What's Love Got To Do With It? An Epigenetics Masterpiece.

In my last article, HOW OUR PERCEPTIONS CHANGE OUR BIOLOGY  I described what Epigenetics is, how our perceptions change our biology, and how our knowledge and awareness of our perceptions can be the catalyst for transformation and lasting change. I also described the findings of Dr. Bruce Lipton's Stanford Medical Stem Cell research. You can read a National Institutes of Health article published on the topic here.

In this article, I will describe a real life example of epigentics, the process by which our mind and perceptions change our biology.

To recap briefly, the groundbreaking research of Dr. Bruce Lipton found that genetic activity is controlled by our environment and our perceptions of our environment.  Genes alone do not control our fate. The environment and our perception of the environment actually select the genetic activity of the cell. 

How exactly does this work?

 Ariel in Love and Ariel in Fear

Ariel is sitting on a bench overlooking the creek in Rock Creek Park. with her eyes closed. She had a difficult day at work and left early, she needed to clear her mind and get some fresh air. She finds it difficult to stop the stream of thoughts regarding the way the project manager critiqued her analysis in front of her team.

To the science:

Scenario 1

Something inside tells Ariel to open her eyes and look to the right. There heading along the bike path in her direction is Andy, her fiance, the man she loves with her whole heart.

Ariel sees Andy and her mind conjures the image of love. This picture of love in her mind is translated by her brain into a specific chemistry. Ariel's brain releases dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, and growth hormone in response to her mind's picture of love.

Her blood compound is now filled with the release of chemicals from the brain: dopamine for pleasure, oxytocin, to connect to the source of the love she feels, vasopressin, a chemical that gives us a glow and makes us appear more attractive to the object or our love (recall seeing a couple in love and thinking that they are glowing), and growth hormone. This release of chemicals that occurs when we have a perception of love supports health, harmony, a glow.

Scenario 2

Imagine something  inside tells Ariel to open her eyes and look to the right. There heading along the bike path is her project manager, Chelsea, the woman at the center of her feelings of anger over how she was treated in the manager's meeting. She immediately wonders whether Chelsea saw her leave early and thinks she left because of the critique. She had no intention of letting Chelsea, her boss, know that she was upset.

In a state of fear, Ariel's brain does not release the chemicals associated with an image of love. Instead it releases chemicals associated with fear, stress hormones and inflammatory agents. These agents in the blood change the behavior of Ariel's cells such that she moves into the posture of protection. Unlike the growth scenario when her brain gathered the image of love, the protection posture arises from the image of fear. The protection posture is antagonistic to growth. It actually is cancels growth and puts energy into the possibility of fight or flight.

Your Brain is the Chemist

The genes of our cells give us potentials. What potentials that are expressed by our genes depends on the composition of the culture medium in which the cell exists, the blood. Your brain is the chemist that translates your perception into chemistry that complements the perception of your mind.

Placebo Effect

When our biology is from a resulting positive image from the mind, the result is the placebo effect. We know how this occurs in clinical trials for medicine. The brain releases chemicals reflecting the belief by the mind of receiving powerful healing medicine. The placebo effect is the consequence of the positive belief.

Nocebo Effect

This prompts the question of what the cell's environment becomes in response to a negative belief. The consequence of the negative belief is the nocebo effect. The nocebo effect is illness, disease or death resulting from the brain interpreting a negative image offered by the mind which leads the brain to release chemicals matching the negative perception. 

This is not in any way offered to blame someone who is suffering from pain or disease for their suffering. The expression of genes is only one component and most illnesses are not the result of genetics. However, the possibilities that can exist when the mind believes and perceives a positive environment, are opportunities that are offered to us every day. We change the range of possibilities for our biology.

Whether biology is the basis for behavior or a component of behavior, knowledge of our perceptions is power.

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