Everything Is One Joan-Marie Lartiin, PhD, RN   Have you heard this one?  What did the Buddhist master say to the hot dog vendor?  "Make me one with everything."  That sums up the topic of this column.  The connections between and among the nervous, immune, and endocrine (i.e. thyroid, adrenal, pancreas, ovaries) systems have been explored by

  Joan-Marie Lartiin, PhD, RN Have you heard this one?  What did the Buddhist master say to the hot dog vendor?  "Make me one with everything."   That sums up the topic of this column.  The connections between and among the nervous, immune, and endocrine (i.e. thyroid, adrenal, pancreas, ovaries) systems have been explored by Western

Health care professionals and researchers report that traumatized women have more than their share of a variety of chronic diseases and health problems.  Sadly, it is all too common that many of these health issues are either not addressed and/or focused on symptom relief. I think that there are at least two reasons for this. For starters, there is a

Anyone who has sustained contact with a disordered person over time can relate to the concept of body armor-that involuntary tightening of the muscles that is part of the healthy flight/fight response to threat. This response is especially prominent in those who have lived with a disordered person-dealing with mood swings, intensity, blaming, drama,

In January’s column, we looked at neurofeedback training as a method to calm the brain and reduce a wide-ranging variety of symptoms associated with PTSD. A person with PTSD has the unfortunate challenge of living with constant hormonal and neurotransmitter disruption. Why is this the case, even when the trauma is in the past? We know from Sandra’s work and

So far this column has taken a look at the biochemical impact of PTSD and sustained stress. We’ve considered neurotransmitters and cortisol, two interrelated responses to the threat of (or actual) physical and or emotional harm. As we’ve seen, when a person lives under constant stress, his or her biochemical’s almost always become unbalanced, leading to a host

Part one of this article described three phases of adrenal disruption that occur in chronic stress. We are hard-wired to respond to acute crisis with an “adrenalin rush” which describes how the adrenal glands respond to stress-they produce cortisol which gives the body a sugar boost in order to fight or flee. If there is chronic stress and not much flight or

What Is Cortisol? Cortisol is a chemical messenger produced when the brain tells the adrenal glands "Hey, we need some energy, now!" Cortisol triggers a release of insulin into the blood stream, mobilizing the body's flight or fight response. After the initial alarm, cortisol production winds down. However, when there is chronic, sustained stress, the body may

Many aspects of PTSD are evident in invisible but serious physical disruptions due to the traumatic event(s). These disruptions contribute to serious problems such as depression, insomnia, and OCD; but recent advances have made it possible not only to identify these changes but to treat them in safe and effective ways. Ongoing stress, as well as a poor diet,