Holistic Self Improvement - The Mind-Body Connection

The book, "The Divided Mind" is about the psychosomatic (mental) disorders that arise from interaction problems between a person's conscious and unconscious minds.

The author John Sarna MD states that his goal is to "make clear that almost all common pain disorders that have afflicted millions through the years are psychosomatic".

Psychosomatic problems are not illness - "they are a part of life, part of the human condition." An individual is not personally responsible for getting a psychosomatic problem but they are personally responsible for getting rid of it.

This book has been based on pioneering research from six physicians who worked with John E. Sarna's theories which in turn are based on thousands of patient case studies. All of this work has been further reinforced by the studies of psychotherpists.

As a mind- body doctor, John Sarna MD's job is to help a patient understand his problems then the patient can banish it from his/her self.

He states that unconscious emotions cause diseases like acid reflux, ulcers, skin problems, allergies and much more. Plus they are a factor in auto-immune disorders as cancers and cardiovascular conditions. Given the wide range of problems caused by and related to unconscious emotions, the author believes that ignoring unconscious emotional problems in treating a person borders on being criminal.

He explains this with numerous historical examples, syudies and case histories of patients who have manifested psychosomatic disease and how they were cureed.

One of his claims is that "Textbooks state that fibromyalgia is of unknown cause and is not curable. I've cured patients with fibromyalgia".

According to John Sarna MD the trends of the last half century is that doctors are only willing to resolves physical problems with physical solutions. Depression, for example, begins with an unconscious mental process that releases brain chemicals that lead to the physical sensations of depression. So to treat depression with chemicals (pills) but no psychotherapy is dangerous (a common modern practice).

Because we can solve many problems and have had some amazing breakthroughs in the laboratory, doctors have become more focused on what can be known only in a lab (i.e. physical solutions) but humans are not just mechanical but are so interlocked with their mind, that rather than mind AND body - mind-body is a better term to describe how people work.

In psycho somatic disorders " the brain induces actual physical changes in the body."

On interesting fact that the book brought up is that hysterical disorders (nuttiness) and psychosomatic disorders tend to spread like a virus through a population "when the disorder is in vogue"

That means that when a disease is in fashion many people develop symptoms for it!

Example: In 1996 in Norway there was an unusual rise in incidents of 'whiplash syndrome'. This is a condition where people would get neck and shoulder pain at the slightest bumper push. It was discovered by studying a country that had no cases of whiplash (Lithuania) that there were 3 main reasons that this epidemic existed in Norway.

1. Doctor's couldn't explain it
2. Medical insurance was easily available
3. Wiplash syndrome was in fashion

These are exactly the conditions that exist for the large number of popular American diseases (ex. Acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, tension and migraine headaches etc.)

Most of these diseases are caused by a condition labeled TMS, which is a "mild, localized reduction in blood flow to a small region of a specific body structure, such as a spinal nerve, resulting in a state of mild oxygen deprivation." Thus any body part can be affected.

One of the reasons its hard to start an epidemic once it's started is that many people in the diseased communities refuse to believe the disease is so simply solved. They refuse to believe it could be a mind-body problem probably because for someone in such a situation being told 'its your mind' sounds like they are defective somehow - so they often are hostile about a suggestion. Their reaction is, "Maybe it is that way with others but not me, my disease is real".

Why? Because a they worry that they may be nuts. And they have spent money and got emotional support for all the pain (which is real) that they have suffered making them feel silly. But they shouldn't as the disease they had is triggered by real reasons.

What are those reasons? The old theory for physical pain without notable cause is that this pain resulted from a need for unconscious secondary gain (such as attention, sympathy etc.) but John Sarna MD believes that the pain is the result of primary reasons i.e. you feel pain in your body is to direct your attention away from unconscious anger, sorrow or rage.

Example for CTS: People only develop carpel tunnel syndrome with the advent of computers. Yet people have been typing all day, 5 days a week, for decades before the arrival of computers and CTS. Many go through painful surgeries which do little to help as the problem is in blood flow not their hands.

This is certainly a book that many in the medical profession will vehemently oppose (most without reading the book%u2026ask your doctor). Since the book states the obvious based on observations and studies (i.e. it follows the scientific method) I do think that this book should be taken seriously and read by layman and doctor alike.

P.S. By the way, John Sarna MD does say that stress is a major factor in psychosomatic problems and regular stress management will do a lot to alleviate the onset on physical diseases.