Information on popular complementary and alternative medical topics

The word psychosomatic has come to stay, for the relationship between the bodily reactions and the emotions is well established. There are many diseases, the infections for instance, which will occur despite our mental attitude towards them. But there are some whose manifestations are distinctly physical which seem to be practically initiated by the emotions. The digestive system is especially prone to these troubles. Throughout the body, nowhere is a lone hand being played, and the digestive system which is helping in the formation of blood, the storage of blood, and the handling of the sugar of the body (to mention a few of the jobs which it is doing on the side, as it were), is being helped or at times hindered by the emotions. Really, we should not talk of hindering or helping. Both mind and body are working for team-play, and if they get the signals mixed at times you must remember that their collection of plays would make our leading college teams look like a sandlot bunch of fifth graders.

Only in recent years has it really been appreciated how much emotions may disturb this system, although William Beaumont in the early nineteenth century watched their effect in the stomach of Alexis St. Martin. In recent years physiologists have noted that our nervous system and our emotions play almost a dominant part in the function of the stomach. A number of persons with permanent openings into their stomachs have now been studied, particularly one in New York who is a wonderful subject for this work. He is a fine fellow but strongly emotional, who likes, dislikes, fears, and worries with intensity. When he is disturbed, the lining of his stomach becomes swollen with blood, dark red; and the muscular action increases; and so does the secretion of digestive fluid. Under these conditions the stomach lining is easily injured, which may explain the incidence of ulcer. When the cave man felt this way he took a club and hit somebody over the head. He probably had no ulcer. We are paying one of the penalties of civilization with repressed emotions, which strike inwardly as it were.

It is not so easy to get hold of the emotions and treat them, so doctors have to treat the ulcers. Most of you have heard of the Sippy diet. Dr. Sippy has been a killjoy for vast numbers of people. The diet usually starts off with a dull visit to the hospital in order that the doctor may become acquainted with your mind and matter. You are given the most uninteresting of foods at frequent intervals. Then you have to take alkalies – things like cooking soda. You are also given sedatives to quiet your nerves and medicines like atropin which decrease your stomach secretions but also dry up your mouth in a disagreeable manner. This isn’t much fun. The great majority of peptic ulcer cases get along fairly well. The best treatment is to cultivate equanimity and not develop an ulcer. Advice easy to give but hard for many to follow.

From here on down the alimentary canal the emotions have great influence. An acute diarrhea resulting from nervousness is not an unusual occurrence. Naturally there are at times some sensations coming from the intestines, particularly when they are overloaded, or when peristalsis (that is, intestinal movements) is increased; or when there is much gas in the intestines. Incidentally, intestinal gas is now believed to be mostly swallowed air, and nervous persons are much given to increased swallowing.

Colitis, or inflammation of the large intestine, is a chronic disease sometimes going on to ulceration, when it is a distressful dangerous condition. It seems pretty certain now that it is definitely linked up with the nervous system and emotions. The nervous impulses increase the amount and activity of the digestive juices. They may then break through the protective mucus which the whole tract secretes. So we get ulcers in the stomach and duodenum, or colitis lower down. The patient has to go on a bland diet and be denied all sorts of pleasant things. This would seem to be a rather dull life but I know a woman who is a great and famous mountaineer, yet she gets along without coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and onions and appears healthy and, what is more, cheerful.

Medicine has undoubtedly concerned itself mostly with the physical side of man and has been chary of admitting the part that the emotions have played in physical ills. Only in recent times have psychology and psychiatry assumed large importance in medicine. Yet, emotions have much to do with regulating bodily functions. We are stressing this influence more in the handling of illness.

Such things as anger, grief, and other emotional upsets may be the foundation of bodily upsets. Joy, pleasure, and most particularly courage are great aids in treatment. At this moment there come to mind two persons whom I have recently referred to capable physicians. One appeared to be developing rheumatoid arthritis; the other was obese. In each case the emotional background was immediately studied.

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GENERAL HEALTH

Most people can gamble without becoming addicted. The problem is to identify those who can’t gamble socially without falling into the pit of uncontrolled wagering. Next, it’s even a bigger difficulty to get them to avoid gambling before it becomes an addiction. No one knows how – yet. But the experts agree: Giving money to a gambler is like giving alcohol to an alcoholic. If your gambler won’t seek treatment, stand aside or you almost certainly will be drawn into a web of lies spun to support this habit. Of course, you can try to ease the way, but the gambler must want to help him or her.

How can you tell whether someone is a gambling addict? Look for clues: betting slips, casino chips, unexplained big credit card debts, absences from home or work. Here’s how gambling grows into addiction:

•   Phase 1: “Social” gambling. Gambling is done less to be social and more to fill a need. Men need gambling for excitement; women, for escape. Wagers – and wins and losses – will increase.

•   Phase 2: The trigger. A very large win is heady stuff. The gambler feels Lady Luck will repeat the win. This leads to large losses of money and self-esteem.

•   Phase 3: The chase. To pursue wins, the individual places more and more bets. Addiction has set in. Big borrowing begins.

•   Phase 4: The gambler feels out of control and tries to stop, feeling he or she has hit bottom. In debt, the family devastated, gambling stops, then resumes with greater frenzy.

• Phase 5: The gambler bottoms out and finally seeks treatment. It could take years to reach it, but there is yet another bottom, with family and assets gone, a huge debt, and possibly a criminal record. Now treatment is wanted. Few compulsives achieve long-term abstinence, but victory is all the sweeter for those who do.

Says Howard Shaffer, director of the Norman Zinberg Center for Addiction Studies at Harvard, “Gamblers don’t get the sympathy drunks or drug addicts get. We blame alcohol or drugs, which aren’t the cause but rather are the expression of these addictions. Gambling can’t be blamed on a substance, but gambling too expresses an addiction, not an evil personality.”

Compulsive gambling is destructive and costly, and we are doing too little to stop it. Medical and scientific research may yield a solution, some day. But our social attitudes about gambling also could yield a great deal through change, today.

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GENERAL HEALTH