If only we'd listen to our bodies!
- Dr Andrea Haas
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
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Our bodies are incredibly good at communicating to us, if we’d only listen!
Many years ago, I was standing in for a colleague in a rheumatology clinic. A young woman, whom I’d never met before, came in to see me. She’d been diagnosed with an inflammatory joint problem. I found out a bit about her and then took a look at her, but something wasn’t sitting right with me. It wasn’t making sense: a young woman with joint pain? So, I asked her what turned out to be a very pertinent question for her. What was going on in her life when she started getting a problem with her joints? Her father, who she’d had a close relationship with, had passed away. Tears welled up in her eyes, telling me that this was still affecting her on an emotional level. It was her turn to ask me a question. “Do you think there’s a link?” I nodded. “Nobody has ever asked me this question.” Then there was a pause and I could see she was starting to process and understand this possibility.
This answer gave my patient two things. Firstly, it gave her a possible reason why she had this joint problem, and more importantly, it gave her a sense of control. Both of these would have affected her on a positive emotional level. Prior to this, there would have been a whole host of negative emotions ranging from anger, resentment, frustration, and despair around her disease. But there would also have been a host of emotions associated with the loss of her father, including sadness, abandonment, loneliness and many more.
Disease:
It is no coincidence that we have the word disease in the English language. Broken down, it is “dis” and “ease”, that is, “not being at ease with oneself”. When we are not totally comfortable with ourselves or what is going on in our lives, the body produces a physical symptom or a disease. There is now so much evidence for this on several different levels.
The science behind it.
Dr Bruce Lipton.
Dr Bruce Lipton, an American author and lecturer with a background in biology, and famous for the book Biology of Belief, discovered the mechanism behind why and how the body produces disease. All the cells in the body respond to their environment. We’ve all seen how some plants flourish and others wither depending on the environment they are in.
They respond to light, temperature, humidity and soil composition. It is the same with our cells. Our cells are constantly responding to their environment through a cocktail of hormones circulating around the body and a variety of molecules. You will have experienced a racing heart, sweaty palms, flushed face, and knotted stomach when something scares you, or that sickening feeling associated with worry. Or the pounding headache when you feel stressed.
Every thought you have produces an emotion, which activates a specific set of hormones which then circulate the body. Negative thoughts around the upcoming meeting with your boss will produce emotions such as worry and fear, which produce a physical response. Equally, thoughts about meeting up with a very close friend you get on with will produce a set of positive emotions and a different physical response due to a different cocktail of hormones.
But when symptoms are chronic, that is, long-lasting and grumbling, the cells are being constantly bathed in an unhelpful environment. When this happens, it produces chronic health issues such as a chronic skin problem, painful joints or constant gut issues. These thoughts and emotions can be on a subconscious level, so you are unaware of what’s going on. Longstanding resentment or anger are examples.
Dr Ryke Geerd Hamer.
Dr Hamer was a German physician, specialising in oncology. When he was in his 40s, he developed prostate cancer. He wondered why this was when he had been otherwise fit and healthy. Prior to his diagnosis, he had experienced a sudden emotional trauma when his son was killed. He wondered whether this had anything to do with it. This led him to do some research looking at all his female patients with uterine cancer and whether there was any common emotional trauma amongst them. What he discovered was that they had all experienced the same kind of emotional trauma prior to becoming ill. This led him to look at all forms of cancer. What he found was that every cancer had a specific emotional trauma behind it. This would have led to a specific set of emotions and hence a cocktail of hormones to produce a tumour.
Breast cancer in women, is often preceded by a trauma affecting “the nest”. In other words, a serious illness or the loss of a child. The mother needs to produce milk to support a newborn baby in those initial months. On a subconscious level, this is what the body tries to do by increasing breast tissue, which in reality results in a tumour forming.
As you can see, this feeds back and supports Dr Lipton’s work, which is on a scientific level.
Symptoms are used as a distraction for those painful emotions.
One of the jobs I had was working in the musculoskeletal department at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine. I should have been seeing straightforward musculoskeletal issues such as back pain, tennis elbow, and hip problems. But in reality, what I was seeing was a variety of patients with chronic pain, who all had emotional and psychological issues. As I delved into more and more of my patients, I realised they all had some form of past emotional trauma or current stress in their lives: the woman going through a particularly difficult divorce who’d developed chronic lower back pain. The asylum seeker, who’d suffered physical and mental abuse in his country, now with chronic headaches. The man who’d witnessed the collapse and death of his father, who now suffers with facial pain. And so it went on.
Dr John Sano.
Dr John Sano was an American Musculoskeletal physician who ran a clinic in New York. Through his work, he made the link between the subconscious and physical symptoms. What he realised was that if patients worked on past traumas and resolved the emotional issues behind them, their symptoms resolved. The symptoms were acting as a distraction.
On a subconscious level, it is easier to deal with a physical symptom than something emotionally painful. How often have you found something to do to distract yourself, rather than feel all those emotions stirred up by a distressing conversation or situation? I have certainly experienced this. If I can’t find something to do to distract me, I become restless and agitated.
It’s never random.
Where and what symptoms occur are not random. The subconscious works on a metaphorical basis. How the symptoms are described and perceived and where they are in the body, are far more insightful than the actual diagnosis. One patient came to see me with back pain that he described as a stabbing pain in the centre of the back. It turned out that he felt his work colleagues were constantly stabbing him in the back. When lockdown happened and I had to move my business online and all the restrictions associated with that time, I developed headaches which I described as a “pressure in my head”. Working with my supervisor, I realised I was putting immense pressure on myself to make my business work. Once I realised this and changed my attitude to the situation, my headaches improved.
How do you resolve or prevent symptoms?
Sometimes it can be easy to make a connection between the physical symptom and what’s going on in your life, such as an inharmonious marriage or stressful job. At other times you may not have a clue. Several times, I’ve developed acute back pain over the years, and have had no idea what has triggered it on an emotional level. Resolving the situation or moving on may well settle symptoms. Sometimes it can be more challenging. On a logical level, you may feel you’ve got over the hurt from a relationship or the bereavement many years ago, but on a subconscious level the emotions haven’t been resolved. Off-the-cuff remarks such as “oh, that was years ago” or “I’ve got over that” often mean something is still going on.
There are lots of things you can do to help prevent or settle symptoms.
Being aware of the inner chatter in your head and whether it is helpful or not. If it’s not, then changing it to more positive thoughts and using positive affirmations.
Avoiding stress and situations that wind you up.
Having fun.
If anything resonates in this blog, that you’d like help with, why not book a free 20 min call with me to discuss how I may be able to help. This can be booked through my website.
Useful books:
Biology of Belief, Dr Bruce Lipton
The Divided Mind, Dr John Sarno
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