Comments on: The Stress Factor https://livingwithscleroderma.com/the-stress-factor/ Reflections on the Messy Complexity of Chronicity Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:08:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 By: Evelyn Herwitz https://livingwithscleroderma.com/the-stress-factor/#comment-2582 Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:08:12 +0000 http://www.livingwithscleroderma.com/?p=2362#comment-2582 In reply to Connie Evans.

Thanks, Jesse (and Connie)! I actually read some of Seyle back when I was first getting sick. That’s when I made the connection. So much research is now being done in the field of psychoneuroimmunology, and there is plenty of reason and research to believe that meditation works to change brain chemistry and body chemistry for the better. Now, I just need to be more disciplined about it and keep practicing! Always good to hear from you.

]]> By: Evelyn Herwitz https://livingwithscleroderma.com/the-stress-factor/#comment-2581 Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:05:02 +0000 http://www.livingwithscleroderma.com/?p=2362#comment-2581 In reply to Pat Bizzell.

Thanks, Pat. I appreciate your support. Not ready to lead any meditation groups, but I certainly am trying to develop my own practice.

]]> By: Connie Evans https://livingwithscleroderma.com/the-stress-factor/#comment-2580 Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:01:54 +0000 http://www.livingwithscleroderma.com/?p=2362#comment-2580 Hi Evie,
Many years ago, following up on a reference in a bibliography in “Understanding Media”, I read Hans Seyle’s “The Stress Of Life”. This was, I think, the seminal work which made the term “stress” part of everyday language, and started a whole field of scientific inquiry. Seyle was an experimental psychologist, using animal models to study the effects of various types of stressors on animal endocrine systems. His research demonstrated that an otherwise healthy animal could be made quite ill by stress, and that the “organ” that failed was part of the endocrine system, frequently multiple glands interacting with each other.
As is frequently the case, media reporting on stress has dumbed down the public understanding, but the effects of over secretion of various stress hormones is powerful and wearing.
The problem also suffers from the fact that the profit motive can’t stimulate drug companies to action. The endocrine system is complex, interrelated, and most drugs are developed towards the replacement of secretions of a specific organ which is failing. No single drug could balance the whole system when it is driven into unbalance due to over-secretion of a particular gland.
That is why meditation can be so helpful. It holds the possibility of focusing the brain’s power on the problem, and that just might be the right approach since it is the brain that exercises the most control.
Best of luck Evie!
Sincerely, Jesse Evans (busybody)

]]> By: Pat Bizzell https://livingwithscleroderma.com/the-stress-factor/#comment-2579 Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:25:27 +0000 http://www.livingwithscleroderma.com/?p=2362#comment-2579 Wow. It’s powerful to know this about yourself. I admire the coping styles you have developed. Now you see why I somehow instinctively thought of you as a meditation leader.

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