Neuroplasticity - [Was: brain retraining for mcs and more, don't know about effects on mold toxicity]

[Guest guest]

Anne,

I'm far from an expert on neuroplasticity and am not a

psychologist so my terminology may have been more than a little

fuzzy.

I realize it is physical but usually not identified as such, more

often labeled as psychological and that's how most of us

understand it. So that was my starting point. I didn't have a good

ending point so here is my attempt...

What is fascinating to me is the interaction between physical

brain and mental " mind. " As I'm sure you're aware schizophrenia

used to be a mental condition until they found the physiological

dynamics (biochemical). Only recently have a few accepted the

physiological mood altering effects of VOCs on some people.

The latest to be challanged is the placebo effect. If anything is

" mental " or " psychological " it is the placebo effect where mere

belief alters reported effects of FDA mandated medical trials, for

example. If people truly believe they received the real pill rather

than the sugar pill, then they report they got better and they do

get better. The purpose of the studies is to demonstrate that the

improvement is from the medicine rather than the belief that a

medicine has been taken. So they " blind " the participant and the

administrator of the drug (double-blind) so neither knows who got

the real drug and who got the fake drug.

However, big pharma is having extreme difficulty getting many of

their drugs through the placebo comparison trials. Beneditto in

Italy tried a different approach, a triple blind if you will.

It seems that even though the participants didn't know if they

were receiving the drug or the placebo they did know the purpose

of the study, i.e. a heart medication study or a pain reliver study.

When Beneditto kept them blind to the purpose of the trial then

even a well known, well tested, and proven pain medication failed

the placebo even though it has successfully passed it many times

over the years. Not only did it fail but it failed miserabley. Actually,

it failed totally. It had ZERO effect! No effect on any of the study

participants if they didn't know the purpose of the study was for a

pain drug.

His hypothesis, which is being tested in an international

cooperative study by all Big Pharma companies, is that

" anticipation " is not just emotional or psychological but also has a

biochemical component. Remove anticipation and the

biochemistry changes rendering the previous medicine physically

ineffective. The effective drugs were being selected for the

biochemistry which included the anticipation neurons and

chemistry.

So, if there is any merit to this, then neuroplasticity and others

should work not only because of the physical phenomena but

also because of the " anticipation " (which is more credible to me

than " belief " ).

Unless...

Unless the " force " of the environmental exposure overpowers

whatever biochemistry is in my brain no matter what I think or

how hard I try to ignore (or alter) the symptoms. The effect is still

there despite my best efforts of will and psychological techniques.

My hypothesis is that neuroplasticity (and others) can be very

beneficial but they are not the sole " cure " because they are not

the sole " cause. "

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

-----

Carl,

Have you read about neuroplasticity? It is not a " psychological "

approach in the way that you mean. I am a Psychologist and have been

on both sides of the couch, so to speak. Yes, there is a place for

psychological treatment for anyone who has lost their old life to

illness, especially our " unexplained " and unaccepted illness. We

invariably develop issues and feelings related to coping with the

illness, family and friends who don't get it, mourning the loss of

one's health and our old life, etc..

But that is not to say that the etiology is " psychological. " I've

had that from friends and family and I say to .... with them. I'm

not here to say that neuroplasticity works. I'm saying that I am

trying it, it makes sense to me. There are a lot of treatments out

there that help some people and not others. I think this group forum

is a nice way to share ideas about what has helped us and what

hasn't. There are no panaceas out there, but some people actually do

get better. I know some of them. Anne

On Dec 17, 2009, at 2:50 PM, Carl E. Grimes wrote:

> Anne,

>

> Thanks for your experience with the Gupta method. I read the

> interview Genser had with him on her Web site

> PlanetThrive. There is also a Christian-based method in Georgia

> which claims a similar success. A friend of mine achieved great

> results about 5 years ago. By " great " I mean it helped a lot but not

> with everything and some didn't last.

>

> My take on approaches like this is that some may help but not as

> a " cure " and definitely not that the cause is psychological. The

> cause is physical. But the physical can affect our cognition and

> our behavior and that is what these and the skeptics totally miss.

>

> We can also easily become " habituated " to a particular way of

> thinking (anticipating) and responding about exposures, where

> they occur, and what the effect will be. Also, when our family and

> friends don't believe our " invisible " experience we tend to make

> them " visible " with our words and actions.

>

>

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