Electromagnetic overload & the immune system

The power of love came into me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.

— Rumi, Essential Rumi, tr. Coleman Barks, p. 134







Electromagnetic overload: what role does this play in stress, and illness?

Over the last year I’ve noticed that the phone I use sometimes even makes my left ear hurt when I use it right next to my head. I had chronic congestion in that ear last summer.

It also makes me think about the mystery of the cancer epidemic. We are constantly bombarded with sublethal doses of many toxic chemicals, in our air, water, food, in plastics, carpets, paint. These may have the effect of undermining the immune system such that other stressors — pathogens, psychological, or physical stressors — can get through. There is evidence that viruses play a role in the development of cancer.

Are we that different from the bees?

I like the term ‘toxic stress’— but it is taking on new meaning tonight. ‘Toxin stress’ is part of the picture, too.

More on stress

"People can become obsessed with their own theories and miss the point of everything."

— Sogyal Rinpoche, Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, p. 55




March 2009

on stress:

from the MOFGA newspaper, Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, March-May 2009 issue, p. 38, in a review of a book on Colony Collapse Disorder:

“Jacobsen cites several studies showing that although neonicotinoids may not kill bees outright, so-called sublethal doses cause breakdown of the immune system, making bees vulnerable to disease and other stressors.”

Stressors. Sublethal doses eroding the immune system. The immune system as including that which protects us against toxic levels of stress and its effects.

I had never thought about the immune system as protecting us against stress. That would mean that the mind, the way we think, and in particular our attitudes toward life are part of our immune system.

We all know that stress can lead to illness, that it undermines our immune system. But do I live with the understanding that part of our immune system’s job is to protect us from toxic levels of stress (not the strengthening kind — as in the bushes and trees after the snowstorm)?

On Stress

"Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness."
— Tolle, A New Earth, p. 41




Snow
Cherry buds
Broomstick
*
Stress: looking at the trees under 9 inches of snow, deeper in places where the strong gusts had drifted it: thinking about what the tree man said. A certain amount of stress is good for trees: wind, snow.

Shaking off the snow from the ornamental cherry with its fat buds, the hawthorne with its freeze-dried red berries, holly, cypress, laurel: snow on, stress. Snow falls off, release. Vacation. Stress plus vacation or release equals the slow building of strength — physical, character.

Stress plus no release equals deterioration. I saw it all right there clattering on the cherry limb with a broomstick. Also that in order to release the tree it was not necessary to shake off all the snow, only some. There was still some snow on the tree.

Same way as people. It’s not necessary to relieve all the stress in order for health and strength to build. It needs to be brought down to a manageable level for the living thing.

In massage it’s the same way. It’s not about curing the stress. It’s about alleviating some of the stress so that the body can function optimally to reduce stress on its own — through circulation or better sleep, for instance.

When does stress become toxic? When the heavy stress goes on for too long, straining the tree or the body beyond its limits. When the stress cannot resolve itself / heal in a day (a workout), a week (a marathon), or a year (childbirth). When there is not the periodic relief of some of the stress to a more manageable level.
*
Life is work. If you’re lucky, and/or are willing to work hard and make some sacrifices, the work is work you love, in a comfortable environment, with a fair amount of freedom and no toxic stress involved.