Waxing and Waning...But Not Quite Like the Moon
by Elaine Moore
September 18, 2000Specialized calendars alert us, their hieroglyphics predicting when the moon plans to wax or wane, glowing as a silver crescent or a perfect orb, man-in-the-moon intact. Despite their magical connotations, lunar changes are as predictable as the setting sun. Symptoms in autoimmune diseases, on the other hand, have traditionally been thought to wax and wane in a seemingly wayward manner. Like quicksilver, symptoms change from barely perceptible to a cascade of maladies fulminating in a full blown crisis. Unpredictable? Hardly.
Recent studies indicate that all this waxing and waning isn't as chimerical as originally thought. In most instances, environmental triggers, including stress and sunlight, account for the waxing, peace and optimism, even prayer, for the waning.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) describes autoimmune diseases as chronic and having an unpredictable course. It's true that no matter what symptoms are present at the time of diagnosis, there's no way to tell how an individual will fare. Neither antibody titers nor severity of symptoms can predict how one's particular disease course will run. However, considering the ups and downs coursing through all of our lives, we can predict there will be waxing and waning.
With this waxing and waning in mind, it's no wonder that those of us with autoimmune thyroid disease complain that some days our dose of medication seem inadequate, other days excessive. There's no way one constant dose could cover changes caused by our emotions, moods, environmental exposures and mental and physical stressors.
In fact, one NIH publication describing autoimmune diseases emphasizes that "Patients should be monitored closely by their doctors so environmental factors or triggers that may worsen the disease can be discussed and avoided and new medical therapy can be started as soon as possible. Frequent visits to a doctor are important in order for the physician to manage complex treatment regimens and watch for medication side effects."
Excuse me, but have any autoimmune patients ever heard this note of caution from their doctors? With changes in managed care, it's a rare doctor who has time to counsel patients about what environmental triggers bear watching. This isn't necessarily bad, though. It keeps us on our toes and puts us where we should be, in charge of our own health. It makes us responsible for learning all we can about our diseases, especially what particular triggers we need to avoid.
Most importantly, we need to learn all we can about psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). PNI which was discovered at Harvard in the 1980's and refers to the scientific study of the relationship between the immune system, our emotions or mind, and the nervous system. PNI explains how stress toys with our immune system. It explains, for example, how the stress of taking a final exam wipes out our levels of natural killer cells. Normally, our NK cells would be fighting off viruses and destroying reactive T cells before they initiated a process ultimately resulting in autoimmune disease.
How our symptoms wax and wane isn't the mystery it was once thought to be. Our emotions pretty much hold the key. How we chose to turn the key has a lot to do with our attitudes. Will we spend our days over-reacting to petty slights or life's normal screw-ups or will we be thankful for the simple joys of life? For a further exploration of PNI, there's a wealth of information available, some of it technical, some spiritual.
Overall, the best sources on PNI and the mind body connection which I've found are Dr. Steven Lowe's book, "The Healer Within" and Dr. Joan Borysenko's audio series "The Power of the Mind to Heal, Renewing Body, Mind and Spirit." If you're sincerely interested in seeing more waning than waxing, spend some time pursuing the subject of PNI. I think you'll find it a good investment.
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