from my friend Jane
The hypothalamus is a little gland in the brain that is the control centre of the whole body and some say it is a brain within a brain.
It is the primary link between the nervous system and the endocrine system and it also triggers the pituitary gland to send out hormones. The pituitory gland is the size of a pea and sits underneath the hypothalamus and is extremely important as it controls other endocrine glands.
It is thought that the hypothalamus is under our conscious control. This means that factors in the environment trigger our subconscious mind to activate the hypothalamus. For example: if we feel the cold, information is cascaded down from the hypothalamus via glands and hormones (they are the messengers) so that various functions are triggered to provide warmth, if we feel fear adrenaline is released.
Another little gland in the brain is the pineal gland click. Daylight causes the pineal gland to ‘wake-up’ and stimulates it to stop the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep and awake cycle. More info here.
(Which is why I think that changes to the hour during the winter makes the disorder known as SAD, worse. Farmers do not change the times when they mlk their cows because when they did, the milk yeild went down. So during winter cows are milked at the same hour as the hour during summer. What does this tell you?)
What causes the pineal gland to malfunction?
Unusual light and dark rythyms, radiation, magnetic fields, poor nutrition or nutritional imbalances, temperature swings, high altitude and general stresses.
The pineal gland has a structure like an eye and functions as a light receptor.
There is a nerve pathway from the retinas to the hypothalamus and information about light and dark cycles is stored in an area of the hypothalamus (SCN) and this information travels along the pineal nerve via nerve impulses to the pineal gland. These nerve impulses stop the production of melatonin. At night when the hypothalamus and the pineal gland are not stimulated by light the production of melatonin increases.
I mention these important glands because of the two therapies mentioned in the title to this article.
There are two therapies that those with ME/CFS find help them: Reverse Therapy and Lightning Process. I have briefly looked at both and they seem to be involving some type of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. I always feel annoyed with therapies that are given names that don’t completely explain what it is that is doing the healing, why can’t Reverse therapy and Lightning Process therapy be called psychotherapy or hypnotherapy? Is it because they don’t involve psychiatry or is it because they do and that puts patients off?
Reverse therapy deals with the hypothalamus and because it is thought to be under our conscious control, psychotherapy is involved to re-arrange the thoughts which may be affecting the workings of the hypothalamus.
Lightning Process deals with the over production of adrenaline and uses NLP and Hypnotherapy. Please see this website Lightning Process The pituitary gland sends messages to the adrenals to produce adrenaline and the pituitary gland is under the control of the hypothalamus which is under our conscious control.
There are other therapies that involve supporting the pineal gland and melatonin imbalances. However I don’t think it is clear why there are imbalances of melatonin in ME/CFS people, if indeed there are. I am not at all sure why supplementing melatonin would help and feel it would further interfere with the production and non-production of melatonin by the pineal gland. Also the process of melatonin production in the pineal gland involves nerve impulses and for some MEers the nerve impulses are impaired especially if shingles is thought to be the trigger for their ME/CFS. What nutrients support the nerves? Calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, fish oils and B complex vitamins.
HOWEVER, back to the hypothalamus why would ME/CFS people think in a fashion that upsets the hypothalamus? Perhaps they don’t. Perhaps the hypothalamus is perfectly healthy and is sending out all the right signals but the other glands cannot respond because of missing nutrients which perhaps is why the pituitary and pineal glands malfunction. Nutrients go missing (are not absorbed into the blood) when the gut is unhealthy and can’t break them down for adequate absorption. And the gut becomes unhealthy because of stress.
I really believe that it is stress that got us MEers ‘MEd’ in the first place causing a breakdown in the workings of our guts. Stress caused by situations, people or diseases.
The reaction that helps us cope and stay calm and level headed when stress presents itself involves the B complex group of vitamins, zinc, omega oils and Vit C.
The nutrients that keep the gut healthy are the B complex group of vitamins, zinc, omega oils and Vit C.
Identical nutrients.
If we do not have enough of these nutrients and suffer much stress then the nutrients are robbed from the gut, making the gut become unhealthy. When the gut is unhealthy the body becomes ill.
from my friend Jane
The hypothalamus is a little gland in the brain that is the control centre of the whole body and some say it is a brain within a brain.
It is the primary link between the nervous system and the endocrine system and it also triggers the pituitary gland to send out hormones. The pituitory gland is the size of a pea and sits underneath the hypothalamus and is extremely important as it controls other endocrine glands.
It is thought that the hypothalamus is under our conscious control. This means that factors in the environment trigger our subconscious mind to activate the hypothalamus. For example: if we feel the cold, information is cascaded down from the hypothalamus via glands and hormones (they are the messengers) so that various functions are triggered to provide warmth, if we feel fear adrenaline is released.
Another little gland in the brain is the pineal gland click. Daylight causes the pineal gland to ‘wake-up’ and stimulates it to stop the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep and awake cycle. More info here.
(Which is why I think that changes to the hour during the winter makes the disorder known as SAD, worse. Farmers do not change the times when they mlk their cows because when they did, the milk yeild went down. So during winter cows are milked at the same hour as the hour during summer. What does this tell you?)
What causes the pineal gland to malfunction?
Unusual light and dark rythyms, radiation, magnetic fields, poor nutrition or nutritional imbalances, temperature swings, high altitude and general stresses.
The pineal gland has a structure like an eye and functions as a light receptor.
There is a nerve pathway from the retinas to the hypothalamus and information about light and dark cycles is stored in an area of the hypothalamus (SCN) and this information travels along the pineal nerve via nerve impulses to the pineal gland. These nerve impulses stop the production of melatonin. At night when the hypothalamus and the pineal gland are not stimulated by light the production of melatonin increases.
I mention these important glands because of the two therapies mentioned in the title to this article.
There are two therapies that those with ME/CFS find help them: Reverse Therapy and Lightning Process. I have briefly looked at both and they seem to be involving some type of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. I always feel annoyed with therapies that are given names that don’t completely explain what it is that is doing the healing, why can’t Reverse therapy and Lightning Process therapy be called psychotherapy or hypnotherapy? Is it because they don’t involve psychiatry or is it because they do and that puts patients off?
Reverse therapy deals with the hypothalamus and because it is thought to be under our conscious control, psychotherapy is involved to re-arrange the thoughts which may be affecting the workings of the hypothalamus.
Lightning Process deals with the over production of adrenaline and uses NLP and Hypnotherapy. Please see this website Lightning Process The pituitary gland sends messages to the adrenals to produce adrenaline and the pituitary gland is under the control of the hypothalamus which is under our conscious control.
There are other therapies that involve supporting the pineal gland and melatonin imbalances. However I don’t think it is clear why there are imbalances of melatonin in ME/CFS people, if indeed there are. I am not at all sure why supplementing melatonin would help and feel it would further interfere with the production and non-production of melatonin by the pineal gland. Also the process of melatonin production in the pineal gland involves nerve impulses and for some MEers the nerve impulses are impaired especially if shingles is thought to be the trigger for their ME/CFS. What nutrients support the nerves? Calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, fish oils and B complex vitamins.
HOWEVER, back to the hypothalamus why would ME/CFS people think in a fashion that upsets the hypothalamus? Perhaps they don’t. Perhaps the hypothalamus is perfectly healthy and is sending out all the right signals but the other glands cannot respond because of missing nutrients which perhaps is why the pituitary and pineal glands malfunction. Nutrients go missing (are not absorbed into the blood) when the gut is unhealthy and can’t break them down for adequate absorption. And the gut becomes unhealthy because of stress.
I really believe that it is stress that got us MEers ‘MEd’ in the first place causing a breakdown in the workings of our guts. Stress caused by situations, people or diseases.
The reaction that helps us cope and stay calm and level headed when stress presents itself involves the B complex group of vitamins, zinc, omega oils and Vit C.
The nutrients that keep the gut healthy are the B complex group of vitamins, zinc, omega oils and Vit C.
Identical nutrients.
If we do not have enough of these nutrients and suffer much stress then the nutrients are robbed from the gut, making the gut become unhealthy. When the gut is unhealthy the body becomes ill.