Option and Health

Imagine living in a world where we are each in charge of our own health. Where disease doesn’t have the power to take over our bodies without our permission. Current research is showing us that this is indeed the case, if we’d only believe it to be so!

Many of us have taken on a 19th century view of how the body works. We tend to see our bodies as separate from our minds and see disease as some external agent to which we succumb. We then seek healing from external sources (medications, doctors and surgeries) rather than accessing our bodies’ natural propensity for health.

Current research in health is allowing us to take a different perspective and revealing that our minds and bodies are one and the same thing. We can now look at improving our health through alternative health education and counseling. Our thoughts and emotions, (usually considered “mind”) are bio-chemically represented in our “bodies” – blood, brain, tissues. What we think impacts our physiology and our internal bio-chemistry influences what we think. Mind and body are two parts of the same amazing system. The Option Process helps us to identify thoughts we have that may be causing disease and to replace these thoughts to create the possibility for increased health.

What we think greatly impacts how our bodies respond. Dr. Brian Moseley published results of a fascinating study in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002¹. Dr. Moseley wanted to understand which part of surgery for arthritic knees was really making a difference for his patients. He divided the surgery patients into three groups, for one group he scraped the knee cartilage, the second group he flushed the joint to remove particles thought to cause inflammation, for the third group he made an incision, simulated the flushing but actually performed no surgical intervention. The post-operative results were astounding. All three groups made equal improvements after surgery, including those who had received “fake” surgery. One man who had previously walked with a cane now no longer uses the cane and plays basketball with his grandchildren after Dr. Moseley’s “fake” surgery.

The patients believed that they had received surgery and that the surgery would relieve pain and increase the range of movement in their knee. So even though they didn’t actually receive surgery they experienced the results they expected. This happened because they strongly believed in the effectiveness of the procedure.

Imagine the possibilities of fully believing that we can impact healing ourselves from within. The Option Institute programs help us firstly identify beliefs that are generating discomfort and dis-ease then to replace these beliefs with health generating beliefs.

The creation of health through thoughts and beliefs is not a magical process but one clearly understood by science. Every thought we think (even those we are not consciously aware of thinking) is represented in our bodies.

The work of Candace Pert has shown us that thoughts involving an evaluative judgment (of ourselves, others or the world) can be represented throughout our bodies (in limbs, tissues and organs)². These are the thoughts that produce emotions. Either we evaluate a situation as “good “ and feel a range of emotions from peaceful to exhilaration or we evaluate the situation as “bad” and experience emotions from annoyance to terror.

Thoughts begin as electrical impulses in the brain that trigger the release of certain neuropeptides. Neuropeptide receptors have been found in cell membranes all over the body. Neuropeptides form a communication system whereby thoughts are translated and integrated into the bio-chemistry of our cells. This means that while we are experiencing an emotion our bodies are experiencing the bio-chemical signature of that emotion.

When we experience anxiety or sadness research shows that our bodies respond with depressed immune function as measured by levels of T and B lymphocytes, and natural killer cell activity. We also produce more cytokines causing tissue inflammation that has been linked to a wide variety of diseases from cancer to periodontal disease³.

The more time we spend experiencing immune depressing emotions (fear, anxiety, sadness, anger) the larger the physiological effect on our overall health and our ability to deal with illness. For example, one study showed that among hernia patients those who reported experiencing more life stress before surgery had slower recovery rates and more post-operative complications⁴.

How much time we spend experiencing anxiety and sadness is up to us. Remember that this electrical and bio-chemical process begins with a thought – a belief about the current situation – is this good for me, or bad for me? If we find a way to somehow conclude, “this is good for me” and “I can handle this” then we experience enjoyable immune enhancing emotions.

In another study, researchers asked participants to perform a mental arithmetic task. One group received instructions presenting the task as a threat while the other group’s instructions portrayed the task as a challenge. Those who saw the task was a threat showed increased cardiovascular output as compared to those who saw it as a challenge⁵. Cardiovascular response tends to go hand-in-hand with immunologic responses.

Perceived stress (i.e. what we believe about the situation) has also been shown to correlate with reduced neutrophil activity (white blood cells essential to the immune system)⁶, impaired response to vaccines (influenza, meningitis C conjugate and recombinant hepatitis B)⁷ and increased susceptibility to the common cold⁸.

The Option Process helps us to be aware of how we evaluate ourselves, others and the world so we can make choices that serve us emotionally and physiologically.

Take control of your health and happiness

Create a lifestyle to support health and happiness

Construct a personality to support health and happiness

Moseley, B., et al (2002) A randomized controlled study of arthroscopic surgery for oateoarthritis of the knee. New England Journal of Medicine, 347(2): 81 – 88.

Pert, C. (1999) Molecules of Emotion. Simon & Schuster.

Kiecolt-Glaser, J., McGuire, L., Robles, T. and Glaser, R. (2002) Psychoneuroimmunology and Psychosomatic Medicine: Back to the Future. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64:15-28.

Linn, B. S., Linn, M. W. & Klimas, N. G. (1988) Effect of psychophysical stress on surgical outcome. Psychosomatic Medicine, 50: 230-44.

Gruenwald, T. L., Kemeny, E., Aziz, N. & Fahey, J. L. (2004) Acute threat to the social self: Shame, social self-esteem and cortisol activity, Psychosomatic Medicine, 66: 915-924.

Stowell, J. R., Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. & Glaser, R (2001) Perceived stress and cellular immunity: When coping counts. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 24(4): 323-329.

Glaser, R., Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Bonneau, R. Malarkey, W. & Hughes, J. (1992) Stress-induced modulation of the immune response to recombinant hepatitis B vaccine. Psychosomatic Medicine, 54: 707-712.

Cohen, S., Tyrell, D. A. & Smith, A. P. (1991) Psychological stress in humans and susceptibility t the common cold. New England Journal of Medicine, 325: 606-612.