Tuesday, March 22, 2016

So, About this Hormone of Love


Do I mean there is a hormone of love?  Yes and with a good birth you will have plenty of this hormone in your system.  Bad birth—low on the ability to give and receive love.   Mothers who had a poor birth history and lack of maternal love from early on, do not have enough milk to give their newborn.  

This hormone is called Oxytocin, (the medicine is known as Cerbetocin) and it not only offers us  the biologic capacity for love but it also softens pain and makes life bearable.   And what can it do about stress?  It can treat stress disorders with something that boosts oxytocin.   In short, it ameliorates pain and suffering.   More, it can counteract anxiety states, which often translates into terror disorder. It can soften stress-related genes. Wonderful. We need to make sure we have it. In the hippocampus it softens potential psychiatric disorders.

There are several studies on the subject; one with rats who had restraint stress. These rats often became depressed. As would humans who were stuck in the canal during birth. Oxytocin had a marked beneficial effect in those animals  who had previous stress. The system rushed in to help out as best if could, as if to say that love is an ideal remedy for hurt and and anxiety.   And “here my friend, is  a dash of love to ease your “suffering.”   The system knows that love is what it is all about. That the antidote to pain is love, and with love all of the natural functions start to normalize.

The problem is that it is not so easy with humans.  We cannot offer hugs and kisses and solve the problem; it is too late.  But there is a way: feel unloved and unfulfilled and open up the closed gates which tried to block too much pain into conscious/awareness. And slowly as we reopen the gates we can feel love again; pain diminishes and the biochemical processes readapt.  Wow, what love can do. The point is even before we are born , stress can change us epigenetically and we grow up thinking we suffer from a genetic affliction because it happened so early.  In other words, we are being shaped long before we go to school and interact with others. Those experiences are important but not as critical as womb life.  The origins of behavior problems exist long before we can behave socially.  And this is very true of mothers who are stressed before and during pregnancy.  They are creating imprints that endure in us and can affect us for a lifetime.

What I think Primals do by lowering pain levels is increasing oxytocin. I believe this is true in those advanced patients who seem far more capable of love.   It seems to change the imprints in the limbic system so that the feeling centers can function properly at last.  So we learn to love from loving parents but the capacity for love is much more epigenetic.  It is inside us, and our systems, when normal, are well prepared for it.   “OK, I am open.  Shove it in and I will tell you when I have had enough.” ENOUGH!


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15 comments:

  1. PaulMarch 23, 2016 at 2:09 AM

    "Message In A Bottle"

    Just a castaway
    An island lost at sea
    Another lonely day
    With no one here but me
    More loneliness
    Than any man could bear
    Rescue me before I fall into despair

    I'll send an SOS to the world
    I hope that someone gets my
    Message in a bottle

    A year has passed since I wrote my note
    But I should have known this right from the start
    Only hope can keep me together
    Love can mend your life
    But love can break your heart

    I'll send an SOS to the world
    I hope that someone gets my
    Message in a bottle

    Walked out this morning
    Don't believe what I saw
    A hundred billion bottles
    Washed up on the shore
    Seems I'm not alone at being alone
    A hundred billion castaways
    Looking for a home

    I'll send an SOS to the world
    I hope that someone gets my
    Message in a bottle

    Sending out an SOS

    Sting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrew D AtkinMarch 23, 2016 at 9:29 AM

    I would suggest the evolutionary meaning of love making pain more bearable, is that if you are valuable to the group then there is the capacity to absorb more stress (as the group neutralizes it, in part). If you are not valuable to the group then stress will kill you off more quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. FrankMarch 23, 2016 at 10:05 AM

    My dearest frend Art!

    I can not stand with both feet on the ground in thoughts about what happens!

    "The point is even before we are born, stress can change us epigenetically and we grow up thinking we suffer from a genetic affliction because it happened so early. In other words, we are being shaped long before we go to school and interact with others. Those experiences are important but not as critical as womb life. The origins of behavior problems exist long before we can behave socially. And this is very true of mothers who are stressed before and during pregnancy. They are creating imprints that endure in us and can affect us for a lifetime".

    This must be the basis for how a teacher's knowledge is about something quite different from what is now the requirements... without any regard to how children's brains rushing in a completely different direction than managing knowledge learning... it without any consideration to the child state for what it is fighting for his life not to experience?

    What a tragedy... what a punishment to be needing to be facing the impossible! Art did you herar this? Can we possible be looking... just looking without doing somthing more? Pleas Art give me the tools you have not told me about? There must be at least some evidences that proves what is happening in a childs brain which no one can deny with the science under their noses.

    We "just" need to prove it!

    Your Frank

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Arthur JanovMarch 24, 2016 at 8:23 AM

      I am now finishing a book to answer your questions. The first science of psychotherapy. Hang on and you will get it. art

      Delete
    2. Andrew D AtkinMarch 25, 2016 at 7:24 PM

      Over 90 and still cranking them out. How do you do it?

      Delete
    3. Arthur JanovMarch 28, 2016 at 3:58 AM

      Andrew, I am on a mission. To leave the world better than I found it. art

      Delete
  4. KatherinaninaMarch 23, 2016 at 3:46 PM

    Reliving a primal pain may only last for a matter of hours, but it literally takes away decades of pain. The most painful part is carrying all that hurt and tension around year after year, and not feeling it at the level that gets rid of it. Feeling freaked out, anxious, angry, frustrated, despair, tired, exhausted, driven, obsessed, hatred, unloveable etc... on a daily basis is far more painful and exhausting, than having a Primal Therapy session that gets rid of it, in a matter of hours, once and for all! Yes one has to chip away at it, to get to the core feelings that are causing all the problems , however at every little step along the primal road to recovery, there are rewards of relief. You can't imagine how great it feels to finally get free of primal pains. Primal Therapy is life changing and life saving!
    It is criminal that there is an answer to human suffering and no one talks about it. Katerina

    ReplyDelete
  5. stevenbMarch 24, 2016 at 12:03 PM

    Your ideas are becoming more widepread. This is from a finance professor in Denmark. She finds that financial stress during the last recession affected birth outcomes ( low birth weight, male to female ratio, etc..) which results in a lifelong handicap
    http://www.voxeu.org/article/hidden-victims-global-crisis

    ReplyDelete
  6. S. W. AlexanderMarch 26, 2016 at 2:56 PM

    Dr. Janov,
    I’m so glad that you write about Oxytocin. As you may remember I believe oxytocin is THE healing hormone that influences us for the rest of our life. More inside was revealed after my back surgery March 10, 2016. Lack of oxytocin is the foundation for low pain tolerance on the physical side, and lack of trust on the psychological side.
    In spite of having a very extensive surgery, I left the hospital after 2 days.
    If I’m in a place where I don’t feel save, I can’t heal because I cannot sleep.
    I’m in lots of pain and can’t write to much, but I believe you understand what I mean.
    May I encourage you to get money for research from the VP. He is open to finance different approaches.
    Read his answer to me: http://boxbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Answer_VP.pdf
    Sieglinde

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Arthur JanovMarch 28, 2016 at 3:55 AM

      Sieglinde, I hope you are much better. I will try Mr. Biden if I can. art

      Delete

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Review of "Beyond Belief"

This thought-provoking and important book shows how people are drawn toward dangerous beliefs.
“Belief can manifest itself in world-changing ways—and did, in some of history’s ugliest moments, from the rise of Adolf Hitler to the Jonestown mass suicide in 1979. Arthur Janov, a renowned psychologist who penned The Primal Scream, fearlessly tackles the subject of why and how strong believers willingly embrace even the most deranged leaders.
Beyond Belief begins with a lucid explanation of belief systems that, writes Janov, “are maps, something to help us navigate through life more effectively.” While belief systems are not presented as inherently bad, the author concentrates not just on why people adopt belief systems, but why “alienated individuals” in particular seek out “belief systems on the fringes.” The result is a book that is both illuminating and sobering. It explores, for example, how a strongly-held belief can lead radical Islamist jihadists to murder others in suicide acts. Janov writes, “I believe if people had more love in this life, they would not be so anxious to end it in favor of some imaginary existence.”
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Barry Silverstein, Freelance Writer

Quotes for "Life Before Birth"

“Life Before Birth is a thrilling journey of discovery, a real joy to read. Janov writes like no one else on the human mind—engaging, brilliant, passionate, and honest.
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Paul Thompson, PhD, Professor of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine

Art Janov, one of the pioneers of fetal and early infant experiences and future mental health issues, offers a robust vision of how the earliest traumas of life can percolate through the brains, minds and lives of individuals. He focuses on both the shifting tides of brain emotional systems and the life-long consequences that can result, as well as the novel interventions, and clinical understanding, that need to be implemented in order to bring about the brain-mind changes that can restore affective equanimity. The transitions from feelings of persistent affective turmoil to psychological wholeness, requires both an understanding of the brain changes and a therapist that can work with the affective mind at primary-process levels. Life Before Birth, is a manifesto that provides a robust argument for increasing attention to the neuro-mental lives of fetuses and infants, and the widespread ramifications on mental health if we do not. Without an accurate developmental history of troubled minds, coordinated with a recognition of the primal emotional powers of the lowest ancestral regions of the human brain, therapists will be lost in their attempt to restore psychological balance.
Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D.
Bailey Endowed Chair of Animal Well Being Science
Washington State University

Dr. Janov’s essential insight—that our earliest experiences strongly influence later well being—is no longer in doubt. Thanks to advances in neuroscience, immunology, and epigenetics, we can now see some of the mechanisms of action at the heart of these developmental processes. His long-held belief that the brain, human development, and psychological well being need to studied in the context of evolution—from the brainstem up—now lies at the heart of the integration of neuroscience and psychotherapy.
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Lou Cozolino, PsyD, Professor of Psychology, Pepperdine University


In Life Before Birth Dr. Arthur Janov illuminates the sources of much that happens during life after birth. Lucidly, the pioneer of primal therapy provides the scientific rationale for treatments that take us through our original, non-verbal memories—to essential depths of experience that the superficial cognitive-behavioral modalities currently in fashion cannot possibly touch, let alone transform.
Gabor Maté MD, author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction

An expansive analysis! This book attempts to explain the impact of critical developmental windows in the past, implores us to improve the lives of pregnant women in the present, and has implications for understanding our children, ourselves, and our collective future. I’m not sure whether primal therapy works or not, but it certainly deserves systematic testing in well-designed, assessor-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trials.
K.J.S. Anand, MBBS, D. Phil, FAACP, FCCM, FRCPCH, Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, Senior Scholar, Center for Excellence in Faith and Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare System


A baby's brain grows more while in the womb than at any time in a child's life. Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script That Rules Our Lives is a valuable guide to creating healthier babies and offers insight into healing our early primal wounds. Dr. Janov integrates the most recent scientific research about prenatal development with the psychobiological reality that these early experiences do cast a long shadow over our entire lifespan. With a wealth of experience and a history of successful psychotherapeutic treatment, Dr. Janov is well positioned to speak with clarity and precision on a topic that remains critically important.
Paula Thomson, PsyD, Associate Professor, California State University, Northridge & Professor Emeritus, York University

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Dr. Bernard Park, MD, MPH

His new book “Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script that Rules Our Lives” shows that primal therapy, the lower-brain therapeutic method popularized in the 1970’s international bestseller “Primal Scream” and his early work with John Lennon, may help alleviate depression and anxiety disorders, normalize blood pressure and serotonin levels, and improve the functioning of the immune system.
One of the book’s most intriguing theories is that fetal imprinting, an evolutionary strategy to prepare children to cope with life, establishes a permanent set-point in a child's physiology. Baby's born to mothers highly anxious during pregnancy, whether from war, natural disasters, failed marriages, or other stressful life conditions, may thus be prone to mental illness and brain dysfunction later in life. Early traumatic events such as low oxygen at birth, painkillers and antidepressants administered to the mother during pregnancy, poor maternal nutrition, and a lack of parental affection in the first years of life may compound the effect.
In making the case for a brand-new, unified field theory of psychotherapy, Dr. Janov weaves together the evolutionary theories of Jean Baptiste Larmarck, the fetal development studies of Vivette Glover and K.J.S. Anand, and fascinating new research by the psychiatrist Elissa Epel suggesting that telomeres—a region of repetitive DNA critical in predicting life expectancy—may be significantly altered during pregnancy.
After explaining how hormonal and neurologic processes in the womb provide a blueprint for later mental illness and disease, Dr. Janov charts a revolutionary new course for psychotherapy. He provides a sharp critique of cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalysis, and other popular “talk therapy” models for treating addiction and mental illness, which he argues do not reach the limbic system and brainstem, where the effects of early trauma are registered in the nervous system.
“Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script that Rules Our Lives” is scheduled to be published by NTI Upstream in October 2011, and has tremendous implications for the future of modern psychology, pediatrics, pregnancy, and women’s health.
Editor