KQED Call-In Yields Insights Into Pain

This post also appears on PaloAltoPatch and BayCitizen.

According to Dr. Sean Mackey, understanding the link between mind and body can make a world of difference, particularly when it comes to dealing with pain.  He should know.  After all, he’s the head of Stanford University’s Division of Pain Management and spends a lot of time researching and thinking about these kinds of things.

Not too long ago I got so immersed in what this guy was discovering that I ended up writing a post about it for this web site.  And then, just the other day, I found myself talking to him on the phone.

Well, not exactly.  Truth be told, he was the guest on KQED’s “Forum” program and I just happened to call in with a question.  For those who didn’t catch the show, I thought I’d share a transcript of my question and his response.  

ME:  Hi there.  Just a couple of points that were brought up earlier – obviously this idea that pain could very well be in one’s head and also the idea that pain is genetic.  And the comments reminded me of something that Dr. Herb Benson, in one of the studies that he did recently, that pointed out that actually that one’s thought – specifically meditation and, related to that, prayer – could actually impact the makeup of one’s genes.  And I’d just like to get the guest’s comments on this idea that thought impacts your genes and, by association, pain.

MICHAEL KRASNY (host): Sean Mackey?

DR. SEAN MACKEY:  Yeah.  Two things.  One is, we spend a lot of time educating patients on this concept that fundamentally pain is an experience in the brain.  And we have to be careful with that because the last thing I want to do is for people to think that I’m invalidating what they’re experiencing because people are so used to being told, “Oh, it’s all in your head.”  And that’s not the message.  The message is, that pain is a brain phenomenon; that pain doesn’t actually exist in our finger and in our back.  Those are just crazy, mixed-up electrochemical signals.  It’s not until it hits the brain that it becomes the experience of pain.  And to the second point, yes, there is growing awareness and data that supports that there is a direct connection between mind and body and that our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions can shape gene expression and shape the substances that are produced.  And Melanie touched upon that earlier with this idea of us, you know, pro-inflammatory cytokines, these stress substances that change when we have these very dark thoughts.  A lot of that is mediated through changes in gene expression.

MICHAEL KRASNY:  The fact is, you know, anybody who has experienced even a modicum of depression knows that that kind of pain can be far more difficult to contend with than, in many instances, physical pain, chronic and acute pain.

DR. SEAN MACKEY: And we’re learning that the same brain systems that become abnormal in depression overlap with those that cause us to experience and change pain.

Pretty interesting stuff.  

Click here if you’d like to listen to the entire show… and here if you’d like to read how a good friend of mine used prayer to deal with pain following a serious injury.

The Source and Potential of Consciousness

This post originally appeared on Blogcritics.  It also appears on BayCitizen and PaloAltoPatch.

As I was poking around the Internet, I ran across a mind-blowing video featuring physician-turned-mind-body-guru, Deepak Chopra, producer of the recently released meditation video game, Leela.  I gotta tell you, this guy has a real knack for taking extraordinarily complex ideas and reducing them to clever little nuggets of wisdom.

“Consciousness cannot be perceived, but without it there is no perception,” he said.  “It cannot be cognized, but without it there is no thought.”

Speaking of consciousness, there seems to be an increasing number of folks who feel that consciousness – as imperceptible as it may be – is actually at the root of everything we experience.  Not just what we think but what we see, what we feel, even our health.  Still, as the narrator of the aforementioned video puts it, “We know neither the source of its existence nor the limitation of its potential, but it could be the most important exploration of our time.”

Over the years, my own exploration of this topic has yielded some pretty interesting observations.

First, I’ve figured out that consciousness has to reside somewhere outside my brain.  Think about it: have you ever found yourself saying to someone, “That’s exactly what I was thinking”?  How could this be possible if the source of what they were thinking was somehow locked inside their head?  

Second, I’ve concluded that consciousness knows no limits.  New ideas occur to practically everyone every day. This fact alone would seem to indicate that there are no restrictions to its potential.

So, then, where does consciousness come from?  And where is it taking us?  Perhaps a clue or two might be found in the impact consciousness has on our health.  Just ask medical researcher, Gail Ironson.

Dr. Ironson conducted a study to determine the relationship between consciousness and the progression of AIDS.  She looked at two key factors: viral load, which lets you know how much of the virus is in your body, and immune cells, which work to fend off the AIDS virus.  Bottom line: Those who were actively cultivating a spiritual outlook had a much lower viral load and maintained immune cells at a noticeably higher rate than those who consciously disavowed such activity.

Although I’ve never had to deal with anything as serious as AIDS, I’ve noticed a similar pattern in my own experience.  Simply put, the more I think about my spirituality, the better I feel.

So what does this all mean?  While one – or even a hundred – medical studies might not provide us with any definitive answers, there are at least two intriguing possibilities to consider.  One is that the source of consciousness, by whatever name you call it, is divine.  The other is that its potential impact on our health is huge.

Certainly this is something worth exploring further. 

Taking A Stand For Health

This post also appears on BayCitizen and PaloAltoPatch.

My morning news scan began by reading an article in The Christian Science Monitor about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and “8 peaceful protests that bolstered civil rights.”  As someone who was little more than three years old when Dr. King was assassinated, these were not events I remembered personally but nevertheless appreciate being reminded of.   

Dr. King’s legacy runs broad and deep.  But for me the most important lesson I continue to learn from his example is that even the most aggressive and persistent forms of tyranny can and will be defeated.

Of course, tyranny has many faces – racial prejudice, discrimination, segregation, economic injustice, and so on – all of which require constant vigilance in order to keep them in check.  But there’s another kind of tyranny that, although perhaps less obvious than the rest, deserves equal vigilance and against which increasing numbers are taking a stand.

More and more these days we read about people who are discovering that their health is not restricted to the dictates of drug-based medicine.  Instead they’re realizing that consciousness plays a key – even essential – role in the process.

One of the most intriguing of these individuals is Dr. Lissa Rankin.  This physician cum mind-body expert from the North Bay recently gave a TED talk that began with this provocative question: “What if I told you that caring for your body was the least important part of your health?”  Either you’d say she’s nuts… or that maybe she’s onto something.

If you listen to her entire talk, you’ll learn that Dr. Rankin is not suggesting that anyone adopt an unhealthy lifestyle or even one that gives up all use of drugs – only one that acknowledges that there’s a direct correlation between consciousness and health.

Of course, there are many others who have joined in the crusade to find better, more reliable approaches to health care.  But perhaps the most important ones are people like you and me – regular folks who are discovering that things like gratitude and compassion, patience and forgiveness can have a significant and lasting impact on our health.