The Brain and MCS

Toxicity can come in two forms: Environmental and Emotional. Sometimes an apple's just an apple (as Carolyn Myss says) and a huge toxic hit from pesticides or mold,or diet, etc. will just throw our whole system off. But because we live in a world of non-duality, ying yang, balance, shades of grey, and because our nervous and immune systems are so linked with our emotions, we can hamper the functioning our these systems by how we respond to our lives--a response which isn't always within our control, especially if we're children. Balance is everything in life.

So first, the emotional effect: I grew up in a family with an alcoholic parent which created a huge stress on my mind and body, and I know of many MCSrs who grew up in such a situation. I believe these years significantly lowered our immune system and raised our sympathetic nervous systems to a new high. This isn't to say that the pesticide poisoning I incurred when it was sprayed in our house annually --or the Hg leaking from my fillings--wouldn't have done me in anyways; it's just that the mental abuse and consistent fear I lived in may have weakened my body significantly enough to throw it over the edge in terms of it being so worn out already that the toxins were just the straw to break the camel's back. And it continues to keep me in a state of non-health unless I balance it out somehow to give my body a winning chance.

Toxins affect the amygdala of the brain--the anxiety center--and actually cause the release of more cortisol (stress hormone). Cortisol then allows not only for greater permeability of the cells which then allow more toxins in, but also as cortisol increases we actually create more cortisol receptors on the cells which results in a vicious cycle making us more susceptible to toxins and the chain reaction continues. The cortisol also plays with our blood sugar levels giving us more brain fog which creates an additional vicious cycle.

Brain repatterning cuts short the CORTISOL we constantly release from our habitual negative thoughts, switching it to good hormones. From my experience, I think we react to cortisol as much as we do to toxins, as may also be explained scientifically as the amygdala of the brain when it reacts to toxins puts out cortisol-- and then we get a reaction to our surroundings. Doesn't seem like a coincidence, does it?

I realized I could offset the cortisol's effect in me when I meditated for long periods (eg. 45 min at a time), I could think *much* better and felt a significant shift; my doing slow yoga with deep breathing, and reiki, would result in the same. Cortisol is so toxic to the functioning of our brain that it actually seems to account for half of my symptoms and as I'm a biological being the same as everyone else, others react to cortisol just as I do.

What's worse, and has been proven too, is that cortisol also fluctuates with the Circadium Rhythm; if we don't go to bed by 11pm, the cortisol in our bloodstream actually triples hitting its peak by around 2am instead of around 6 when we're actually supposed to wake up. When it triples by 2, it cuts short the melatonin and Human Growth Hormone we'd produce and which is vital for our health and proper aging. And, I often go to bed by 2am, but when I go by 11am I can think much better the next day.

Now, eliminate the stress via Dynamic Neural Retraining (DNR), yoga, reiki, meditation, etc., reduce the level of cortisol immediately and one can think much more clearly--basically by reducing cortisol and increasing the feel-good hormones in the body which include oxytocin, HGH, etc.

Because most people's brains are so hardwired for stress (aka. cortisol) and because our subconcious mind continues on its negative mind patterns of thinking without us even being aware of it, and because DNR conciously works to unwire this, an extra powerful response occurs where I find myself yawning continuously (continuous reduction of cortisol and increase of the parasympathetic nervous system's good hormonoes) and I find I react less to the environment (the cells are less permeable because they're less awash in cortisol which increases their permeability!).

I once had a doctor in Toronto who told me to just meditate to reduce half my symptoms, and that made me quite infuriated, because sometimes I'm just so wired from the toxins that I can't calm down enough to meditate! But there are other things I can more easily do when wired andn they include DNR, yoga, reiki, etc., and then I feel so much better, that I just meditate after because I love it!

Also, I thought he was denying my illness, but he wasn't; he just knew the biological implications of cortisol. Now, if he'd just explained the biological reasoning behind it all, I may have actually done more of this years ago!

Of course, we must not ignore offsetting the phyisical toxic load we've accumulated and how they affect the mind as well--especially if we have heavy metal or other major poisoning--both from environmental toxins and ones accumulated from years of improper elimination and bad diet. Going on an alkaline diet, plus using low heat (eg. 100F) infrared saunas regularly followed by colonics or enemas (the major toxins harbouring in MCSrs are plugging up their livers which need to be relieved). Dr. Walter Crinnion, of the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine , in Arizona, has proven this for several years and has helped many MCSrs.

The great thing is that *while* we're detoxing our bodies these and other ways, we can have great relief in just *minutes* by detoxing our minds by "flipping" the switch from negative thoughts and images to positive ones, or on one of the scientific levels that's easiest to explain but not the entire answer: from our sympathetic to parasympathetic nervous system. While DNR seems to quickest and easiest to do and targets our thoughts specifically , when we use other simple techniques above that relax us (yoga, reiki, etc.) and thus balance out our hormones and increase the energy flowing through our meridians, our perception shifts radically and rapidly and we then see things in a healthier light. I haven't found my MCS symptoms reduces rapidly with these as with DNR, but I feel much more energetic and whole from using them.

Not only do our past and present circumstances bother us less or not at all when we do all of these methods, but we then create *less* cortisol as we begin to heal ourselves through the power of our mind stimulating our body's inherent, stunning pharmacopea within. And, who knows, our cellular detox pathways may follow suit, and speed up as well!

The trip to Hawaii...and aromatherapy

Yes, I finally went to Hawaii (Maui)! First the bad, then the good!...rented a room (via Craigslist) in a beautiful house that was described as having a room that opened to the outside via its own entrance (true), but what I was told about no recent renovations other than a stairwell being painted inside their part of the house (false!).

When I had major brain seizures the first night athough all my windows were open (it's around 70 at night there), I didn't know why. The room did have laminate flooring, and the landlady said the previous renter had MCS and had done splendidly there!

But when I went to borrow the phone the next day and her husband let me into the main part of their mansion to get it, I saw that the ENTIRE inside of their home had been gutted, and was being sanded, drywalled and painted!!!!!

The loft windows in the attic part of my room opened to the inside of the house via "plastic windows" and a bit of plywood, and vapours were gassing off into my room!!!!! (As we know, vapours can come through walls too).

Great, huh?

After a few days (and I spent some sleeping on the deck) he patched up the windows for me (from the inside of his part of the house) with more plywood, and agreed to stop sawing and painting till I left, but the damage had already been done and I was a basketcase much of my time there. Actually, I would have kept just sleeping outside had the beautiful jungle birds not began charting their territory each morning at about 5m!
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My saviour was finding MAUI SPA RETREAT based out of a huge "home" and a separate cottage (where I stayed--The Octagon) and is also part of The Aromatherapy Foundation of Maui) where I escaped for at least a couple nights and, because the owner, Doreena, cured me of my frostbite last year--long story but I got it on the top of the mountain on the Big Island while taking photos!--I thought maybe she could help me with my brain and aromatherapy! Which she actually did!

She gave me a special tincture with lavendar and some other stuff in it and I just put a few drops behind my ears, and in half an hour I could think MUCH better! I've been doing it for 3 weeks now (I dont' sniff it but just put it back there!) and EVERYONE i know says I'm much more focused! Which is true; very weird!

Yes, the whole thing may seem like an oxymoron, but aromatherapies are natural and the right ones, when individualized, can provide necessary factors we're lacking just like fish oils can (eg. to help the parasympathetic nervous system). Given the right ones for our individual consituency, and it's like the right key into the right lock.

And I have a couple other aromatherapy remedies from her for my candida. She grows lavender on the grounds there and the lavender water she gave me to spray on the bottoms of my feet has created incredible dreams at night (usually I have nightmares so the good dreams were quite a relief!).

Even my sense of smell started returning (well, until I returned to BC and got an awful flu and cold!).

I think she has saved a large chunk of my life since at least I can think now, but my MCS still exists, and Annie's process (that she healed herself with) seems to be the ONLY thing so far that stops my reactions--other things may make me feel better in the moment--ie. feeling more present and grounded, more together and less spacey--but haven't stopped my reactivity to the environment.

The next blog will describe the nature/nurture aspect of how I think the brain's involved in MCS, gleaned both from my experience with it and years of studying university science, including at the medical level.