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Bessel van der Kolk, MD Psychiatrist's Physiology Research: PTSD Bottom-up Triggers- YOGA's Results: HRV and Muscle Membrain Activation 2014
Lymphocyte Activation 1996
YOGA BOTTOM-UP REGULATION:
Bessel became impressed with YOGA's ability to suppress anxiety symptoms in profound early sexually traumatized (PTSD) patients. 2014
He hired a MIT engineer to build a system that could monitor 8 subject's HRV (Heart Rate Variability) at one time. He set up a 8 week study that used DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) vs YOGA to attempt to reduce the HRV to normal. DBT did not reduce the PTSD symptoms nor the HRV. YOGA did! Bessel learned YOGA and his HRV returned to normal!
He moved his YOGA classes to Camp Lejeune!
The conclusion from his YOGA work, was that even when he monitored the marines with HRV in their skin during the 'shavasana' the ending major relaxation pose-
"Instead of relaxing we picked up too much muscle activity to get a clear signal. Rather than going into a state of quiet repose, our students' (marines') muscles often continue to prepare them to fight unseen enemies." (see HRV below)
Muscle memory microtubules which have not been removed are still on guard.
Bessel's life long work on severely abused women during their childhoods is the best civilian model physiologically comparable to combat stress (PTSD).
[I believe that Bessel is an honest researcher. He is one of my most beloved teachers. His book is heavy reading.] (with his permission)
HEART RATE VARIABILITY
In Russia HRV has been the gold standard of military fitness for over 40 years. HRV was used in fetal monitoring since the early 1970s to predict fetal death. Below is a print out of breathing and HRV relative to normal vs abnormal PTSD autonomic responses. ref. p268- "FINDING OUR WAY TO YOGA: Bottom- Up Regulation, The Body Keeps the Score, (2014)
HRV is a physiological measurement of PTSD, because HRV directly records the autonomic nervous system dysfunction.
Blood Evidence for More Microtubule Activation?
*Lymphocyte activation discovered in sexual abuse survivors blood in 1996 at Bessel's Trauma Center by Wilson, S. MD, *condensed
"Patients with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a past history of extremely stressful experience and often present with somatic complaints. Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of patients with PTSD associated with a history of childhood sexual abuse were examined for changes in immune phenotype. These findings suggest the presence of increased lymphocyte activation in the PBL of patients with PTSD".
"In the present study, conducted in 1996, markers of immune activation expressed on the surface membrane of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), and serum cortisol levels, from 10 patients with PTSD secondary to childhood sexual trauma were compared with those of normal control subjects".
"Ten female subjects with childhood sexual trauma who met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for PTSD and 10 age- and sex-matched control subjects were recruited from an outpatient psychiatric trauma clinic"...........
"In the present study, we have demonstrated that a history of childhood sexual trauma is associated with markers of increased immune activation on the surface of peripheral lymphocytes in vivo."
"The interpretation of the results are limited by the small number of patients in this pilot study. In addition, the possible mechanisms in vivo that might account for this change have not yet been rigorously addressed. Future studies with larger numbers of subjects will focus on how markers of increased immune activation that accompany PTSD are regulated in vivo, whether an increased 'lymphocytic activation' index is a stable phenotypic finding in PTSD, and whether this finding correlates with the somatic complaints in this population."
[Our long PTSD A&B protocols now include treating those lymphocytes]
**Phenotype of Blood Lymphocytes in PTSD Suggests Chronic Immune Activation; Scott N. Wilson, M.D., Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., Jennifer Burbridge, M.A., Rita Fisler, Ed.M., and Richard Kradin, M.D.
Received June 15, 1998; revised October 20, 1998; accepted November 3, 1998. From the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and The Trauma Center at Human Resource Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Wilson, Five Longfellow Place, Ste. 213, Boston, MA 02114. Psychosomatics 40:222-225, June 1999
© 1999 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medine
Harvard's Inner Life of the Cell with exploding memory microtubules (at 1:05- 1:22 minute) releasing trauma. Microtubules conduct energy (see the cable above) between and within the cells and store fear memory on all cell membrane surfaces. 2006
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