritis or osteoporosis or autoimmune or degenerative disease and had him tell you to keep your shoulder wide and open up your chest? Probably never, but strategies like these that can not only improve our ability to heal in a completely non-toxic fashion, but even more importantly, they can keep us from having to interact with an intrusive and ineffective medical model that has presided over the most dramatic increase in degenerative disease in the history of man.
Pictures this: a Chinese peasant is having a baby. She’s screaming and writhing with the pain all mothers have known since the beginning of time. A medical man comes into her room, sticks a couple of needles in a few strategic spots in her body and just like that her previously unbearable agony begins to lighten up. Within a few minutes her misery is but a memory.
Or how about this: my brother, addicted to his Camel Lights, tries without success, to quit smoking. Over the course of 15 years and countless attempts to kick the habit, he’s still hooked. Yet an alternative health care professional sticks a few needles in his ear and just like the addiction monkey is off his back he hasn’t touched a cigarette in over two decades.
Another woman with chronic excruciating pain following a car accident can’t recall the last time she’s had a full night’s sleep. To make matters worse the pain and sleeplessness have caused a generalized sense of anxiety and depression. Within several months of weekly acupuncture treatments, she feels less discomfort in her extremities. Her right side becomes much more flexible and her range of motion is dramatically improved. And, on top of that her anxiety lessens and her depression is gone. Her friends say she looks healthier and she seems like an all-around less nervous person.
While you probably know that you have a nervous system that controls the flow of the electrical energy in the body, as it turns out, you actually have two nervous systems!
One, which has been called the “fight or flight” system, is technically known as the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and it directs energy into the activities that keep us alive in emergency and life-threatening situations. The second, called the parasympathetic system (PNS) is involved with more long-term activities. The PNS is sometimes called the “the rest and digest” system and the more time we spend in this parasympathetic realm, the longer we will be alive and healthy. Or to put it another way the less time we spend in "fight or flight" mode the longer we will be alive and healthy.
Many of the signs of illness and disease reflect chronic SNS activation and overload. Cardiovascular health issues especially high blood pressure and blood clotting are classics signs of fight or flight. Same goes for immune system suppression and frequent colds and flues. Cold sores and other skin problems may indicate sympathetic nervous system has been kicking in. Constipation, cramping and digestive problems often mean the body is in survival mode. For women dealing with menopause, hot flashes, night sweats jitteriness and anxiety are also signs that the body’s SNS emergency system has been activated.
Back in the 1990’s SAM-e was popular as an antidepressant and energizer. Although its effectiveness may have been overstated, the fact remains that SAM-e can be a very important nutritional supplement for a lot of mental health issues, anxiety, bipolar disorder and depression. SAM-e, which was first discovered in the 1950’s, is involved in the production of the stress management hormone serotonin and the pleasure and reward brain chemical dopamine.
SAM-e, a derivative of the amino acid methionine, is a vital bio-chemical that’s involved in the healthy functioning of the brain and the nervous system. SAM-e is also required for helping keep the insulation of nerves resilient and intact. This insulation which is called myelin is required for keeping the conduction of electrical energy flowing smoothly. Movement disorders, neuropathies, paralysis, impaired vision, numbness, muscle weakness, difficulties with speech or with hearing, even incontinence and weak bladder control can all be examples of health issues that can be associated with myelin defects. SAM-e is made in the body so it’s not really technically “essential” but rather it is said to be “conditionally essential”. That basically means you don’t absolutely have to be ingesting it on a regular basis, but doing so might not be a bad idea!
On the TV show Star Trek, when the starship Enterprise makes the jump from regular cruising to warp speed, there’s a momentary jolt as the spaceship leaps to the higher, faster-than-light velocity. This type of bumpy ride is a boundary phenomenon and is always experienced as changes occur from one condition to another. Changes, after all, are never easy! This bumpy boundary “change” that occurs as one speed is changing to the next can be thought of as a type of membrane which is in essence an adjustment from one type of substance to another. Scientists call these substances “phases” and they refer to the change that occurs from one phase to another as a “phase shift”. Phase shifts can be thought of as transformations and anytime there is a transformation there is going to be a period of adjustment, hence the bump. And, that phase shift period of adjustment is chemically represented by what is referred to as the membrane.
This transition from the watery milieu inside a cell through the oily cell covering and into the outer cellular environment is regulated and facilitated by the chemical components of the membrane. And, of these chemical components, which include fats and proteins, none is more important than choline, a molecule that can have BOTH watery and fatty properties. This ambi-dextrous nature makes choline an ideal molecule for the membrane transition area.
