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production of chemical messenger molecules, called neuropeptides. These messenger molecules attach themselves to cell receptors, and allow us to experience euphoria and painlessness. |
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We could think of the messenger molecules as little skeleton keys, which fit into the keyhole-like receptors on the membranes around certain body cells. The same kind of messenger molecules that are produced in our brains and affect our levels of pain and euphoria, as well as their keyhole like receptors, are found on immune system cells. Our immune system cells can be activated by these chemical messengers to destroy cancer cells, or to stimulate the production of new cancer-fighting cells. The rate at which our bodies produce the chemical messenger molecules is determined by our emotions, and the field of knowledge concerning this relationship is known as psychoneuroimmunology. There is no longer any doubt that a person's stress, fears, resentments, anger, love, grief, and coping style affect his or her cellular defense against the spread of cancer.
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Emotions Converting Mind to Matter? |
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These discoveries over the last twenty years have led Pert to propose a theory that emotions are the key element that effects the conversion of mind to matter in the body.45 Emotions are not just in the head or the brain: They are part of the body, and we can no longer make clear distinctions between the brain, our mind, and our body. In fact, Pert refers to white blood cells as "bits of the brain floating around the body."46 She says, "Brain and body make and receive the same messenger molecules in order to communicate effectively. They 'speak' the same language the language of neuropeptides."47 MIT neuroscientist Dr. Francis Schmidt calls neuropeptides "informational substances."48 Psychologist Dr. Lydia Temoshok, head of the U.S. Military's Behavioral Medicine Research Program on HIV/AIDS, also tells us that: |
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Neuropeptides are a universal language by which cells from different biological systems interact and alter each other's behavior. They are a medium of exchange, and what they share is information [Emphasis added.]49 |
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