Relaxation and Meditation Techniques: A Complete Stress-proofing System. Leon Chaitow
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the oxygen changes it into readily available energy. In anticipation of extra activity, the skin cools the body down by opening its pores to encourage perspiration. Since blood is being diverted to the muscles, there is a tendency for the skin to become paler. There may be involuntary urination or defecation, due to an over-reaction of that part of the nervous system responsible for restoring the status quo (the parasympathetic nervous system); normally, however, the sphincters controlling these functions close to prevent any further activity until the crisis is past. Other aspects of the body’s defence capability, the immune system, becomes less active during such arousal. This makes infection more likely at such a time. Since the muscles are tense, they will be producing lactic acid break-down products, which have the effect of re-inforcing the anxiety and tension felt by the individual. This list of activities is by no means fully comprehensive, but it should give an idea of what a devastating effect prolonged stress has on the normal body functions.
In the initial stages of arousal, most systems adapt to and accommodate such changes. After arousal there is a return to the status quo, especially if the response is adequate. However, if arousal is repeated over and over again, then some of the changes mentioned above stop being temporary and become chronic. The term employed to describe this process is the General Adaptation Syndrome (G. A. S.) As the body adapts to repeated and constant stress factors, and as chronic symptoms become an accepted part of life, the general level of health declines. Such symptoms include headaches, dizziness, insomnia, blurred vision, swallowing difficulties, aching neck and shoulder muscles, high blood pressure, heart problems, circulatory problems, palpitations, asthma, allergies, indigestion, ulcers, backache, skin rashes, excessive sweating, colitis, sexual problems, depression, phobias, irritability, etc.
Disturbances occur in the blood-sugar equilibrium, giving rise to wild swings in energy levels and mood. If this is accompanied by the excessive use of sugar in the diet, and of stimulants such as tea, coffee and chocolate, the body’s ability to maintain a normal blood-sugar level can be severely damaged. (Some researchers see this as a major cause of diabetes.) There is often a tendency to under-perform; self-doubt and insecurity become apparent, and there is a tendency for the defence mechanism to break down, making allergies and infections more likely. Personal relationships become strained, libido often disappears and, as a result of all these changes, further anxiety and stress are created. A vicious circle of declining health, resulting from stress, is the bleak picture which is all too familiar in modern society. Accompanied, as it often is, by poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and debilitating habits such as alcohol, tea, coffee, consumption and cigarette smoking, the formula for disaster is well underway. There is no way in which treatment of any such condition, by the use of drugs and medication, can alter anything but the superficial symptoms. Indeed by doing so and neglecting the underlying causes, symptomatic treatment can do nothing but further harm. Masking and disguising a problem will never provide an answer to it.
This adaptation stage is critical in as much as most, if not all, of the symptoms are still reversible if the underlying stress factors are dealt with and attention is paid to nutrition, exercise, structural integrity, etc. How long this stage lasts depends upon many variables, including inherited factors, as well as the degree of stress, basic health habits, and the degree of emotional support available. After a period of years (ten, twenty or more), depending on this and other variables, the exhaustion stage of the G.A.S. will be reached. At this time, the body simply ceases to be able to cope, and there is a collapse into one or other disease state. Break-down finally occurs when even minor stress factors are not dealt with satisfactorily. At this point there may be collapse into a catastrophic illness, such as coronary heart disease, cancer, etc.
Knowledge of the signs and symptoms of stress, and of some of the ways in which the body copes with stress, can be seen as a necessary step towards understanding the enemy. Without being able to recognize and become aware of stress, it is possible to delude oneself that ‘it just won’t happen to me’.
The combination of prolonged stress and chronic fatigue has been put forward by some researchers, (Drs Poteliakhof and Carruthers in their report, Real Health: the Ill Effects of Stress and their Prevention), as a major factor in the cause of such conditions as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and hypertension. The combination of lack of sleep, persistent overwork and chronic anxiety is thought to result in hormonal imbalance, notably adrenal exhaustion or sluggishness. This is thought to interact with constitutional and inherited factors to determine the type of disease which develops.
In the field of heart disease, research at Charing Cross Hospital by Dr Peter Nixon (detailed in Stress and Relaxation by Jane Madders, published by Martin Dunitz) has shown contributory causes to be sustained and inappropriately high levels of arousal. This is mainly, he suggests, the result of the following factors:
1. pressures exerted by people from whom there is no escape; 2. unacceptable time pressures, deadlines, etc; 3. sleep deprivation, and 4. a high score in the life-style changes list (see page 15).
Dr Nixon states that drugs are unsatisfactory in the treatment of hypertension, since the underlying causes are not dealt with.
Among other stress-induced conditions are those that mimic more serious conditions. ‘Symptoms suggesting serious neurological disease are common in patients suffering from anxiety states, or depressive illness, partly, or wholly, attributable to the effects of stress’, states Dr Richard Godwin Austin, consultant neurologist of Nottingham General Hospital. ‘The most common example seen in the neurological outpatient clinic is the patient suffering from recent onset headaches … Patients under physical or psychological stress, frequently develop tension headaches. These may occur in the setting of a depressive reaction, with symptoms of agitation or phobia. The headache often fails to respond to any form of simple analgesic.’
There has also been a good deal of research into stress and its relation to the onset of cancer. The German researcher Dr W. Herberger has noted that chronic anger, disappointment, fear and inability to cope with misfortune often play a role in its development. It has been found that the majority of cancer sufferers have a tendency to dwell on past misfortunes, real or imagined, and they have little sense of the future. Dr Hans Moolenburg, a noted Dutch physician, has described cancer patients as people who have been ‘battered by fate’. It has also been noted that in the U.K., where six out of ten members of the general public acknowledge some belief in God or some spiritual agency, that nine out of ten cancer patients had no such belief. Cancer might therefore be described as, in part, a disease of ‘spiritual deficiency’.
Carl Simonton M. D. is one of the world’s leading researchers into the effect of the mind on the development of and recovery from cancer. He stated1: ‘To summarize what I consider the salient points from the literature and my own experience in working in these areas for four years now, the biggest single factor that I can find as predisposing factor to the actual development of the disease is the loss of a serious love object, occuring six to eighteen months prior to the diagnosis. This is well documented in several long-term studies. Now, the significant thing about this is that obviously not everyone who undergoes a serious loss, such as loss of a spouse or a child, develops a malignancy or any other serious disease. That’s only one factor. The loss, whether real or imagined, has to be very significant; and even more important is the feeling that it engenders in the patient. The loss has to be such, and the response to the loss such, that it engenders the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. Therefore, it’s more than a loss – it’s the culmination of the life-history pattern of the patient. And this also is well defined in the literature.
Personality of the Cancer Patient
‘I believe the work that has come out in Type-A Behaviour and Your Heart (Friedman and Rosenman, 1975), shows clearly that there is a life-history pattern in the development of heart disease, and I believe that, if we continue to look, we will find predisposing psychological factors in the development of all diseases. Those predisposing factors most agreed upon as (negative) personality characteristics of the cancer patient are:
1 a great tendency to hold resentment and a marked inability to forgive.
2 a tendency toward self-pity;
3 a poor