2.2.23. Coherence of Physiology - Beyond the Traditional “Stress” Model

Summary: This text discusses the scientific research of Professor Garkavi, who studied the body's response to different stimuli, including stress, and identified training and activation responses. She used various stimuli like magnetic fields, electric currents, and chemicals, observing changes in glands like the adrenal and thymus. The research highlights the body's holistic response to disturbances, emphasizing the balance between different systems.

all of this big chip is working together. And this is why we put together this model to share it with you because a scientist, her name is Garkavi, in 1970s, she described a breakthrough concept. She looked in the body in terms of coherence from the angle of all the systems, not just single parameter, but all systems. And those of you who are in coMra community that you know this concept very well and we have been through this number of times, but some of you are hearing this name for the first time. So I do want to go through this at least in brief so you have an understanding. So what happened is that Garkavi when she was a medical student, she looked at the research done by Maybe you don't know the name, but you certainly know the term stress. So Hans Selye back in 1930s, he introduced the term stress into the language of medicine. Basically, he said that stress is a universal type of response of our body to pretty much any large disturbance. It could be emotional stress, it could be dehydration, infection or anything like that. The body will respond in a certain pattern. And that pattern he called stress. And after him, the term stress pretty much, you know, right now is a common word, but he was the first who introduced it. So what Garkavi did in your research, she discovered that stress is only one type of response of the body. If you introduce disturbance not at a high level, but if you introduce a moderate or mild type of stress or some kind of disturbance or stimulus, then the response of the body will not be the stress type response. There are different types and she called it training response and the other one is called activation response. So, and the way how she identified these patterns of systemic response is that she looked at the whole system of neuro, immune, endocrine changes in the body. That's how she identified this holistic picture of systemic response. So, let's look at the research how she approached it. She used in her research several different types of stimuli or disturbance. She used magnetic fields. She used electric currents. And also she used certain chemicals, high dose and low dose of medication. And as she introduced the different dose of different amounts of this stimuli, she looked at the different aspects of how the body responds. So for example, you know, she looked at the adrenal gland mess and the thymus. So these are two types of glands that are responsible for the functioning of, you know, fight or flight. So if we activate adrenal glands, meaning, you know, we're ready for to run away from a tiger. If we are relaxed, if we are comfortable, if the body is ready to do the healing work, then we have reduction of the adrenal gland mass and we have great increase in the mass of thymus. So in the same way if you look at the mineral corticosteroids versus glycocorticoids, again, there's always this balance. One goes up, other goes down.