Psychoneuro-immunology (PNI)… a mouthful to say the least, and it is helpful to break up the word into it’s component parts:
- Psyche - the mind component or study of psychology, the cognitive and emotional processes involving mood states.
- Neuro - the neurological connections e.g. neurotransmitters and neuroendocrine secretions, or study of neurology
- Immunology - how the immune system e.g. the cellular and humeral components are impacted, or the study of immunology.
The study of the interaction of behavioral, neural, and endocrine factors and the functioning of the immune system. (3)
The study of interactions, bidirectional communication occurring between behavior, brain, the immune and endocrine systems. (4)
My personal favorite was from Dr. Kirsti Dyer’s website on Transitional Medicine: PNI is an interdisciplinary science that studies the interrelationships between psychological, behavioral, neuroendocrine processes and immunology. (2)
PNI includes the effect of the mind and emotions on the immune system. We have Dr. Candice Pert to thank for her discovery of the opiate receptor in cell biology (a basic receptor responsible for the pleasure principle and my lingering addiction to chocolate). Basically PNI is extremely new, looking to discover how the body-mind-emotions affect cell repair, regulation, communication, protein synthesis – all things which we now understand affect qi production. Finally! A Medical paradigm that includes what Traditional Chinese Medicine has observed for several thousand years.
Cells are repaired and regulated at different rates depending upon the type of cell - epithelia in the digestive lining live a couple of days, skin cells, three weeks; red blood cells 120 days, and bone cells, several years. Dying cells are replaced with newly formed cells, a process known as cell turnover. (5) As you may have already guessed, the strength and speed by which cells are repaired depend upon the raw materials that we provide for it (diet, cellular nutition, sleep), and how effectively the body is able to make that repair (bodywork, sleep). However, what you may not know is that the cells are bathed in neuropeptides, hormones, protein fragments, and enzymes that all dictate how well we metabolize our food, the strength of our immune system, inflammatory processes in the body. They are dramatically affected by our emotions because of the chemical messengers released during certain emotional states (e.g. prostaglandins, cortisol, adrenaline). Someone who lives in chronic fear, worry, or stress bathes their cells in a very different chemical environment than someone who meditates every day in a cave, or who gets to run and play on a daily basis; they have a different cellular environment to show for it. Added up over time, these micro-changes play a much larger role for things like cell-to-cell communication, fertility, metabolism.
The time needed for cell reproduction and repair is one of the fundamental reasons that chronic disease and pain are not healed quickly – this is something I have to explain constantly to patients. It takes time for the cells to repair themselves, and a long period of proper nutrients, rest, exercise, bodywork to support the healing process. As we have stated before, even if it seems like it happened overnight, unless you were in an accident, it didn’t. And it takes time for the body to heal. The hardest part of my job is when a patient leaves before the miracle happens, or who absolutely won’t take any action to help support this process on their own. For them, at most all I can do is make them comfortable a few days a week.
Not surprisingly then, our emotions are a reflection of our cellular health and well-being. At some point in the not too distant future, they will be able to predict with some certainty the chemical effects that the various emotions have on the immune system.
In future columns we will cover more about the TCM approach to the mind and emotions and how they affect the physical organs. For now I want to make a pitch to include some of the following activities in your self-care routine and briefly explain why. (See 3/3)
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