|
NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
Acupuncture is one of the oldest, most commonly used medical procedures in the world. Originating in China more than 2,000 years ago, acupuncture became better known in the United States in 1971, when New York Times reporter James Reston wrote about how doctors in China used needles to ease his pain after surgery.
The term acupuncture describes procedures involving stimulation of anatomical points on the body by a variety of techniques. American practices of acupuncture incorporate medical traditions from China, Japan, Korea, and other countries. The acupuncture technique that has been most studied scientifically involves penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metallic needles that are manipulated by the hands or by electrical stimulation.
With acupuncture the body is seen as a delicate balance of two opposing and inseparable forces: yin and yang. Yin represents the cold, slow, or passive principle, while yang represents the hot, excited, or active principle. Health is achieved by maintaining the body in a "balanced state" and disease is due to an internal imbalance of yin and yang. This imbalance leads to blockage in the flow of qi (vital energy) along pathways known as meridians. It is believed that there are 12 main meridians and 8 secondary meridians and that there are more than 2,000 acupuncture points on the human body.
Studies have shown that acupuncture may alter brain chemistry by changing the release of neurotransmitters and neurohormones and, thus, affecting the parts of the central nervous system related to sensation and involuntary body functions, such as immune reactions and processes that regulate a person's blood pressure, blood flow, and body temperature.
Candace Pert has shown that the body and the mind are actually part of a linked system she calls the bodymind. Pert has shown there are opiate receptors-molecules that unlock cells in the brain so that morphine and other opiates, including the body's natural opiate, endorphins, can enter. fNeuropeptides (tiny bits of protein that consist of strings of amino acids) are responsible for our emotions -- not only the familiar feelings of anger, fear, sadness, joy, contentment, and courage, but also spiritual inspiration, awe, bliss, and other states of consciousness that scientists have never physiologically explained.
Scientists have found neuropeptide receptors throughout the nervous system, and Pert's research has shown that the immune system also produces its own. The brain and the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are interlocked in a "psychoimmunoendocrine" network that serves as a multidirectional, body-wide system in which every part communicates with every other part. This concept nullifies the prevailing idea that the mind has power over the body. "Instead, emotions are the nexus between mind and matter, going back and forth between the two and influencing both," says Pert. With body integration those connections have been mapped out so that in the therapeutic process can release those that do not flow freely.
Homeopathy, from Greek homoeo (meaning similar) and pathos (meaning suffering) is a system of medicine based on treating like with like. The same principle is widespread in mainstream medicine, the most notable examples being antidotes and vaccines. The theory that like can be treated with like can be traced back as far Hypocrites (468 -377 BC), but it wasn't until the work of Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) that the theory developed into a usable practice.
Hahneman's provings consisted in giving doses of various substances to both himself and his healthy volunteers, and noting the effects in detail. For safety reasons, the substances taken were very dilute, and it is here that Hahnemann chanced upon one of the more puzzling aspects of Homeopathy. The more dilute a homeopathic medicine is, the more effective it is in treating illness.
The Similium is the single substance which if given to a healthy person would produce exactly the same symptoms as exhibited by the patient.
In addition to the range of symptoms which must be included in a case to find the right homeopathic remedy, precision is also important. For example there are nearly 5,000 headaches in our symptom database; a different remedy may be prescribed depending on when symptoms occur, the type of pain, where in the head it is, what may have bought it on, what other symptoms are experienced, etc.
Emotion, in its most general definition, is a neural impulse that moves an organism to action, prompting automatic reactive behavior that has been adapted through evolution as a survival mechanism to meet a survival need. Emotion are feelings expressed through physiological functions such as facial expressions, faster heartbeat, and behaviors such as aggression, crying, or covering the face with hands. Examples of emotions are joy, anger, fear, disgust, surprise, and empathy.
Emotion is differentiated from feeling, in that, emotion is a psycho-physiological state that moves an organism to action. Feeling, on the other hand, is emotion that is filtered through the cognitive brain centers, specifically the frontal lobe, producing a physiological change in addition to the psycho-physiological change. Emotional isolation has been used to describe people who are not able, for some reason, to confide their feelings in anyone. With Body Integration we search for the blockage to allow one to experience feelings in a normal centered manner.