Information on the Immune System

[Fontaine]

Since I mentioned information related to this several times, thought I'd repost a discussion I wrote for my alternative medicine course in the hopes you all would find it both informative and encouraging. Since it was for a course, it's written in a more academic style. Please don't let that put you off as the information is really eye-opening. At least it was for me. Without further ado...

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Of the five misconceptions made by traditional western doctors about the "placebo effect" that Weil (1998) lists, I am choosing to examine the first one—that being,: "Placebo responses are not as strong as objective effects of treatments and can be differentiated from objective effects on that basis (p. 208).

Last night while perusing a book on emotional intelligence written by the scholar considered to be the foremost proponent of the concept, Daniel Goleman (Goleman, 1995), I discovered a chapter on mind and medicine, within which a section, "The Body's Mind: How Emotions Matter for Health" discussed an actual mechanism by which the mind and body communicate.

According to Goleman (1995), in 1974, a psychologist, Robert Ader, discovered that the immune system (which consists primarily of the lymphatic system and related organs such as the spleen, bone marrow, thymus (The immune system, 2003). Ader found that when rats were given a medication that suppressed the immune system along with a placebo, even when the medication was withheld, the rats' immune system continued to function in a depressed manner. This finding totally contradicts the notion that the placebo effect is "weaker" than that of a "material" medical treatment. Ader's conclusion was that the immune system "learned" (Goleman, op cit). From a slightly different perspective, "The immune system is the 'body's brain,' as neuroscientist Francoise Varela, at Paris's Ecole Polytechnique, puts it, defining the body's own sense of self of what belongs within it and what does not" (Varela, 1990, cited in Goleman, op cit, p. 166).

Since Ader's discovery, a new field called "psychoneuroimmunology" has emerged and established itself (Goleman, 1995). A further discovery within this field is specific connections between the immune and the nervous systems. Studies have discovered synapselike contacts between the nerve terminals of the autonomic nervous system and immune cells (Goleman, op cit, p. 167). He states, "In short, the nervous system not only connects to the immune system, but is essential for proper immune function."

Because of the rate of new knowledge generation, it is extremely difficult for any medical practitioner to stay abreast of new knowledge that could potentially improve his/her practice. However, it is hoped that some of these enlightening discoveries will make their way into medical training as well as professional development required for certification maintenance. This assumes that old biases will begin to lift as new discoveries related to the mind/body relationship help correct the misconceptions--especially related to the power of the placebo effect--that Weil has observed.

REFERENCES

Goleman, G. (1995). Emotional intelligence. NY: Bantam Books.

The immune system. (2003). Retrieved May 27, 2005, from NIAID Net News Web Site: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/final/immun/immun.htm

Weil, A. (1998). Health and Healing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

[StephN]

Hello Fontaine
I, too, believe in the mind-body connection to some degree. I have utilized a lot of inner "work" in both my so-far-successful fights with metasteses. Visualization in detail of the effect of the various drugs as they work to kill the cancer cells was employed. Hopefully I have sent a message to whatever abilities available in my body to kill cancer cells. And I hope this has become ingrained or "learned" as you put it.
Why this technique should work within my body and not others is a big question, as I know women who were NOT successfu in their fights who say they did the same thing.

I believe that there ARE other steps we can take to improve our immune systems and give our bodies further tools to fight the cancer cells with.
There is a good article on the success of COQ10 in the encouragement of cancer cell death posted on the Articles of Interest section here that I was very interested by.

I quote:
"In laboratory and animal studies, the UM researchers found
that by delivering CoQ10 to cancer cells and tissues, the molecule
induced apoptosis, which is the normal programmed cell death that goes
awry in the disease process. "The most amazing part is that we've
been able to restore a cancer cell's ability to kill itself, while
not impacting normal cells," said Niven Narain, research associate
in the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery at the Miller
School of Medicine.


The scientists made two presentations at the annual
meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, Ca.
The first presentation involved the most common prostate cancer cell
line, PC3. The researchers showed that adding CoQ10 to the cells in
vitro, or in the laboratory, there was a 70 percent inhibition of cell
growth over 48 hours and a reversal in the expression of a key
anti-apoptotic protein, bcl-2. "We saw evidence that the remarkable
reduction in cell growth was due to apoptosis, showing that CoQ10
restored the ability of the cancer cells to kill themselves," said
Narain."

COQ10 is one supplement I have taken daily since just BEFORE my diagnosis in Oct. 2000. I continued to take it, but increased my dose after my liver mets showed up not long after completing adjuvent chemo and rads. There may be a whole combination of things I am doing that give my body an edge against my cancer the helps account for my success against aggressive mets and staying in remission.

Keep asking the questions and adding to your knowledge base, as this is where our confidence builds and we gain more strength to keep fighting.

[Lyn]

Hi, I have always been troubled with enlarged lymph glands in the neck my whole life, when I was younger it was my tonsils poisioning me so they were removed, (attacking my kidneys) when I was older and had enlarged lymph glands in the neck it was put down to having remnants of the tonsils left behind inflamming. When I got other symptoms it was suggested I had glandular fever but did not show in blood tests. When I was an adult I had worse symptoms with it and it was discovered I had a low grade connective tissue disorder (at the time they thought Lupus) it was treated with sulphasalazine. Blood tests when I got BC revealed that during the past 12 months I had contracted Glandular Fever, but as I was so sick with the connective tissue disorder I thought nothing of it. Glandular Fever is suggested as a trigger for BC, I found this info on the net. Now I have discovered my connective tissue disorder is not Lupus but Sjrogens which attacks all the saliva glands, similar to chemo therapy. The interesting thing is that they now treat Lumpus with chemo, Methotrexate, the "M" in CMF. Methotrexate is also used for Head and Neck cancer, hence the enlarged glands in the neck. Is their a connection, you BET YA!!!

Love & Hugs Lyn

[P.S.]

For those that do not now what a connective tissue disorder does, your own body's immune systmem attacks healthy parts of the body resulting in pain and much suffering and in some cases death when it attacks the organs, sound familar, seems much like another form of cancer with a better name.


Hugs Lyn