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-----I would note that the 'safety' of reserve in the coronary arteries is often so great that not only are there often no symptoms with underlying blockage, but a high percentage of 'exercise stress tests' are reported as being 'normal' when in fact there is still underlying coronary artery blockage. This circumstance has been backed up by studies delineating 'positive' or 'abnormal' corresponding coronary angiograms in the same patients.
-----In fact, it is a common misunderstanding that lesser amounts of coronary artery atherosclerotic plaque blockage (the stuff beginning to clog up blood vessels throughout our bodies since our infancy, not just our coronary arteries) and which often do not manifest themselves via patient symptomatology or even stress testing as noted above...the plaque within these coronaries arteries are often of a 'succulent' or 'juicy' nature and easily ruptured by the slightest insult. I would venture to theorize that various 'lifetyle' factors will prove to be the culprit in many of these instances both of a physical...and 'mind related' or mental nature...how one 'thinks' and 'feels'!
-----Hence, it is the sudden rupture of these coronary arteries ( in at least 30% of heart attacks depending upon which studies are read) that often accounts for the sudden massive heart attack in the face of a negative cardiac history, even at ages as early as the later 30's and 40's.
-----And currently, when it comes to coronary heart disease, women are catching up to and in many instances bypassing the incidence within men! Again, I would venture to theorize, the cause for this is for the most part 'lifestyle related' and secondary to both physical and 'mind related' or mentally related lifestyle factors...how and what one 'thinks' and 'feels'!
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"The Biological Edge Theory"
Toward A Longer And Healthier Life!
How 'Thoughts'...Mere 'Feelings'...Could Affect Disease and Health
...a new theory
by Roy A. Alterwein, M.D.
(written & copyrighted in 1985)
----There is a tendency for many people to think of disease in terms of a 'short range time interval' between 'cause' and 'effect'...
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----...Many of us grew up thinking this way and it has stuck with us ever since: "I caught a cold from so and so...three days ago when she sneezed in my face" or "my stomach hurts...it must be because of that spoiled sour cream I ate yesterday." The 'cause and effect' time interval in these examples is short and therefore obvious to the average individual who, by the way, often thinks of the 'effect'--the onset of disease--as occurring when the first symptoms arose; this is more often than not, not true...
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----...Actually, most diseases ( and especially most 'serious' and 'chronic' and 'disabling' diseases) have 'cause' and 'effect' relationships which are not so obvious to the average person (who is not usually familiar with how our bodies and disease really interrelate). The 'cause' of disease may very well be in the nature of one factor--or many factors--having occurred many years, sometimes even 'tens' of years in the past, or, the 'cause' may be in the form of a more 'ongoing' or 'continuous' nature (but oftentimes 'ever so subtle' and with little outward sign of 'outright symptoms' until many years later).
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----For example, when we say that Mr. 'So and So' had a heart attack in his fifties but "I don't understand it...he was never sick a day in his life, not before this!" in truth, Mr. 'So and So's' 'coronaries' (the blood vessels supplying blood to his heart muscle), in all probability were gradually being 'closed down' very subtly and slowly and progressively over many years; and studies now show, in many instances, that those "many years" might well date back to the time of his 'prime,' his youthful past!
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----...And this 'closing down' of his coronaries during all those years was dependent upon numerous other 'risk factors' (besides hereditaty tendency, such as--which foods he had eaten, how much exercise he had engaged in, what the nature of his lifestyle had been like, how much excess weight he had gained, how much stress and anxiety he had experienced, and on and on.) However, from Mr. 'So and So's' point of view, at say 35 years of age, he never had suspected that anything was wrong because his coronary vessels--although in the process of 'being slowly closed down'--were nevertheless open sufficiently so as to allow for enough blood to flow through them to supply his heart muscle with enough blood so as not to allow any symptoms to come into play.
-----In short, during all those years during which Mr. 'So and So' was feeling great, he had never once realized what was happening to his coronaries while he was stuffing his face!
-----You see, the degree to which Mr. 'So and So's' coronaries were being 'gradually closed down' (over all those 20 to 30 years) was dependent upon how he was handling the numerous 'risk factors' continuously being presented to him throughout life by Nature...
-----...Why, just thinking about the effects of stress and anxiety as being among the risk factors, one cannot help but wonder: during all those years, can something as simple as 'the way' Mr. 'So and So' might have 'felt' [his feelings] have had something to do with the rate of progression by which his coronaries were being closed down?
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----[I am speaking here of a feeling...a mere thought or succession of thoughts in your brain.]
Can A Mere Thought (A 'Feeling') Affect Disease?
-----...More and more, studies are showing that people with certain types of personalities or people who have experienced certain types of behavioral patterns have a greater tendency toward the development of 'this' or 'that' disease, whichever it may be (with coronary heart disease proving to be just one of many such diseases and proving to be more the rule than the exception).
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----...Why, some studies have even made reference to the fact that the 'case histories of coronary patients' may be linked (in more ways than we have realized, I might add) to histories not only of stress and anxiety, but also to elements of depression, levels of 'unhappiness.'
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----Yes, one cannot help but wonder: how much of an 'effect' do one's emotions (simply 'the way' you 'feel' from day to day) have, not only on the rate of developmenmt of coronary heart disease, but also on the causation and course of disease in general? Although the answer should be obvious by now (especially since the medical literature is loaded with articles making such references), I believe that the answer to the direct 'cause' and 'effect' relation that 'feelings' (simply, one's thoughts) may have on the development of disease be a resounding "More than we had ever even begun to realize!" and an overwhelming "Yes!...negative feelings [thoughts] can be causative factors in the development of disease"!
How The Development Of A "Terrible Disease" ('Cancer')
Might Be Affected By Our "Thoughts"!
-----To continue (and to repeat): your 'coronaries' do not stand alone when it comes to disease whose progressions occur over a period of 'years' or whose 'causes' can either be 'traced back' to a point in the distant past or whose 'causes' 'occur continuously' over similar long numbers of years (well before symptoms even begin to appear)...
-----...Cancer, naming just one such disease from among many, can occur just this way, with normal areas of cells changing grdually to concerous areas of cells over long periods of time, sometimes for decades (with no symptoms), with some cancers even arising from what we call "pre-cancerous areas" (areas which can actually be identified under a microscope, consisting of 'cancer-like' or 'potentially cancerous' cells which have not yet 'spread' or turned into 'full-blown cancer' as you have come to know it).
-----The very fact that such "pre-cancerous areas" exist (for certain forms of cancer and 'years' before symptoms arise) has become a well established part of modern day medicine and "proof enough" that when a patient first presents with symptoms of cancer and says, "I don't understand it...It just 'popped up' from out of nowhere," chances are the cancer might well have originated many, many years earlier in the form of a microscopic sized "cancerous" or "pre-cancerous area."
-----In short, the cancer didn't "just happen," and, more importantly, just because we cannot always find out where those "pre-cancerous areas" are located [which may very well be, at various times of our lives, scattered 'normally(?)' throughout our bodies], this doesn't mean--at least on a theoretical basis--that we cannot do anything "practical" about them!
-----But first, one wonders: How are these small "cancer-like" or "pre-cancerous" or "cancerous" areas, not to mention the development and progression of cancer (over so many years before symptoms occur), being affected by our lifestyle, by the food we ingest, by the stress and anxiety we feel from day to day?...and on and on.
-----Well, wonder no more. Already, both "fat" and emotional state ("feelings," especially "stress") are being blamed for an increased association with that very development of or progression of cancer; and although there are certain obvious elements of speculation here and uncertainties as to what role they play in 'actual causation,' when it comes to "stress," however, and although only theory, there are a few thoughts that come to mind which seem to me to be incredibly important (but then again, maybe that's because as a gynecologist I've been involved with and treated those "pre-cancerous areas")! These thoughts, however, are so significant that I must go on with additional words of explanation...
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-----A little aside here. But then again, now that I've written it and am looking back over it, it turned out to be a rather long 'aside.' So if you skip it I will understand...and which you can do by clicking here. But let me tell you, I wouldn't skip it if I were you. Its knowledge and understanding of what I personally went through in gynecologic practice years ago gave me the insights I needed to keep my body as young appearing as it now is, almost twenty years later...with my looking almost 20 years younger! Like I told you, none of this web site is a 'quick fix'...but it is very sincere, and real, and the information is 'life-saving.' So if you want to skip it fine...that'll be your problem...
-----When I used to practice gynecology many decades ago I'd become fascinated by a diagnostic instrument called a colposcope. It was sort of like a glorified magnifying glass, used to look at the surface of the female cervix. The cervix is the lower portion of the female uterus which can be seen via a speculum placed within the vaginal opening.
-----The cervix is the commonly known area where female cancer is known to arise, and the pap smear is the usual diagnostic test most people are familiar with in this regard, for the so-called early detection of cancer. I say 'so-called' because I'd rather get at the cancer before it's become a cancer. That's early detection!
-----At any rate, the pap smear is supposed to help with early detection, for it can pick up cells from the cervix before the cells have become cancerous. Many of these cells are called 'dysplastic' cells (a commonly used term for certain types of pre-cancerous cells for various cancers throughout the body). -----[Voila!...Hence my interest in cervical dysplasia as a looking glass to the etiology and potential prevention of almost all cancers!]
-----But a pap smear is only as good as the nature of the particular cells 'picked up' from the surface (and from within the opening of) the cervix. And downline the pap smear is only as good as and dependent upon the accuracies of the staining techniques utilized, and especially upon how good the technician who reads the pap smear is at detecting cancerous and precancerous cells by looking at the pap smear. Believe me. there's no sign under their microscope saying, "Here I am. You're looking at cancer!" It's clearly open to experience and interpretation and the time allotted for the technician to look at the pap smear slide. Is the technician rushed or in a hurry, trying to check as many pap smears as possible in a given time? How is he or she getting paid, per papsmear read or by the hour no matter how many pap smears are read in an hour? And how much is he or she being paid, and who's looking over his shoulder. Can he or she feel completely free to take whatever time need be to get accurate readings? I'll let you answer these questions in these 'economically' motivated and dictated times!
-----I know this all sounds so ludicrous, but I remember years ago--and I'm sure it's especially occurring in one form or another nowadays, because economic pressures are even greater than they were years ago...the way it was laboratories reviewing pap smears had to be scrutinized because they were oftentimes found to be 'sink testing' the pap smears. Basically, what this means is that the technicians were limiting the time allotted to them to read each pap smear. The ole 'time is money' routine.
-----So, like it or not, the accuracy and reliability in the reading of the pap smear is a direct reflection-- among other factors downline as noted above--of the expertise of, and time allotted, the technician doing the reading of the pap smear. So, even if the pap smear is a wonderful ife-saving diagnostic test, the practicalities of the accuracy of its final results is another matter.
-----Remember, I was there. I went through it first hand as the doctor caught in the middle of this shameful nonsense, so I cannot even begin to tell you how many pap smears were giving false results, often underdiagnosing, and sometimes over-diagnosing. If you knew medicine then and the way society and people thought and worked, you knew it was happening, or at least you had to factor it into your results.
-----What to do? What to do? You shake your head in frustration. How can this be happening? As a younger doctor idealistic and all, the way society works in all this...it's actually been so painful to the mind, especially when you care so much and you want to do the right thing. Either you crumble and be weak and give in and discard your ideals just to keep in the game to make your livelihood, or you end up sacrificing yourself to do the right thing. I could do no other way. To do wrong, in more ways than one, is to die.
-----So what to do as in this instance when you're a gynecologist and you know things are going on. Back then if you told friends or members of your family they'd think you're nuts. Today it's par for the course, which is even more incomprehensible to me. That these potentially harmful practices are accepted so readily, as if they're the norm...while people are dying as a result!? Give me a break. I can figure out things no human being has been able to figure out, but when it comes to things like this, understanding how is it possible for one human being not to do right by another for selfish motives of their own economic survival...I have never been able to figure it out, even though I now know it's the way of the world. But I'll forever be trying to see it straight.
-----At any rate, the way it was then, years ago, what do you do when you have to factor into your diagnosis and medical evaluations and so on the very nature of other human beings, their honesty, their integrity or self-centered motivations. My goodness. It's difficult enough just to do the right thing medically.
-----What to do when you have a patient's life potentially in your hands as a medical doctor in this prevailing climate of practice (which went on in all fields of health care yesteryear and does so nowadays). So you decide you have no choice but to scrutinize the pap smear laboratory yourself without their knowing it. An obvious thing to do. Spot check their results by sending for random slides or otherwise and having other laboratories or pathologists independently read them to see if there is agreement in the two readings of the same slides.
-----Nowadays we would call this sort of thing a second opinion. It's evidently become commonplace not to trust the doctor or the laboratory or the hospital or clinic or whatever. That's what our society has come to. A mass sort of health care paranoia. We've forgotten the true nature of right and wrong as seen through the dictates of our Creator. And I mean 'dictates.' If we do otherwise, we pay, since these dictates are built into our genetic makeup which is in turn interrelated with the way we think.
-----At any rate, whenever I 'spot checked' the slides I never charged the patient extra. That was my own doing. That was for me. For my mind. For my well being. I was designated to care for the patient as a medical doctor, and that's what I was going to do. If I saw something wrong that might have jeopardized the patient, even though the patient might not have understood it or taken it out of context or misinterpreted it, I went the extra mile for the sake of the patient's health...and mine.
-----I'm still doing that...as your reading of this web site might give you the inclination to realize my sincerity in what I write and where I'm coming from. If I don't have the reader's well-being at heart, then all I am doing is for naught...and all I've done throughout my life would be meaningless.
-----So, not meaning to get off track, but you'll soon understand the significance of my personal feelings on these matters in terms of your own well-being. You'll begin to understand how the mind and the way we think has so much to do with our body physiology and our well-being and even with the way we age, and how it's all so cleverly genetically been pre-determined by Nature...by our Creator...already having been 'laid out' so to speak by the very nature of the way we think.
-----At any rate, I mention this pap smear business only because of that other diagnostic procedure I mentioned above-colposcopy--which is intended to complement the pap smear. As I said, the colposcope is sort of like a glorified magnifying glass wherein the surface of the female cervix can be viewed by way of the vaginal opening via a magification of let's say 10 or 20 or 50 times the actual size.
-----You see, a pathologist usually checks the cells of the cervix under a microscope wherein the magnification varies, but is often in the range of 900 times. So the beauty of the colposcope is that the surface of the cervix looks sort of like looking down from a helicopter viewing the surface structures of mountains or hills.
-----You can see detail you can't see with the naked eye, but not magnified to such a great degree as with the microscope that you lose the ability to see the 'surface terrain' (or topography) of the cervix, if that's a proper word to describe what it looks like.
-----Again, the amazing beauty of all this is that in all the fields of medicine and the diagnosis of cancer there are few places wherein the topography of potentially cancerous tissue can be so well observed as via the colposcope. Dermatologists can look at the exposed surface of the skin, but they haven't done so as a diagnostic procedure to the degree the colposcope was used. The urologist can look into the bladder and the gastroenterologist can look into the esophagus and intestinal tract, both via various endoscopy methods, but nothing has been as easy to perform and as well documented as the colposcope.
-----So I often had the colposcope beside the examination table. And many times I just threw the colposcopy procedure in with the routine examination because, among other reasons, it served as a backup to the pap smear and allowed me to more accurately do colposcopically directed cervical biopsies, when needed, so as to increase the likelihood of not missing cancerous or pre-cancerous areas of the cervix.
-----Okay, my enthusiasm is still running away with me as I write these words...because I saw in the colposcope even decades ago the answer to the very nature of cancer itself...to the very nature of most all cancers. It became more and more of a reality to me after years of practice.
-----You see, over a period of many, many years cervical cancer is known to occur, some cancers taking longer to change from normal tissue into cancerous tissues, and other cancers making the transition sooner. But the key is that with the combination colposcope and pap smear I was able to see the surface structure of the cervix and actually see in magnified form the actual changes which occurred, the progression, from normal to pre-cancerous tissue...or into what would otherwise be considered to be various degrees or stages in the devlopment of 'dysplasia,' the stages through which normal tissue went in order to change into outright cancer!
-----The continuing beauty of all this...no guarantees of course...few things in medicine can be guaranteed... but the doctor should be doing the best he or she can do. At any rate, the beauty of all this, with this combination pap smear and colposcopy and directed cervical biopsies which were then checked microscopically by the pathologist, the location and extent and degree of the various stages in the development of cancer can be observed.
-----So, knowing me, always looking beyond just making a living and doing only what I had to do to make a living...and over many years of practice, I began to see and recognize the progression in the stages of cancer from normal to mildly dysplastic to moderately dysplastic to severely dysplastic percancerous cells and then on to localized cervical cancer (called carcinoma-in-situ) to outright cancer, the kind we all hear about and which kills.
-----This other pre-cancerous stuff, the 'dysplasias' and so on, they don't spread...and the progression to cancer can take years or even reverse itself or never progress at all and remain the same, unchanging for years, but doing nothing else that would be overtly harmful.
-----Whatever, the continuing beauty of these methods, sometimes all it took was a few minute long and almost completely painless, benign office procedure called cryotherapy...wherein the dysplastic surface structures of the cervix were frozen, and the precancerous cells thereby destroyed in minutes...and voila, there goes the cancer well before the cancer is ever formed, let alone able to kill.
-----At any rate, now we're ready to take this thinking one step further. I started looking into cancers throughout the body, all kinds of cancers, and I found it was routinely reported that many of them went through similar stages from normal to precancerous or dysplastic cells and then to cancerous cells, but only oftentimes after many years of progression, ample time if you could diagnosis the dysplastic stages, to effectively bring about cure. But of course, it was easy for the gynecologist, as it is for the dermatologist. The precancerous areas are therein often exposed so you can ready and easily get to them routinely as with the colposcope for diagnostic purposes and therapeutically with benign procedures such as cryotherapy.
-----I highly doubt most women reading these words have colposcopy routinely performed as part of their gynecologist office visit. If I ever thought there were 'bad' things going on years ago with 'sink testing' of pap smears and that sort of thing, forget it. Money and the high cost of medical care, even if life-saving, is nowadays often taking precedence over what is 'right' for the patient, another reason I could never practice the way things are done these days. I would have to do what I know is medically right for the patient. If I'm to be part of a profession wherein I am being 'forced' or pressured in one way or another to do things other than for the good of the patient, which is what is occurring rampantly throughout society nowadays, I could not be a part of it, even if it meant I could not pay my bills, which oftentimes happened...but few people around me those days ever understood. I'm not even so sure they'd understand it today. But no matter, I'm sixty-two years old now and evidently I'm being rewarded by Nature by the way I've 'felt' inside about these matters...
-----For you see, as you will find in this paper and beyond in other articles and papers on this web site and in my books and videos, etc, the way I've 'felt' inside is the major reason why I am now looking so young for my age and why I have managed to survive surgery that most other people would have died from.
-----The short of it all, one of the main points I've been getting at:
-----Not only do most all cancers go through this progression I've been talking about from 'normal' to 'diseased states of the body' over a period of years, but most diseases in general also go through these same progressions over many years, from heart disease, to diabetes, to emotional illness, to bone demineralization, to the frailty and weakening of the body with age, and to the aging process itself.
-----And that progression, which I've also come to further clarify in my mind over the years of observation since the days of my prior gynecologic practice and insights...that progression of disease in general I've since also come to realize often stems from various lifestyle factors to which we as human beings are being continuously exposed, both physically and mentally, ever so subtly that we'd hardly ever know it, but yet relentlessly over a period of years...and finally to the points of our deaths, even though we'd little recognize the mechanisms of our misfortunes secondary to our ignorance on these matters.
-----At any rate, enough said as per this long-winded aside. I don't expect you to feel my enthusiasm. Whenever I can see into something that can save peoples' lives...I light up in my mind with an exhilaration that ironically has been keeping me young and alive! Who would ever know it let alone believe it or even know how to methodically and willfully tap into it?
-----But then again, isn't that what this web site is all about. Opening one's eyes to the little known truths of life...to save lives!
-----Just in case you changed your mind about reading it, you can click here to go back to the beginning of this commentary.
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-----Okay, this is one commentary to read. It's really, really important...and should have significance to every human being everywhere...but it probably will not. I'm no longer naive about this disinterest of human beings about things they don't think they can understand even though this knowledge can in a very real sense, ultimately lead the way toward a youthfully appearing body for one.
-----At any rate, in the original article, I just referred to what is otherwise known as the 'hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis.' It is a very clear-cut straight-line connection between the universe of the 'mind,' which has no dimensions, and the 'material' universe within which we appear to exist.
-----In other words, the universe of the 'mind' is wherein we carry out our everyday activites of thinking, but if you think about it, it's obvious that within the consciousness of our minds there are no solid masses which have dimensions such as height, width, and depth. The universe of the 'mind' we might say is dimensionless, quite the difference from the world within which we appear to be living--the 'real' world--wherein there is physical matter which has dimensions and which we can feel and touch and in which we can also feel the so-called 'pull' of gravity ('so-called' because it is not really a 'pull').
-----For centuries mankind has not been able to make the direct connection between the mind and matter. Yet, we experience both, mind and matter, every day. On one hand we think with our 'minds' what we might want to do, for example, in the material world, such as go somewhere, lift something up, touch something and so on.
-----It surely appears that the material world is the 'real' one and that the 'mind' simply exists to think about the material world. But to think there might be a direct connection between the two, most people would hardly believe there could be, and if so, they might ask, "How about an example of such a connection?" let alone a determination of the actual connection between the two, if such were possible to figure out.
-----Well, I will tell you as starters that the 'hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis' is a 'no-brainer' connection which ironically all women live through on a regular basis. [Men don't have ovaries, but there are similar examples of mind to body connections within men.]
-----Basically by the term "axis' we mean "pathway." Here's the way it works:
-----A woman has a non-dimensional thought in her mind, or a feeling, or she experiences the internal feeling of an emotion. This feeling, when you get down to the physiochemical nature of the brain tissue...the feeling or thought...such as a feeling of worry or anxiety...somehow makes a connection at the base of the brain with a physical structure or part of the brain called the hypothalmus. This is a known area of the brain having to do with emotions and the control of other physiologic functions of the physical body.
-----In other words, it is within the hypothalmus wherein the thought or feeling of the mind secondarily makes a physiochemical or electrochemical or other type of mind to matter connection which in turn, through the secretion of hormones and/or other additional physiological connections, stimulates the master gland of the body, the pituitary gland.
-----More concisely put, the mere thought or feeling within the mind makes a 'mind to matter' connection by way of the hypothalmus which in turn serves to physically stimulate the pituitary gland. Again, exactly how 'mind' appears to be turned into 'matter' at the level of the hypothalmus is part of my more recently derived theory--The Theory Of Differential Pressure--describing exactly how mind and matter are interconnected.
-----Once the pituitary gland has been stimulated by the hypothalmus, it (the pituitary gland) in turn serves to stimulate the female ovaries to in turn secrete hromones such as estrogen and progresterone. These hormones in turn act on the lining of the uterus to make the uterine lining grow and change.
-----Unfortunately, it has been rather well documented in the medical literature that this kind of continual and abnormal stimulation of the uterine lining has a high likelihood of eventually resulting in uterine cancer!
-----And so there you have it...a straight-line connection between an insidious thought or feeling in the mind which downline eventually causes such hormonal stimulation of the lineingof the uterus that cancer is produced.
----Like I said, this scenario is quite documented throughout the medical literature, and quite well established. Yet, few medical persons or scientists have written about this actual connection as being an example of how the non-dimensional mind affects and brings about change in thephysical world of matter, in this case a very physical cancer of the human body!
-----I'd say lack of these sort of observations and realizations are probably secondary to these 'scientists' not using their noggins nor having been able to put different fields of learning together so as to come up with these obvious conclusions.
-----Unfortunately, and I know it sounds so pathetic, but unless people can figure a way of making money out of something, no matter how amazing or life-promoting that something might be, they seem not to care nor to be motivated! These ideas should have been written about long ago.
-----At any rate, I for one, do care, and I've always cared...and that's a good part of the reason why today, at the age of sixty, I'm already looking years younger than my age!
-----...So there!
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----Why? I then asked myself again (having reviewed this 'negative' mind-body link), why cannot the same or a similar mechanism (linking the 'mind' to the 'physical body') be in common everyday usage while the brain is experiencing 'positive feelings' over similarly long periods of time?...such as 'ongoing feelings of excitement' or 'continuing feelings or inner happiness' or 'long-standing feelings of zest for what one does in life,' not to forget 'feelings of contentment inside' and 'feelings of love toward others'...all of these 'feelings' having the potential to be occurring on a day to day basis throughout life.
-----...Why cannot these 'positive feelings' cause 'positive effects' on our bodies resulting in an increased ability to maintain our health and prevent or fight off disease or even have an effect on retarding aging [but effects so subtle and over such long periods of time that the positive effects are difficult for us to see)? [...just like the negative effects of stress over long periods of time on coronary heart disease are also difficult for us to see!]
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"CAN POSITIVE FEELINGS," ESPECIALLY OVER LONG PERIODS OF TIME,
HAVE "POSITIVE EFFECTS" ON OUR "PHYSICAL HEALTH"?
...BY NOW, AS YOU MIGHT HAVE GUESSED,
MY ANSWER IS GOING TO BE A RESOUNDING ________!
-----To answer the question, I simply had need to 'plug' all the above facts and theoretical speculations into the way Nature 'works,' especially when it comes to evolution and the survival of the human species. Then, based upon how well it all fit together (like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle), I figured I'd be able to come up with some reasonable and logical type of conclusions (conclusions, granted, that are not proven, but nevertheless, good enough theory to give 'food for thought' to any open-minded and logical thinking person).
-----But first, to help me fit the pieces together, I thought about a little story, the one about the artist who got up at the crack of dawn every morning and went up to the roof of his apartment building to paint. He was well over one hundred years of age and vibrant as could be. He was friendly and happy and loved his neighbors. And everybody in the building, all the neighbors--the 'youngsters' in their 70's and the 'kids' in their 40's and the 'babies' in their teens and early twenties--amazed, they all used to say to him: "Being so old, you're lucky to be in such good shape and so healthy so that you are able to paint every day!"
-----...The old man's reply was always the same: "Did you ever think the reason I'm so old is because I 'love' to paint?"
-----...and wouldn't you know it. The old man had been painting for years. And it hadn't ever been 'work' to him no matter how many hours he'd put in...because he always 'loved' every minute of it!
-----I think you get what I'm driving at. I have to ask myself: did the vibrant 'love' for what he was doing, painting--just like the sick person who has the 'will' to live and survives because of it--in some way favorably affect his body (hormonally and, or neurologically) similar (although just the opposite) to the way 'depressive feelings' can affect the woman's menstrual periods (hormonally and,or neurologically)?...or similar to the way 'feelings of stress' can affect disease?...or just like the 'mind' in many other ways controls the internal workings of our bodies without our realizing it (its normal function--the beating of the heart, the functioning of our liver, our pancreas, our intestines, our kidneys, etc)?...
-----In short, did the mere "thoughts" in the old man's brain...did the continually positive feelings of 'vibrant love' and 'zest' for what he was doing from day to day ('painting') somehow send controlling messages throughout his body helping it along biologically (in some as yet undetectable way) so as to main him in 'good health' with 'vigor' and 'strength' and a 'strong defense mechanism' to fight off disease effectively, all this well into old age?
-----To answer the question we must determine how well these ideas 'fit' into the jigsaw puzzle, "the biologically and scientifically oriented evolutionary development of life"? (a unique but effective way of figuring things out in theory without having need for an indoor experimental laboratory...our laboratory will be observation of Nature and how it 'works'!)
-----...And to begin, I find I must ask myself another question: would Nature have had any good reason to link up "positive feelings in our brains" with "a biologically longer and healthier life" so as to fulfill her [Nature's] own ends, "the survival of the species"?...(which, by the way is the central goal of evolution).
-----...Mind you, although this must all be considered only theory, it does seem likely that scattered throughout our bodies (depending upon our age, the organs involved, and other factors) small "areas" of these "cancerous" or "pre-cancerous" cells, as I have said, are likely always to be forming.
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----In addition, it is also quite likely that our bodies are continually fighting against these "pre-cancerous areas" and trying to destroy them...even now as you are reading this article! You see, this process of "fighting against" "pre-cancerous" cells may very well be a "commonplace bodily defense mechanism" used routinely throughout our lives and instilled into our bodies by Nature so as to aid us in our survival as individuals (which in turn allows for the survival of our species, Nature's primary goal).
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----...Now, taking these ideas one step further, isn't it then possible to theorize that as we grow older (into and past 'middle age'), the general decline noted to occur in the body's defense mechanisms may well be an important factor in the well known progressively increased incidence of cancer as we approach and bypass middle age (with the highest occurrence in old age)?
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----...Again, there is strong likelihood that these ideas bear well with the truth.
-----[There are other reasons for the increased incidence of cancer with age which we need not go into here.]
-----...And furthermore, isn't it also logical to theorize that throughout our lives, if we do things and conduct our activities in such a manner as to enhance or 'speed up' this weakening of our body's defenses, wouldn't we then also be more likely to be enhancing or 'speeding up' the progression of those microscopic "pre-cancerous areas" into "real cancers" which can spread throughout our bodies?
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----...As you might have already guessed (and although only theory), these ideas, too, have a good chance one day of proving to be true...personally, I'd lay odds on it.
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----And now, taking the last step in this line of reasoning, if stress weakens our body's defenses, which it is commonly throught to do, then, in view of 'all' the above considerations (most of which is based upon established conventional medicine), you can now see a possible, but very logical, 'straight-line connection' between 'stress' and an increased incidence of cancer. More and more, nowadays, studies are coming to light to show this relationship--"stress" and "cancer"--to be mortally true!
...YOU CAN NOW SEE A POSSIBLE,
BUT VERY LOGICAL, 'STRAIGHT-LINE CONNECTION'
BETWEEN "STRESS" AND AN INCREASED
INCIDENCE OF CANCER...
-----But once again, I must point out that even though "pre-cancercous" or "cancer-like" microscopic areas have been clinically shown to exist, and even though, on their own, they may disappear completely or remain the same or progress into 'outright cancer' (all this sometimes over periods of years), and even though all this information seems to bear out what I've said above, the fact remains: A 'theory' is still a 'theory.' The above 'straight-line connection' between lifestyle, stress, and even other emotions and cancer must remain speculation, at least it must to me. I'm sure there are those medical professionals who would present it otherwise--at being closer to absolute 'fact.' But, not me...
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----...Remember, you must know where I'm coming from: my standards for scientific judgment are 'high' and quite 'critical.' Before I state something to be 'fact,' I probably need to have more hard, fast scientific evidence than the average individual making such judgments...as a matter of fact, I know I do...--
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----...but--and this is important--"theory" or "no theory," the relationship between "stress" and "cancer" is logical and "seems" to be true, and especially when I can do something about it (as well as about the other "risk factors" and their relationship to disease), I'm sure not willing to take chances and ignore this information [are you?]...if I did, I'd probably be a fool!
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----...Besides, it has been estimated that anywhere from 60% to 80% of all people seeking out generalized medical care are being affected in some way by the effects the mind has on the body. Other estimates in the medical literature have made reference to the fact that 50% to 70% of illnesses in general are "stress related" (coming from family or job or social or environmental, etc. problems).
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----Other medical sources (getting back to "stress") have made the point that no other risk factor or etiologic variable ('cause') contributes so much to the devastating effects related to disease as much as stress.
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----Evidently, the relationship between stress and disease is formidable, although sometimes criticized and sometimes contradictory; however, as I have already pointed out, I'll place my bet on its relationship to illness...and not just a few illnesses (and this is the very important point I'm now making)..
"Stress" And Its Relationship To Many Illnesses!
-----...Several sources point toward stress as one of the causative or otherwise associated factors affecting the development and, or the course of not only coronary artery (heart) disease and cancer, but also (to mention just a few) high blood pressure, chronic pain syndrome, diabetes, drug abuse, obesity, asthma,infectious disease, gastrointestinal disorders (colitis, ulcers, regional enteritis, etc), headaches, allergy, and on and on and on, not forgetting its effect on our immune mechanism (already pointed out in terms of the defense system). Actually, the list of mind related diseases seems almost endless...
-----...which brings up another point:
----If the mind can 'cause' disease, can the mind also 'prevent or cure' it?
Can The Mind Prevent Or "Cure" Disease?
-----Understand clearly, I am not speaking here of 'overnight cures,' in minutes. Remember, as I have already pointed out at the beginning of this article, "for the most serious and chronic and disabling diseases," the 'causes' can occur over periods of years or they can be influenced by many factors over that same period of time. It seems reasonable then for the sake of fairness, to allow "cures," as referred to here, to be thought of in the same terms, over years.
-----Having understood that concept, I then (when I'd originally thought about it) reworded my question (about the mind's ability to 'heal' or 'cure' or 'prevent' disease?) and said to myself:
-----If 'negative thoughts,' or for that matter, if 'feelings' [that word seems to come up again, after all, 'feelings' are related to thoughts or successions of thoughts]...if 'negative feelings' such as those related to anxiety, stress, depressive thoughts, and the like--can interrelate (as we have seen) with the 'causes' and 'development' and 'progression' of disease, well then...why can't just the opposite happen? Why can't 'positive thoughts' and 'positive feelings' [directed toward 'aiding' as opposed to 'hindering'] affect the body's state of health and aid in the prevention of disease by pretty much the same or similar types of mechanisms as that which 'negative feelings' use (but directed--for 'positive feelings'--in the opposite direction)?...
-----...Why should Nature have given 'negative feelings' top priority when it comes to 'effects' on the body (whichever they are, 'good' or 'bad')? And why, I have to ask myself, should Nature have given the harmful effects of 'negative feelings' ('disease') a unanimous and 100% advantage over the beneficial effects of 'positive feelings'? There should, at the least, be some 'positive effects' resulting from 'positive feelings,' one would think.
-----...Obviously, if you think about it, such a "completely one-sided" state of affairs (in favor of 'the negative') does not seem likely nor reasonable' and furthermore, if you have a broad understanding of the human body and of the way it 'works' as well as a similarly broad understanding of the scientifically oriented evolutionary development and biological survival of our human species, it would then be quite difficult for you not to consider that there must be, not just a few, but actually many positive effects that 'positive feelings' have on the state of health of our bodies (at least, it was obvious to me).
The "Mind-Body" Link
-- One Way It Might Actually Work! --
-----At any rate, now that I had a theory, I felt the need to develop it further, and so, before considering how these 'positive mechanisms' might 'work' and what they are, I first thought of a specific example and of the probable mechanism by which the 'negative mind' is thought (through conventional medical thinking) to have a 'negative effect' on the body merely by 'thinking,' that is:
-------the 'anxiety-ridden' or 'depressed woman' who misses her menstrual period or has some other menstrual irregularity...
-----...This is a 'very common occurrence' (and therefore, probably a very common bodily mechanism) and a good example (among many such examples) of a direct and 'clearly established' link between a "mere thought," 'a feeling'--in this case, depressive in nature, and occurring over a short or long interval of time--and the physical body (a woman's period). In these instances, the thought (the 'negative feelings') stimulate a known area of the brain which in turn sends out messages to other parts or 'glands' of the body which, in turn, bring about the stoppage or some other type of change of the woman's menstrual period, for short or long intervals of time.
Introduction
I wrote the following article in a magazine I used to publish entitled, "The Medical Health Care Gazette." The magazine was geared toward informing the public on health related issues of both mind and body, a similar endeavor as to which I have continued and am currently engaged in as you can see via this web site. The article was published in the magazine and copyrighted in 1985. So it goes back quite a number of years.
-----I am presenting the article below because it remains of considerable importance nowadays, almost twenty years later, even though on another score it similarly remains quite beyond the usual vein of scientific knowlege on these matters. It's unfortunate, because it's acceptance and further elaboration in scientific and medical circles could have saved millions of lives in the interim. But I don't give up. So I continue trying. Perhaps narrow-minded or disinterested academicians will prove the next twenty years to be different. Otherwise they too might be finding themselves going by the wayside...who knows. Life is a strange phenomenon.
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----The article and its introduction of the theory I developed came at a time in my research studies wherein I was beginning to develop a number of theories concerning the nature of the actual connection between the mind--which is non-physical in nature--and the physical body...with mind and matter being the broader aspect of that connection.
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----I have found that clues as to the true nature of our reality have abounded throughout the world literature going back centuries, but again, and usually secondary to mankind's often narrow-minded interests, they have been missed. Evidently, the
"The Biological Edge Theory"
Toward A Longer And Healthier Life!
How 'Thoughts'...Mere 'Feelings'...Could Affect Disease and Health
by Roy A. Alterwein, M.D.
The First Step Toward The Connection Between 'Mind' & 'Matter'...And In Turn Between...'The Mind' & 'The Body'
various clues had only to be amassed and put together for new insights to develop concerning what mankind has wondered about for all the time of his existence on this planet.
----This web site will be giving the answer to those age old questions (as well as to many other questions, misconceptions, and enigmas) as to how the mind and the body--and mind and matter--are interrelated and connected. This article should therefore take its place as a basis for the understanding of other writings of mine which would eventually, and in fact did lead me to a good portion of the answers I was looking for concerning the mind/matter and mind/body connections, theories I have developed and which actually encompass, among other things, the true nature of what 'gravity' really is and how it interrelates as 'one' with the other forces of the universe, such as those of electromagnetism...an interrelation which has eluded all scientists for generations past and present, including Einstein.
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----My interest has not so much been the link between mind and matter, but more so the link between mind and body, for therein I realized would also lie methods heretofore unknown which might have the effect to offset many of the otherwise deadly diseases with which mankind is routinely being stricken and dying from, not to mention offsetting various aspects of what mankind has routinely, but improperly been calling 'the aging process.'
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---Therefore, at the very beginning of my thoughts on these matters, I logically reasoned that the physical body, including the brain, wherein the mind is usually--and falsely, I might add, as I will explain--thought to reside...I logically reasoned that the physical body is nothing more than one aspect of the physical matter out of which our world and the universe appear to be made.
-----Therefore, to find the link between mind and body I felt it necessary to also be looking into the link between mind and matter.
----More of this will be said as my writings on these pages ensue. For the time being...I introduce you to the "Biological Edge Theory" which should serve to elucidate the core understanding behind, and a forerunner of, my ensuing but more complex theories on the nature of the connective link(s) between mind and body...and mind and matter.
-----"The Biological Edge Theory" is presented here as I wrote and published it in 1985.
[You will note that I am presenting the article below in black lettering on a lightly colored background, but interspersed with a running current commentary and elaboration by myself as to what I said about twenty years ago. After all, I am now twenty years later, and that much the wiser, so the running commentary will add that much more insight to what I said in the original article.]
