“A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”
– John Steinbeck

What if you could understand a connection between your brain and your body that is the key to managing your chronic illness? 

For example, pain has long been considered a physical reaction to an injury. But while the injury may cause pain, it is never the only reason we hurt.  Science teaches that pain is felt when the nervous system responds to tissue damage:  an injury occurs, a message goes to the spinal cord, and on to the brain, which registers the pain. This understanding of pain as only a response to tissue damage is incomplete. We now understand that our bodies and our minds work in tandem, and there is more to pain than the physical feeling.  

Deb Shapiro writes in her book, Your Body Speaks Your Mind, of having an upset stomach when she was a child and being asked by her grandmother if she was having a problem at school. “What she knew instinctively, we are at last beginning to prove scientifically:  there is an intimate and dynamic relationship between what is going on in your life, and your feelings and thoughts, and what happens in your body.”

We come from the “factory” with an array of responsive mechanisms in our body and brain. One prepares us for coping with sudden, frightening, or dangerous events:  the sympathetic nervous system. Its role is to mobilize body resources for danger—the fight or flight response. When the SNS is dominant, certain body functions are restricted (salivation, digestion, and gut motility), while others are given extra resources (adrenaline production is stimulated, the heart rate is increased, blood vessels are constricted, air passages are dilated, and sweat glands are stimulated).  

The other responsive mechanism is the parasympathetic nervous system—the rest system. When it’s dominant, the heart rate slows, blood pressure falls, digestive organs work smoothly, and the immune system is optimized.

The sympathetic nervous system mobilizes our body & mind for emergencies, offers those same resources for ongoing stress, and maintains the “household.” The parasympathetic nervous system calms our body and complements the sympathetic nervous system. It’s easy to see that when the sympathetic nervous system is on high alert (hyper-tension) for an extended period of time—as it can be when we are in chronically stressful situations—there is less time and energy for the body to be at rest. 

Here’s our reality check: chronic illness automatically puts the body in chronic stress. But some situations we describe as stressful turn out not to stress the mind or body unless we think of them as negative or fearful. Have you ever anticipated a future event with dread and become anxious just thinking about it? It hasn’t even occurred, and your sympathetic nervous system is responding—producing adrenaline, increasing heart rate, constricting blood vessels, dilating air passages. Wow! You might be saying, the relationship between the mind and body is a powerful one.

Dr. Christiane Northrup compares our control over physical issues with being on a turbulent flight. “You have no control over the winds, or the skills, or the mental state of the pilot flying the plane. But you do have the power to minimize your discomfort. You can decide to read a book, strike up a conversation with the person next to you, wrap up in a warm blanket, sleep, listen to music, or watch a movie. Alternatively, you can listen to every engine noise and allow yourself to be debilitated by worry the entire flight. It’s your choice.”

As you can see, the mind-body connection has huge implications for those of us with chronic illness. We have a choice of how we react to stimuli. Our actions—thoughts, activity, daily habit patterns —can either increase our perception problems or lessen their impact.  It doesn’t mean we pay no attention to it, and the pain subsides. It’s about making choices that influence brain chemistry, which in turn controls our experience.

What surprises many of us is how our mental status either increases our pain or helps to lower our perception of it. After becoming aware of the body’s reaction to emotion, many people see a connection between their depression and chronic pain, anxiety, and a pain flare. Taking personal responsibility for managing our pain can prevent us from falling into the hopelessness and depression often associated with chronic pain.

Thoughts are processed in the cerebrum, and feelings are “layered” with thoughts in the cerebrum’s limbic system. The hypothalamus gland acts as a bridge between these areas. So, when we have a negative thought or when pain or stress is experienced, the hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary gland to release the hormone adrenaline. Look at the list of body responses to adrenaline release:  

• increased heart rate
• elevated blood sugar
• suppressed immune system
• increased breathing rate
• a rise in blood pressure
• stomach acid secretion
• constricted blood vessels
• increased muscle tension.  
  

All of this from just a stressful thought! This is the fight or flight system turned inward. When the body is continuously flooded with adrenaline, organs are under chronic stress.  Instead of the body addressing daily requirements, it is reacting to an ongoing emergency (likely what happens in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The mind-body connection in action: think negatively about our pain, and a negative emotion is produced. Do you identify with some of the following examples?

Beverly Thorn observes:  “Since the brain processes our thoughts and emotions, it makes sense that thoughts and feelings could also have an influence on the experience of pain.  And there is mounting research evidence that thoughts and feelings have a direct physical impact on the way the brain processes pain.”

Bernie Siegel, MD, a recognized expert in the field of cancer treatment and complementary medicine, relates a story of a patient who overheard his doctors talking about his heart’s “gallop rhythm”—a dangerous cardiac condition. The patient thought this meant his heart was as strong as a horse’s, and his condition improved dramatically.  Similarly, by altering our thoughts and feelings, we have the power to reduce our focus on illness.