Chapter 3: Stress and Disease By comprehending that human beings are energy, one can begin to comprehend new ways of viewing health and illness. - Richard Gerber M.D.

Relationship between stress and disease? Science has not been able to demonstrate a concrete connection between stress and disease. However, this chapter presents various scientific views and explanations of hypothesized relationships between stress and disease.

Stress and disease connection The current focus on the stress and disease phenomenon is directed toward the interactions of the: immune system the CNS human consciousness

Disease and illness relationship Current research has indicated that between 70 to 80 percent of health-related problems may be precipitated or aggravated by stress.

Stress and disease cognitive perceptions of threatening stimuli To understand the relationship between stress and disease, one needs to consider that several factors act in unison to create a pathological outcome, including the: cognitive perceptions of threatening stimuli consequent activation of the nervous system endocrine system immune system

Psychoneuroimmunology Pelletier defines psychoneuroimmunology as the study of the intricate interaction of consciousness (psycho), brain and central nervous system (neuro), and the body’s defense against external infection and internal aberrant cell division (immunology).

Four theoretical models The Borysenko Model The Pert Model The Gerber Model The Pelletier Premodel

The Borysenko Model Borysenko outlined a dichotomy of stress- induced dysregulation and a matrix describing the “immune balance” regarding four classifications of disease. He suggests that when the autonomic nervous system releases an abundance of stress hormones, several physiological repercussions can result, among them, migraines, ulcers, and hypertension.

Borysenko’s stress and disease dichotomy

Borysenko’s immune activity matrix

The Pert Model Pert’s model cites research findings linking the nervous system with the immune system Various cell tissues comprising the immune system can synthesize neuropeptides to alter immune function Emotions can suppress or enhance immune function

The Gerber Model Gerber uses an holistic approach or systems -theory approach - mind as conscious and unconscious thought exists as energy that surrounds and permeates the body, influencing a host of corporal biochemical reactions.

Gerber Model Gerber’s model states that the mind consists of energy (bioplasma) surrounding and permeating the body. Disease, then, is disturbance in the human energy field, which cascades through the level of the subtle energy to the body via chakras and meridians.

Gerber Model Stress-related symptoms that appear in the physical body are the manifestation of problems which have occurred earlier as a result of disturbances at higher energy level. Thoughts, perceptions, and emotions, which originate in various layers of subtle energy, cascade through the mind-body interface and are decoded at the molecular level to cause biological changes in the body.

The Gerber model

The Pelletier Pre-Model Pelletier believed that a number of issues must be addressed and understood before a stress-disease model can be developed. These issues include disease states in people with multiple personality disorder, spontaneous remissions, hypnosis, placebos/nocebos, cell memory, subtle energy, and immune-enhancement.

After reviewing the medical literature Pelletier believed: the only logical approach to understanding the stress-disease/ mind-body phenomenon is an approach in which the individual is considered greater than the sum of its physiological parts.

Nervous System-Related Disorders bronchial asthma tension headaches migraine headaches temporomandibular joint dysfunction irritable bowel syndrome ulcers and colitis coronary heart disease

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction

Immune System-Related Disorders the common cold and influenza allergies rheumatoid arthritis lupus cancer AIDS

"It is the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive." -C.W. Leadbeater-