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About Psycho-Neuroimmunology (PNI)
By Stuart | March 25, 2007
It’s Stuart. I did a bit more research on PNI after Jacklyn bugged me for some input on PNI.
From Wikipedia, the history of PNI originates from a guy called Robert Ader.
In 1974 Robert Ader discovered that the immune system of rats can be conditioned to respond to external stimuli unrelated to immune function. Ader was investigating how long conditioned responses (in the sense of Pavlov‘s conditioning of dogs to drool when they heard a bell ring) might last in laboratory rats. To condition the rats, he used a combination of saccharine-laced water and the drug Cytoxan which induces nausea and suppresses the immune system. Ader was surprised to discover that after conditioning, just feeding the rats saccharine-laced water was sufficient to suppress the immune system of the rats. In other words, a signal via the nervous system (taste) was affecting immune function. This was one of the first scientific experiments that demonstrated that the nervous system can affect the immune system. Ader coined the phrase Psychoneuroimmunology and wrote the two-volume book Psychoneuroimmunology along with David L. Felten and Nicholas Cohen.
In 1981 David Felten, then working at the Indiana University of Medicine, discovered a network of nerves leading to blood vessels as well as cells of the immune system. The researchers also found nerves in the thymus and spleen terminating near clusters of lymphocytes, macrophages and mast cells, all of which help control immune function. This discovery provided one of the first indications of how neuro-immune interaction occurs.
In other words, our immune system can be conditioned for illness and probably also for health. The strange thing is that there is very little literature about PNI other than what I have heard and read myself in other literature.
I’m sure there have been times where you started getting worried about something, ruminated about it, then fallen sick. How about times when you were on the go studying for an examination, working through the night until you finished the exams. You took a break, then you fell sick.
The odd thing is that if we can do this to make us sick, we certainly can do it to make us healthier. One way is the conditioning of external sources of information and making it make us feel better.
For instance, drinking water and conditioning this to sensations of motivation and overall pleasant mood. This act in and of itself makes you feel good eventually, and commonly associated with the concept of anchoring in neuro linguistic programming.
One breaking piece of research from Dr. Bruce Lipton also highlights that beliefs also affect our biochemistry. Our biological receptor cells actually get attuned to the exernal signal or stimulus if we believe that something will affect us.
For example, someone could be fed with soup, but later told that it contained poison. If it were believed, the person could actually start exhibiting symptoms of being poisoned. The role of belief is also being looked into by NLP experts.
Having modeled belief patterns, I’ve found that it’s extremely powerful to have a good set of beliefs that sustain us, especially from a health perspective. If people tell you to “drink more water or you’ll get sick”, it’s a neuro-linguistic command that compels a person to fall sick if they don’t drink water.
The danger, therefore, of using our language effectively is important.
What do you say to yourself? What do you tell people?
Interesting thing is if you tell people something bad out of evil intent, you actually get the negative effects yourself. People falling ill frequently are often a result of over stress, but also a result of negative thinking, which weakens the immune system and allows viruses to pick the locks that shut out illness.
How to be healthier?
Well I’m not suggesting you just think of being healthy.
I want you to visualize being healthy regularly, but the visualization must be based on a specific process. You might think you have to just visualize and see things happening. But that’s not true. Revisit moments of health and explore how you did that in every single, minute clarity.
If you are not clear on visualizing, I recommend you get a copy of Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny. Just remember that NLP models processes. PNI is a process, so implementing the process is an NLP approach, not a PNI approach. I’ve probably got more to say, but I’ll have to save it for another post.
Comments?
Topics: General, Healthy Lifestyle | 4 Comments »
March 28th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Thanks Stuart. The word I use to describe people that can translate complicated stuff to let others understand it better is WISDOM. And that’s one of the quality you have that makes you a great traniner, personal coach and mentor!
May 8th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Those scientific terms really scared me off. However, what were stated by Stuart is certainly right.
I would like to add some slightly off info here (hope you don’t mind), it might be compelling to you. As one of the example mentioned above is drinking water and this reminds me of one of the book that I love by Dr Masaru Emoto, “The Hidden Messages of Water.”
Dr Masaru stated that the crystal of the water changes according to the thought of the observer instantatously, which means no differ time involved. Amazing. However, further experiment could only be done at the quantum level, which involve the local and non-local domain
Since our body consists of 75% of water (adult), the form of the crystal inside us also can be changed as what happens to the water without us.
Dr Masaru believess that everything can correspond with our thought and so far he only can proved it through water.
Thanks,
May 8th, 2007 at 10:43 am
So to be healthier, be gratitude all the time. The water responds to our thought, be it without or within us.
May 17th, 2007 at 4:51 am
Hey Fenton, thanks for sharing this with us. It’s really amazing to me that even water responds to our thoughts!
I personally believe in the Law of Attraction, in how our thoughts can affect us. I strongly recommend everyone to watch the ‘The Secret’. And today, I learn something new in the power of our thoughts!