Psycho-Neuro-Immuno-Endocrinology & You

Michael Scott Allen MD

You are one of the most complex machines in the Universe and you did not come with an obvious owner’s manual.  I know this is probably preaching to the choir, but I hope some of this information will be useful to you and/or the people you work with as healer, minister, counselor, coach.

There is an abundance of evidence scientific and experiential that your thoughts and emotions influence your health and wellness.

MULTIPLE PERSONALITY:

A dramatic case is one my brother witnessed during medical school.  He had a multiple personality disorder patient, a 22 yo man who was on the locked psych ward so they could observe him 24/7. He expressed one personality who was an insulin dependent juvenile diabetic, and a second personality who possessed normal pancreatic function. Deepak Chopra mentions a similar case in one of his books.  Other examples in the literature include people who have life threatening allergies with one personality and not the other.

Such patients dramatically demonstrate that by changing your personality, thoughts and emotions you can produce a state of health or disease. 

PLACEBO EFFECT:

The placebo effect is also proof that you create your own health and disease.  Sometimes a drug is approved because 17% of patients improve with the medicine while only 15% of patients improve with placebo.  So 15 out of 100 patients improve by believing they are going to get well, while another 2% improve by adding the prescription medicine to their belief.  Your thought/belief that you are going to get well is much more powerful than the prescription medicine.

The concept of psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology, (aka Mind Body Medicine) was first described in 1936. It is the study of the interactions between the psyche, nervous system, immune system and endocrine system.  The brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, autonomic nerves, immune system and endocrine system all use the same neurotransmitters and cell surface receptors to communicate with each other.  They are all intercommunicating with the same communication system.

Additionally, a neural network is embedded within and around your heart and another neural network embedded within and around your gut (intestines). This means that you have a heart brain and gut brain also.  Thus, “In my heart, I know….”   “My gut tells me…..”

Subtle energies have been verified scientifically that are part of your body machine. These subtle energies also influence your health and wellness. Almost everything in life is either contributing to your health and wellness or detracting from it.

This means mastery of your thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions is most important.  For most of us, however, this is much easier said than done.  We recognize that physically matured adults often continue to behave like animals, babies, toddlers, children, adolescents rather than fully functional adults who are integrated with their physical, emotional, mental & spiritual bodies and resonating with the highest and best aspect of their Beingness. For me, Jesus Christ is an example of one operating from the highest and best aspect of his Beingness. 

Spirit uses multiple methods to recommend course corrections in our thoughts & feelings before our health and/or wealth and/or relationships are irrevocably affected. Most physical health disorders have roots in a type of thought disorder, spiritual disorder or emotional disorder.  Louise Hay’s classic book You Can Heal Your Life is a great place to start to begin to change the causal thought.

Sometimes animals will show up in real life or in our dreams/meditations to get us to focus on a course correction.  Books like Animal Speak by Ted Andrews or Medicine Cards can help you realize the direction of your thought corrections.

The most important point for you to remember is that you are the creator of your spiritual health, mental health, emotional health and physical health. Consciously attending to each of the four levels of your Beingness is required for optimal health.