The Body Doesn't Lie by Vicky Vlachonis Read Free Book Online

illness—they see and feel the body’s reactions to these releases and we can tell how the organs are functioning even before any illness shows up in other symptoms or tests. Stone calls the spine a “window on the internal environment of the body.” 13
    These reactions are related not only to the internal organs and their dysfunctions but also to how our tissues interact with those organs. If you have a knot in your tissues, or the bloodflow to a specific area has been blocked, all the healthy communication between different parts of your body will be disrupted. This communication breakdown can make normal movement and function difficult, if not impossible—which is when the system starts to shut down. That’s the point at which people tend to sprain their ankle, or break their arm, or get those nagging pains in their lower back—exactly the pains that bring people to see me. Often those patients want the pain to simply go away, but it’s not that simple.
    The nervous system has many different parts, some of which are entirely beyond our control, and some of which we have direct or indirect control over. We have the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and the spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system, which houses the nerves and connects the central nervous system to the rest of the body. One part of the peripheral nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, plays a large role in the work of many organs and guides important functions such as our breathing, heartbeat, salivation, and sweating. The interplay between two subsystems of this autonomic nervous system—the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)—is what defines our individual response to stress. Rick Hanson, author of Hardwiring Happiness , calls the SNS the accelerator and the PNS the brake of your autonomic nervous system—together, they determine how keyed up and how mellowed out we are, both on a moment-by-moment basis and overall. 14 The SNS and PNS systems, depicted in figure 1, are highly influenced by both the amount of stress in our lives and how we react to it.
    Let’s look first at the sympathetic nervous system. The SNS is the engine of what evolutionary biologist Paul Gilbert calls the “drive system.” 15 Evolved to get us ready for stressful encounters—whether eons ago with a bloodthirsty tiger or now with a worthy opponent on the tennis court—the Adaptive Response uses the SNS to raise our heartbeat, shoot up our blood pressure, and make us breathe faster. We experience a feeling of intense interest, and excitement courses through our entire body. This “drive” reaction happens when we experience challenge on the job, or take delight in our sport team’s win, or anticipate a sexy date, or feel our stomach flip at the thought of the looming April 15 tax deadline. Whenever we need to hit the gas pedal and go, the SNS helps us do so.
    Now, if triggered only occasionally, and for positive reasons, the “drive” response of the SNS can be fun and thrilling—our brain and body are motivated, focused, and rewarded with a natural high of accomplishment. Triggered too often, though, or in situations that feel dangerous or threatening, it becomes what Gilbert calls a “threat” response—one that is totally draining and depleting, and that hastens our downward slide into Negative Feedback. Instead of taking either the fight or the flight option, we freeze. Our nerves are shot; we become paralyzed instead of motivated. We simply don’t have the capacity to sustain constant triggering of the go-go-go of the SNS, so the whole nervous system wears down.
    Figure 1. Schema Explaining How Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Nervous Systems Regulate Functioning Organs
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    The master control panel, the place where all of these threat signals come together, is called the HPA axis. This axis encompasses the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands. All messages that