The Nervous System: 10 Misconceptions And Myths

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Various disorders of the nervous system occur in 15-20% of the population. These disorders can be manifested by vegetative-vascular dystonia, chronic fatigue, depression, sleepiness during the day and insomnia at night, fears, anxiety, lack of will, headaches, irritability, increased sensitivity to weather changes and other symptoms of an individual nature.

Despite compelling scientific evidence, outdated, primitive, or misconceptions about the causes and remedies of these conditions are widespread. Unfortunately, this is largely facilitated by the lack of proper erudition among medical workers.

Myths in this area of knowledge are extremely tenacious and cause considerable harm, if only because they leave nothing else but to put up with the emerging nervous disorders (a myth is a widespread, mass delusion presented as a scientific fact). The most persistent and common misconceptions are as follows.

The first myth: "The main cause of nervous disorders is stress."

If this were true, such disorders would never arise against the background of complete well-being. Realities of life, however, very often testify to the exact opposite.

Stress can indeed lead to nervous disorders. But for this it must be either too strong or too long. In other cases, the consequences of stress occur only in those whose nervous system was disturbed even before the onset of stressful events.

Nervous loads here only play the role of a developer used in photography, that is, they make the hidden - explicit. If, for example, an ordinary gust of wind knocks down a wooden fence, then the main reason for this event will not be the wind, but the weakness and unreliability of the structure.

An increased sensitivity to the passage of atmospheric fronts is a frequent, albeit not an obligatory indicator of the unhealthy of the nervous system. In general, for a weakened nervous system, anything can act as "stress", for example, water dripping from a tap or the most insignificant everyday conflict.

On the other hand, everyone can remember many examples when people who had been in extremely unenviable, difficult circumstances for a long time only became stronger from them - both in spirit and in body. The difference is small - in the correct or impaired functioning of the nerve cell …

The second myth: "All diseases are from nerves"

This is one of the long-standing, most persistent misconceptions. If this statement were true, it would mean, for example, that any army after a month of hostilities would completely turn into a field hospital. Indeed, in theory, such a powerful stress as a real battle should have caused illness in everyone who participated in it. But in reality, such phenomena are by no means so widespread.

In peaceful life, there are also many professions associated with increased nervous stress. These are ambulance doctors, service workers, teachers, etc. Among the representatives of these professions, however, there is no universal and compulsory morbidity.

The principle "All diseases are from the nerves" means that diseases arise "out of the blue", for the sole reason of impaired nervous regulation. - Like, the person was completely healthy, but after the experiences caused by troubles he began to experience, for example, pain in the heart. Hence - the conclusion: nervous stress caused heart disease.

In reality, there is something else behind all this: the fact is that many diseases are latent in nature and are not always accompanied by pain.

Very often these diseases manifest themselves only when increased demands are made on them, including those associated with "nerves". For example, a bad tooth may not give itself out for a long time until hot or cold water gets on it.

The heart that we just mentioned can also be affected by disease, but in the initial or moderate stages, this may not give any pain or other unpleasant sensations. The main, and in most cases - the only method for examining the heart is a cardiogram.

At the same time, the generally accepted methods of its implementation leave most of the heart ailments unrecognized. Quote: "An ECG taken at rest and outside of a heart attack does not allow diagnosing about 70% of all heart diseases" ("Standards for Diagnosis and Treatment" St. Petersburg, 2005).

There are no less problems in the diagnosis of other internal organs, which are discussed below. Thus, the statement "All diseases are from the nerves" is initially incorrect. Nervous stress only puts the body in such conditions that those diseases that it already had sick begin to manifest.

About the real causes and rules of treatment of these diseases - on the pages of the book “Anatomy of the vital force. Secrets of restoring the nervous system”, is accessible and intelligible.

The third myth: "In case of nervous disorders, you need to take only those drugs that directly affect the nervous system."

Before moving on to the facts that refute this point of view, you can ask simple questions about what needs to be treated if the fish in the pond is sick - a fish or a pond? Maybe diseases of internal organs harm only themselves? Is it possible that the disruption of the activity of any organ does not in any way affect the state of the body?

Obviously not. But the human nervous system is as much a part of it as the cardiovascular, endocrine or any other. There are a number of diseases that arise directly in the brain. It is for their treatment that medications should be taken that directly affect the brain tissue.

At the same time, incomparably more often neuropsychological problems are the result of general disorders of the physiology or biochemistry of the body. For example, chronic diseases of internal organs have a very important property: all of them, one way or another, disrupt cerebral circulation.

In addition, each of these organs is capable of exerting its own, special effect on the nervous system - due to those specific tasks that it performs in the body.

Simplified, these tasks are reduced to maintaining the constancy of the blood composition - the so-called "homeostasis". If this condition is not met, then after some time there are violations of those biochemical processes that ensure the work of brain cells.

This is one of the main reasons for all kinds of nervous disorders, which, by the way, may be the only manifestation of diseases of internal organs.

There is official statistics, according to which in persons with a chronic course of these diseases, neuropsychiatric abnormalities are observed 4 - 5 times more often than among the entire population as a whole.

A very indicative experiment was when the blood of healthy people was injected into spiders, after which no changes were noted in the vital activity of insects. But when the spiders were injected with blood taken from the mentally ill, the behavior of the arthropods changed dramatically.

In particular, they began to weave a web in a completely different way, which became ugly, incorrect and useless for anything (with disorders of some organs, dozens of substances can be found in a person's blood that cannot be identified even today)

Information that diseases of internal organs disrupt the work of the brain has been accumulating for a very long time. This information was confirmed, in particular, by the too low efficiency of general health measures used to weaken the nervous system, while targeted treatment of the disturbed organs led to its early rehabilitation.

Interestingly, the same observation was made by Chinese medicine many centuries ago: acupuncture of the so-called "restorative points" often gave little benefit, and dramatic healings occurred only when points associated with specific weakened organs were used.

In the writings of the classics of European medicine, it is said that "… there is no need to prescribe nerve-strengthening treatment, but it is necessary to search for and attack those causes within the body that have led to a weakening of the nervous system."

Unfortunately, this kind of knowledge is presented only in special scientific literature. Even more regretfully, the identification and treatment of chronic, indolent diseases is by no means one of the priorities of modern polyclinic medicine.

In "Anatomy of the vital force …" it is clearly shown how and by what means the depression of the nervous system occurs in the most frequent and widespread disorders of the internal organs. Indirect and seemingly insignificant signs, which manifest these violations, are given. Also, available and effective methods for their elimination are described, along with a description of the mechanism of their therapeutic action.

The fourth myth: "When weakening vitality, you need to take tonics like Eleutherococcus, Rhodiola rosea or Pantocrine."

Tonics (the so-called "adaptogens") really cannot eliminate any of the causes of the weakening of vitality. They can only be taken by healthy people before significant physical or nervous stress, for example, before a long journey behind the wheel.

The reception of these funds by persons with a weakened nervous system will only lead to the fact that their last internal reserves will be used up. Let's restrict ourselves to the opinion of Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor I. V. Kireev:

"Tonics ease the patient's condition for a short time, due to the individual potential of the body"

In other words, even with a very modest income, you can dine in restaurants. But only three days a month. At the expense of what to eat further - it is not known.

The fifth myth: "Purposefulness and any other qualities of a person depend only on himself"

Any thinking person suspects, at the very least, that this is not entirely true. As for scientific views, they can be represented by the following data: For purposeful activity in humans, special parts of the brain are responsible - the frontal lobes.

There are quite a few reasons that can disrupt their normal state. For example - obstructed or reduced blood circulation in a given area of the brain. At the same time, thinking, memory and autonomic reflexes do not suffer at all (except for severe, clinical cases)

However, such violations cause changes in the subtle neuronal mechanisms of goal-setting, due to which a person becomes unassembled, incapable of concentrating attention and volitional efforts to achieve the goal (in everyday life: "Without a king in the head", "In the head - the wind", etc.).

Note that disturbances in different areas of the brain cause a variety of changes in human psychology. So, in case of violations in one of these zones, the instinct of self-preservation, unreasonable anxiety and fear begin to prevail, and deviations in the work of other zones make people too laughable.

In general, the most important psychological characteristics of a person to an enormous, prevailing degree depend on the peculiarities of the work of certain brain structures. With the help of electroencephalograms, for example, it was revealed how the prevailing frequency of the bioelectrical activity of the brain affects a person's personal qualities:

- persons with a well-defined alpha rhythm (8-13 Hz) are active, stable and reliable people. They are characterized by high activity and perseverance, accuracy in work, especially under stress conditions, good memory;

- Persons with a predominant beta rhythm (15-35 Hz) showed low concentration and carelessness, made a large number of mistakes at a low speed of work, and showed low resistance to stress.

In addition, it was found that persons whose nerve centers worked in unison with each other in the anterior regions of the brain were characterized by pronounced authoritarianism, independence, self-confidence, and criticality.

But as this unison shifted back to the central and parieto-occipital regions of the brain (50 and 20% of the subjects, respectively), these psychological qualities underwent changes up to the exact opposite.

A study conducted in the United States explained, for example, why adolescents, to a greater extent than adults, are prone to risky behaviors: drug use, casual sex, drunk driving, etc.

After studying the data of encephalograms, scientists came to the conclusion that young people, compared to adults, have significantly reduced biological activity in those parts of the brain that are responsible for making meaningful decisions.

Along the way, let's dispel another myth that a person supposedly creates his own character. The fallacy of this judgment follows at least from the fact that the main character traits are formed by about the age of four.

In most cases, this is the period of childhood from which people remember themselves. Thus, the "backbone" of character is formed without taking into account our wishes (in the proverbs: "A lion cub is already like a lion," "A bow was born, - a bow, not a rose, and you will die").

By the method of positron tomography, information was obtained that each type of character of healthy people corresponds to certain features of blood flow in different areas of the brain (the same, by the way, underlies the division of people into two large groups - introverts and extroverts).

For similar reasons, independent of us, individual characteristics of gait, handwriting and much more arise. With all this, you can easily get rid of many undesirable traits of your character if you remove those obstacles that interfere with the normal functioning of nerve cells. How exactly - in my book.

Myth six: "Depression is caused either by difficult life circumstances, or by an incorrect, pessimistic way of thinking."

Obviously, one must agree that not everyone who finds themselves in difficult life conditions develops depression. As a rule, a healthy and strong nervous system allows you to endure a forced change of lifestyle without much harm to yourself.

It is worth noting, however, that this process is usually accompanied by a very painful period, during which there is a decrease in the "level of claims", that is, the rejection of the expected or habitual benefits of life. Something similar happens in the case of the inevitable loss of loved ones.

If the loss of a loved one causes persistent and increasingly intensifying negative symptoms, this makes one suspect the presence of latent bodily or nervous diseases in the body. In particular, if someone in such cases begins to noticeably lose weight, this is a reason to think about the presence of stomach cancer.

As for the "sad way of thinking" and the depression allegedly generated by it, everything is somewhat different: first there is depression, and only then various plausible explanations are found for it ("Everything is bad", "Life is meaningless", etc.).

On the other hand, everyone can easily recall the daring, rosy-cheeked hulks, full of vitality in all its forms, but possessing at the same time an extremely primitive philosophy of life.

Depression is a manifestation of disturbed activity of brain cells (of course, along with this there are events such as “grief” or “great grief.” They can cause depression in perfectly healthy people, but mental wounds in this case heal sooner or later. Then they say that "Time heals").

Distinguishing between yourself and depression is sometimes very difficult, because it can hide under different clothes and masks. Even those who know for sure about their susceptibility to depression are far from always able to recognize the next exacerbation of this disease, the gloomy pictures of the world perception drawn by depression seem to them so natural.

On the pages of "Anatomy of Vitality …" there is a complete list of direct and indirect signs that will reveal the possible presence of depressive disorders.

The seventh myth: "If a person cannot get rid of smoking, then he has a weak willpower."

A misconception that has long roots and is extremely widespread. The fallacy of this opinion is as follows:

It is known that the components of tobacco smoke begin, sooner or later, to participate in the biochemical reactions of the body, displacing the substances specially designed for this by nature. Not only does it distort the most important processes in the body, - smoking causes a restructuring of the nervous system, after which it will need more and more new portions of nicotine.

When smoking cessation, the reverse changes must occur in the brain, which will allow it to switch back to "full internal support". But this process occurs only in those whose nervous system has high adaptability, that is, the ability to adapt (well-known examples of adaptation are winter swimming and the opening of "second wind" in long-distance runners).

According to statistics, the ability to adapt is reduced, to one degree or another, in about 30% of the population - for reasons beyond their control and available to those described below. Adaptive reactions occur at the cellular level, so it is almost impossible to increase your adaptive capabilities with the help of "willpower" (for it is said: "You cannot jump above your head").

For example, many cases have been described when people who wanted to quit smoking at all costs were taken away at their request and left far in the taiga or in other places where it would be impossible to buy cigarettes.

But within a day or two, tobacco abstinence became so unbearable ("physiological abstinence") that forced these people to smoke last year's foliage and headlong to get to the nearest settlement.

Also, the staff of cardiological hospitals are well aware of not isolated episodes when their patients continued to smoke, even being at risk of repeated heart attacks. Based on these realities, people with reduced adaptability who intend to quit smoking are preliminarily recommended to take drugs that artificially improve brain function - up to antidepressants.

The situation is much the same with alcohol addiction. Along the way, we note that the adaptive possibilities are not unlimited in persons with a healthy nervous system. For example, one of the tortures used by criminals is the violent injection of hard drugs, after which a person becomes a drug addict. The rest is known.

All of the above, however, in no way negates the effectiveness of the methods described in the book, capable of restoring the strength and normal adaptive ability of nerve cells.

Myth Eight: "Nerve cells do not regenerate"

Option: "Angry cells are not restored." This myth claims that nervous experiences, manifested in the form of anger or other negative emotions, lead to the irreversible death of the nervous tissue.

In fact, the death of nerve cells is a permanent and natural process. The renewal of these cells occurs in different parts of the brain at a rate of 15 to 100% per year. Under stress, it is not the nerve cells themselves that are intensively "spent", but those substances that ensure their work and interaction with each other (first of all, the so-called "neurotransmitters").

Because of this, a permanent deficiency of these substances can occur and, as a result, a prolonged nervous breakdown (it is useful to know that the mentioned substances are irretrievably wasted by the brain during any mental processes, including when thinking, communicating, and even when a person experiences pleasure.

The same natural mechanism always works: if there are too many impressions, the brain refuses to perceive them correctly (hence the proverbs: “Where you are loved, don’t increase it there”, “The guest and the fish smell bad on the third day”, etc.).)

From history, for example, it is known that many eastern rulers, regularly fed up with all possible earthly pleasures, completely lost the ability to enjoy anything.

As a result, considerable rewards were promised to anyone who could return them at least some joy of life. Another example is the so-called “principle of the candy factory”, according to which even people who were very fond of sweets, after a month of work in the confectionery industry, have a persistent aversion to this product).

Myth nine: "Laziness is a contrived disease for those who do not want to work."

It is usually believed that a person has only three natural instincts: self-preservation, prolongation of the genus and food. Meanwhile, a person has much more of these instincts. One of them is the "instinct for saving vitality."

In folklore, it is present, for example, in the form of a saying "A fool will start thinking when he gets tired." This instinct is inherent in all living things: in scientific experiments, any experimental individuals always find the easiest way to the feeding trough. Having found it, in the future they use only it (“We are all lazy and not curious” AS Pushkin) At the same time, there is a certain number of people who have a constant need for work.

In this way, they get away from the internal discomfort caused by an excess of energy. But even in this case, they spend their energy only on activities that can be beneficial or enjoyable, for example, playing football.

The need to waste energy on meaningless work causes suffering and active rejection. For example, in order to punish youths in the time of Peter I, they were forced to literally “pound water in a mortar”.

By and large, the instinct to save vitality requires a fairly tough balance between work and the received remuneration. Attempts to ignore this condition for a long time led, in particular, to the abolition of serfdom in Russia and to the economic collapse of the USSR.

Laziness is nothing more than a manifestation of the instinct to conserve vitality. The frequent occurrence of this feeling indicates that the energy reserves in the body are reduced. Laziness, apathy are the most common symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome - that is, an altered, unhealthy state of the body.

But in any state of the body, a lot of energy is spent on its internal requests, including maintaining body temperature, heart contractions, and respiratory movements. A sufficiently large amount of energy is spent only to keep the membranes of nerve cells under a certain electrical voltage, which is tantamount to simply maintaining consciousness.

Thus, the emergence of laziness or apathy is a biological defense against the "squandering" of vitality in the event of a deficiency. Failure to understand this mechanism is the basis for countless family conflicts, and also causes many people to self-blame (“I have become too lazy”).

Myth ten: "Chronic fatigue will pass if you give the body rest"

Rebuttal: healthy people, even those associated with hard and daily physical work, fully recover their strength after a night's sleep. At the same time, many people feel constant fatigue even in the absence of muscle load as such. The key to this contradiction is that the formation or release of energy in the body can be disrupted at any stage, due to various internal reasons.

For example, one of them is an imperceptible weakening of the thyroid gland (the hormones produced by this gland are the same kerosene that is sprayed on raw firewood). As a result, the metabolism and energy in the body and brain slows down, becoming inferior.

Very often, unfortunately, such causes of nervous disorders are ignored by psychiatrists and doctors of other specialties. For reference - up to 14% of patients referred to psychiatrists or psychotherapists for weakness or depression, in fact, suffer only from a reduced thyroid gland.