Psycotron Bioelectronics

STRESS : THE SIN OF THE ORIGIN
by Vincenzo Iannone

THE MIND-BODY LINK
The capacity which the living structure has of controlling environmental threats, is entrusted to a complex protective mechanism, which, through sensorial channels, is rapidly informed and primed when the spheres placed in a "critical evaluation function", "recognize" through codified experiences, potentially dangerous situations.
In this way each situation is confronted by means of a system of evaluation of comparative synthesis which, on the basis of stereotype behavior and subjective experience, is rigorously informed by the biological program, which constantly tends towards the protection and preservation of the psychophysical integrity, and decides, therefrom three fundamental actions:

1) defense by means of attack.
2) flight.
3) A "modus vivendi" which establishes a tacit co-existence with the agent or new situation not considered to be aggressive and, therefore, not dangerous.

This mental process mobilizes the organic defenses by means of physiological solicitations which alter the normal homeostatic balance.
The body therefore, obeys in an irrational way to the continuous solicitations requested by the mind and obeys only in relation to the classification and valuation of the most varied stimuli.
By means of this mechanism "life" tends to ensure the life and the preservation of the species. Mind and body are two different aspects of the same reality.
This inseparable dualism creates a reciprocal influence of one on the other: the body can exert influence on the mental processes and in the same way the mental processes can exert influence on organic physiology.
Only in the last ten years has research experimented with this new reality, which had long been given voice to by the earliest pioneers of medicine. Modern therapeutics tend more and more to the synthesis of a psychosomatic pathology enumerating countless illnesses; for example gastric and duodenal ulcers, colitis, allergies, metabolic and glandular disturbances, cardiovascular illness, hypertension, which is the main cause factor in myocardial heart attacks and in cerebral hemorrhages, which nowadays is considered to be a real social illness, due to its high mortality rate. Recent research has related the pathology of both the rheumatic and the autoimmune system to mental alteration. Modern research underlines a psychosomatic link with cancer, through two principal mechanisms : the viral hypothesis through the depression of the immune system, "consumed" by stressful situations, and the hypothesis of tension, through a mechanism of "cellular asphyxia" which favors a process of "muting" of the cells on the genetic program.
One can also hypothesize that the depression of the immune system in an individual can lead to the origin and installation of the A.I.D.S. syndrome. Presupposing that the afore mentioned syndrome is transmitted by "healthy" individuals too, one can deduce that such individuals are endowed with a defense system which is capable, if only temporary, of creating a coexistence with the pathogenic agents.
In the light of this research, the illness in general, when not generated by accidental or traumatic external factors, by environmental stress, such as pollution, an excess of heat or cold, is to be attributed to a psychogenic action, which soliciting the normal biological functions, alters the normal biochemical balance.
The intuitive concept of the mind-body relationship, which medical pioneers such as Hypocrates had formulated, is today demonstrated and supported by laboratory research, where special apparatuses emphasize and measure, the physiological variations of the individual as regards to an emotional stimulus; as when a stone is thrown into a calm lake and disturbs the normal tranquility and balance.

THE GENESIS OF STRESS.

The term "stress" normally indicates a "breaking point" when the normal homeostatic balance is altered by a "violent action". The homeostasis represents the conditions of internal balance, which through a mechanism of self regulation, tends to maintain the internal balance of the body humors in a stable condition as regards to the various environmental solicitations. When a situation exceeds the normal threshold of toleration, organic resources are mobilized, predisposing themselves for fight or flight. The situation which alters the homeostasis is technically defined as the "stressor", which besides having universally dangerous characteristics, such as threat to the psychophysical integrity of the individual, is evaluated by the biological structure on the basis of its own code which is informed by subjective experience. Laboratory results demonstrate that physiological responses are extremely subjective depending on the stimuli which have caused them. Stress, therefore, representing individual responses to specific situations which alter the normal homeostatic balance.

STRESS AND ILLNESS

The environmental situations codified by the biological structure as being dangerous and therefore a possible threat to continuity, predispose the organism for fight or flight through homeostatic changes. The vital organs are solicited to produce different energy levels in order to face dangerous situations, by means of metabolic processes. Since this often comes about in abnormal ways, it has been noted that the organs alter their function and chemical process thus giving origin to the pathologic course.
At first it was believed that there was a precise link of cause and effect between the stimulus and the corresponding organic change.
Laboratory research demonstrates that there is, however, a tendency or an individual organic predisposition which determines "the target organ".
The hypothesis is being meets with growing approval due to results of laboratory tests. By means of administrating key stimuli, many different responses, not only in their intensity, but also in their "choice of organ" have been obtained. Therefore there is a particular organic preference or predisposition towards the pathology and the neurosis of the organ.
Stress solicitations are also the origin of mental pathology through the solicitations of the neurohormonic system, which alters the normal cenesthesis which controls the pseudo depressive syndrome.
How does all this come about? Why are the responses to the stimuli not precise, and not sighted, and almost always inadequate, abnormal and approximate "compelling" the organs to mal-function? The answer must be looked for in the biological imperatives placed before the preservation of the biological structure and the continuity of the species. Man is the product of a slow and distant evolution and is a long way from being biologically perfect. Illness is an indispensable condition of the vital dynamics and represents a definitively unsophisticated biological response to the most varied agents, which continually tend to alter the psychophysical balance. In every-day life man is continually exposed to stressful solicitations.
The insecurity which the social contest produces, the continual lowering of values, constant instability, have produced the "no future syndrome", which manifests itself in a state of "alert" which is forerunner of an unspecified anxiety and of a innumerable procession of psychomental symptoms which range from an anxiety neuroses to a depressive anxiety syndrome, to phobic obsessive neuroses and to psychophysical stress. This unfavorable social condition generates aggressive and neurotics behavior.
Environmental pollution, sophistication of food stuffs, demographic density, are equally important factors which favor unspecified physiological solicitations and therefore mental and physical illness.
Man's recovery and also his destiny are entrusted to his cognitive capacity to mediate the stimulus-response relationship by means of learning processes for the control of the stimulus itself.
Through training processes the individual learns new mechanism of emotional response toward the most varied environmental situations and to his own condition of conflict.
The hope that a miraculous medicine, one day, might be able to put some order into man's internal conflict is ingenious and illusory simplism.