“Julie, Do you recall our January
3, 2013 posting on the Introduction to Risks and Fears?”
“I do, Curmudge, but what does that have to do with Part 2
of the Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine? (1) Hey, you promised that we would discuss that this week.”
“We will. Just
stick with me.”
“I’ve been with you for 6-1/2 years, Old Guy, so I’m not
leaving now. Let’s return to Risks
and Fears. As I recall, at least
hypothetically, I came face-to-face with a grizzly bear when we were hiking in
the Rockies. I jumped, and my
heart ‘leaped into my mouth.’ It
was a virtually instantaneous reaction; no thinking was required. You described it as my ‘flight or
fight’ response, starting in my brain’s thalamus and moving in milliseconds to
my amygdala.”
“You’ve got it Julie, as usual. Now let’s put me in a similar fictitious but illustrative
situation. At one time earlier in
my life I believed that I almost died from eating a contaminated
strawberry. As a result of that
extremely unlikely experience, I ‘flip out’ whenever I see a strawberry. I become fearful and have a ‘blue funk’
for the rest of the day. Dr. Sood
at Mayo’s would characterize my ‘blue funk’ as a state of mindlessness in which
the threat existing in my mind far exceeds that in the real world.”
“Your experience with the strawberry, Curmudge, resembles
mine with the grizzly bear. The
strawberry triggered the ‘flight or fight’ reaction in your brain. So once again, after over 100 words,
what does this have to do with alternative medicine?”
“Here’s the connection, Dear Colleague, quoting Amit Sood,
MD, from p. 95 in the Mayo book: ‘Impressive advances in neuroscience research
have brought to our attention a startling and exciting discovery—the mind can
change the brain. Software can
indeed transform the hardware. Training
our mind using mind-body approaches can soothe the limbic areas of the brain
such as the amygdala…’ ‘This
literal rewiring of the brain by our recurring thought patterns and experiences
is now popularly recognized as neuroplasticity.’ “
“Voila! That’s the link we need, Professor, to
soothe your amygdala and your ‘flight or fight’ reaction when you see a
strawberry. No more blue funk, and
we’ll be able to put strawberry shortcake on the menu again. Of course, I must be careful not to
lose my primordial fear of grizzly bears.”
“As an aged-but-still-somewhat-functional scientist, I
remain puzzled by how this ‘brain reprogramming’ occurs. You’ve read the Mayo book too,
Julie. Can you quote or paraphrase
more from pages 96 and 104 of the Mayo book that might improve my understanding?”
“Coming at you, Chief.
‘The system responsible for the flight-or-fight response is the
autonomic (involuntary) nervous system.
It regulates many body activities, including heartbeat, perspiration,
breathing, and digestion. The
autonomic nervous system is divided into two parts, sympathetic that mobilizes
the body into action (flight-or-fight) and parasympathetic that creates a
“rest-and-digest” response.
Current research is focused on understanding how meditation and related
techniques can reduce the activity of the sympathetic system and increase the
activity of the parasympathetic system.’ “
“My interpretation of what you just said, Julie, is that we
don’t know exactly how meditation
makes that work. However from other reading
one can conclude that it does
work. ‘Positive emotion may be a
skill which can be achieved with training similar to learning to ride a bike or
play the piano.’ But I bet it’s
not really as easy as learning to ride a bike.”
“We don’t have to rely on just the Mayo book and Wikipedia,
Old Guy. For one really interested
in this topic, there are several books that go into it more deeply than we can. Norman Doidge (2) reviewed the experiments that established the
validity of neuroplasticity.
Applying neuroplasticity and meditation to personal problems is
described by Sharon Begley (3) and in several books by Jeffrey M. Schwartz
(4-6).”
“One can discern the theme and contents of these
publications just by reading their reviews on Amazon.com. An outstanding example is the review of
Sharon Begley’s book by Barbara
Rose, Ph.D. You know, Julie,
these books look so inspiring that I might try some of that meditation
stuff.”
“Knowing you, Ancient One, you’d probably just fall asleep
while meditating. And then there
are people who might just naturally reject meditation or allowing themselves to
be hypnotized. Then what?”
“These people might try tai
chi (‘moving meditation’) or qigong and achieve
comparable results. There’s a
technique for everyone in mind-body medicine.”
“What about the other mind-body medicines in the Mayo
book? Although the most space is
given to meditation, there are ten other techniques, from biofeedback
(alphabetically) to yoga.”
“We can’t talk about all of them in a blog, Julie. In my own case I wouldn’t be too
selective about the technique; I‘d seek the best coach who had the most success
with strawberry-phobia.”
“I’m sure you are aware, Old Guy, that Part 2 of the book
also has sections on Energy Therapies, Hands-on Therapies, and Other
Approaches.”
“We’ll mention some of those in our next posting,
Julie. Don’t go away.”
Kaizen Curmudgeon
(1)
Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine,
Second Edition. (2010, Mayo Foundation for Medical
Education and Research).
(2)
Doidge, Norman The Brain That Changes
Itself (2007).
(3) Begley, Sharon. Train Your
Mind, Change Your Brain (2007).
(4) Schwartz, Jeffrey M. and Begley,
Sharon The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force (2003).
(5) Schwartz, Jeffrey M. and
Gladding, Rebecca You Are Not Your Brain
(2012)
(6) Schwartz, Jeffrey M. and
Beyette, Beverly Brain Lock: Free Yourself from
Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior (1997)
Link to posting from blog archives: Patient Safety—Epilogue 3/12/09
