Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Your Thoughts Can Change Your Body

Everyone knows that positive thinking makes you feel happier.  Most people do not realize that negative thoughts and emotions can actually change your body structure. 

Dr.  Apostolus Georgopoulus, director of the Brain Science Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, led a study that found a distinctive pattern of brain signals to exist in victims of PSTD (post-traumatic stress disorder).  A new and expensive machine called MEG (magnetoencephalography) found clusters of abnormal brain signals in the area of the brain involved in memory for both men and women with PSTD.

It is an incredible concept that the emotional stress from traumatizing situations has been found to change the brain structure and how brain signals are delivered.  There is more proof that trauma or acute emotional stress can trigger a body change.  Another example of this type of phenomenon is called a "concussion" of the heart.  It is really a heart attack that is caused by stress instead of a heart attack sourced from a blocked artery according to Dr. Scott Sharkey, a cardiologist from the Minneapolis Heart Institute.  The adrenaline surge from an emotionally charged situation affects the heart's main pumping chamber hurting its ability to properly pump blood.  It can be fatal on occasion, but patients can recover with care in a hospital.  The heart can even return to its regular shape and function after a few days.

People do not realize how our health is predicated on a mind/body connection.  We need to respect how powerful our mind and emotions are.  I am going to try to think happy thoughts and your body hopes you think happy thoughts too.

Stay healthy & well,
Lisa

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