Autonomic Nervous System and Stress On Our Body

In this video, Dr. Paul Canali and Jim Fazio discuss the Autonomic Nervous System, stress, and how it impacts our physical well-being.

Key Points In The Video

• The Autonomic Nervous System is responsible for our day to day function.
• Controls things like heart rate, blood pressure, hot, cold, sexual intimacy.
• Almost every function of the human body is under Autonomic Nervous System control.
• We're not always aware of it until something goes wrong.
• Negative impacts of stress are expressed through the Autonomic Nervous System.
• Sympathetic Nervous System
• One part of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).
• It increases and expends energy to meet the demand of the moment.
• Increases
• Blood Pressure
• Heart Rate
• The stress response
• The survival response
• Still in the "danger mode" so your body doesn't waste energy on digestion, sleep, rest, healing.  Even dangers that have long past gone away.
• Parasympathetic Nervous System
• Helps slow things down and bring things back into balance.
• If the threat, real or perceived, is still there, this will not engage.
• Parasympathetic helps in
• Sleep
• Digestion
• Rest
• Healing
• The longer we stay in stress or survival, the longer these systems will stay shut down and lead to constipation, inflammatory disease, and illness of all types. 
• Majority of doctor visits are due to stress or the maladaptation to stress.
• Treatments will only do so much unless you deal with the stress.
• If you don't correct your ways to adapt to stress, nature will take you out of the picture.
• Re-regulate stress by dumping allostatic load, which is how the body adapts to a stressful stimulus.
• Stress happens and it impacts the body, but in a short period of time, we should return back to a baseline called homeostasis.  Unfortunately, we don't always do this.
• Stresses can accumulate and keep us out of balance which ends up in situations where we are in severe pain, physical illness, and conditions that impact the body.

For More Information

1. Dr. Paul Canali, Evolutionary Healing Institute of Miami, Florida
2. Jim Fazio, Integrative Bodywork

Pulse Meter And Autonomic Nervous System

I'm sure everyone looks at this in a different way than I do.  I'm talking about our pulse rate and how I use the pulse meter to monitor my health.  I'm especially concerned with the health of my autonomic nervous system, not just the pulse rate.

I'm going to attempt to try and explain what I look at and see when I use the pulse meter.  My goal is to improve my overall health, not just take one reading and extrapolate it into conclusions for all parts of my life.  It is extremely important to know your pulse rate among other key factors of your health.

Going to a doctor and having them check at that moment is never enough.  It only shows you what is happening to you in that single moment. 

How do we know what is going on each day if we've oblivious to what is taking place within us.  I have found that as much as I think I know what is happening, a pulse rate or blood pressure check can often show something quite different.  Our bodies and our minds are not always in sync with one another.

Most of what I am writing about is what I have learned.  If you find something that you know is not quite accurate, please - please - leave a comment and help give me some reference material where I can learn more.  I've had to figure this out on my own using my own life's experiences, so I'm sharing what I know. 

Please don't use this as a medical diagnosis because I'm not qualified to do that in anyone.  You would need to consult your medical provider for questions you may have.

Here's the three key things that I look at when I use the pulse meter on myself or on other clients.

1. Pulse Rate - When I look at this, I'm looking for where the reading is at and then comparing it to where it is after some deep relaxation or trauma release work or even breath work.  In many cases, this number will change, but a healthy autonomic nervous system will have the pulse come down with the work I just referenced.  If the pulse stays high (90 to 100 or above) and does not come down, this is something that needs attention.  It is not healthy for a pulse rate to stay high.  At one time, my pulse rate remained in the high 90's, but with deep trauma and autonomic nervous system work, it has now come down to a more health level.
   
   One thing I have seen is that in some people the pulse rate is very low and in my mind, that does not seem any healthier than the individual with a high pulse rate.  It is like the autonomic nervous system is exhausted or that's how I view it and see it.  You almost have to push the person up into a higher energy state, to get past the autonomic drag as I would view it. 
   
   Knowing where your pulse rate is at any given point is key to understanding what is going on deep within you.  Even in situations where I have had nightmares and I put the pulse meter on my finger, I've found out that my pulse isn't showing what I feel biologically is happening inside of me.  Often the two things are disconnected.  Don't assume that what you think you feel is actually what is going on within you.
   
    
2. SPo2 - The oxygen level of your blood is key to so much.  Oxygen is required to help carry nutrients to the cells so that waste can be carried from them.  If your oxygen level is low, than your blood will not be doing all that it needs to help your cells function in your body.  If I am correct, it will affect your energy levels and ability to deal with things from day to day.  It will set you up for physical ailments and situations that can pull you down even further. 
   
   Many of us don't breathe properly.  We don't fully utilize our breath in a day.  Due to overwhelming stress and a failure to go in and release old traumas, we tend to hold our breath because we are in survival mode.  More often than not, we don't even realize just how much we hold our breath or keep our breathing shallow.  The more we do this, the less overall oxygen we have in our blood. 
   
   The oxygen level is a key indicator of where someone is with respect to the autonomic nervous system and how much residual trauma is still impacting them in a biological way.  If you don't know what you're levels are, you are missing a key component of your healing and your life.
   
   
3. Pulse Wave Form - While not every pulse meter has this feature I don't believe, it is another key component of the health of the autonomic nervous system.  If you start to watch the wave form continuously on yourself and other people, you'll start to see patterns emerge.  I always picture the healthy pulse wave form being gentle rolling ocean waves.  I don't want them too high and peaked because it would be like a ship on some very stormy waters.  I want the wave forms to be robust enough to help me sail through my day. 
   
   The gentle rolling waves reminds me of peaceful waters on the ocean where things are more smooth sailing. The pulse waves are steady, but about the same height.  They are rolling and evenly spaced.  Each one just rolls on to the next one without any thought given as to how it happens.  So when I see this, I know that the body is in a more relaxed and calm state, not suffering from intense trauma triggers in that moment. 
   
   Most likely if you put a pulse meter on your finger, you would see that the waves are all over the place with some high and some at different levels.  However, if you take a few moments and focus on your breath or just relax and turn off the thoughts, you would see something different if you checked it again.  The wave form should typically should be more relaxed in a healthy state.  However, if your body is reeling from the after affects of painful experiences and stress in life, it may not automatically even out, until you've released that which is built up within you.  

Even readings that seem normal at this moment can change.  We all go through experiences that brings up triggers and past memories or experiences.  When these show up, our mind body adjusts to them in trying to regain balance.  It may be nice to read our different levels and think that we are fine, but this would be an illusion because life is a process of moving forward, not a one time event.

Often we need to engage in deep trauma healing work that releases from the core of the body so that these things don't impact us biologically, mentally, and emotionally.  If we don't do this,  you can quickly see with a pulse meter, the impact and effect they have upon your body.  Our nervous systems have elasticity to them, but if you stretch that rubber band too far, something is going to break.

You can also have a great impact upon your pulse rate and blood pressure just through your thoughts.  Unfortunately, this is often temporary if you are still feeding the beast with the unresolved trauma, stress buildup and past experiences still acting as host to your mind and body.

The pulse meter is a tool to help you understand your body more.  We as humans are much more disconnected from what is happening within us than we realize.  The more you explore these concepts, the more this will be an eye opening awareness.  It is a simple tool that if you learn how to use it and read it, you can be in much greater control of your life and health.

Pulse meters are much cheaper today than they once were.  One of the ones I use is pictured above.  If you click on the following link for the PULSE METER, you will see what it is.  They are simple to use, but I think they are something that should be a standard item of personal care each day.

While I know others look at pulse rate in a more medical setting, I look at it through the eyes of the health of the autonomic nervous system.  When this system is in good health because built up stress, past trauma and experiences are not weighing it down, then your overall mind and body and spirit are in good health.  You find balance at that moment which brings you deep peace, joy, and awareness.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Resting Pulse Rate And Elasticity

I have been on a long journey to see my pulse go from around 99 beats per minute down to the low 60's which is more normal and healthy.  For a long time, 99 was my low and 60 bpm was just a dream.  Lately, as part of my Pulse Rate Healthy project, I have been recording my pulse rate.

Last night, when I measured it with my pulse meter, I found that it was only 65.  Usually at night just before I go to bed, that is one of the most difficult times for me.  At this point of the day, my pulse is generally not low and most of the time around 80 or higher.

I was ecstatic when I saw that my post was at 65 going to bed.  Generally I would have to sleep peacefully for eight hours to get to this point.  It felt good and wonderful just to know that I was finally lowering my high resting pulse rate.  In fact, I could actually feel the sense of peacefulness and calmness in my body as I went to sleep.

Startle Reflex

How many times have you been sitting there minding your own business when some sound brings you up out of your chair? Or maybe some quick movement past you stops you dead in your tracks. Even a sound such as an explosion or fireworks or a moment in a song could ignite something deep within you. It could be a flash of light or about anything but whatever it is, you stop and try to determine what is going on.


What Is The Startle Reflex / Startle Response
The startle reflex is something everyone knows about. We've all felt it at one time or another. It is the response of our mind and our body from a sudden unexpected stimulus. It could be a sound, a flash of light, some event, a touch or a quick movement around us. There are many ways we are startled.

When started, our bodies go through many physical changes including contraction of muscles of the arm and leg, blinking, increase in blood pressure, respiration and breathing rate. While the muscles contraction responses generally resolve themselves in a matter of seconds, it often takes our breathing, respiration and blood pressure much more time to normalize.

Startle Response and PTSD
If there is an exaggerated startle response, it is called hyperplexia and is often seen in people with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Startle Response Video
Here's a great video depicting what happens in a person when a startle response is encountered. The video is about self protection but the beginning of it really shows in a simplistic way, just what the startle response does.

Startle Response from James Marwood on Vimeo.

My Startle Reflex Experience
One of the things I am learning through the Evolutionary Healing Institute with Dr. Paul Canali is just how important the "startle reflex" is to the healing of trauma. Through pendulation of the autonomic nervous system, one is able to begin moving through trauma that is stored in the body without becoming overwhelmed and shutting down. The startle reflex is one of the ways used to do this because the startle reflex kicks the system up into sympathetic mode and once dissipation has been allowed to complete, the body can then come back down into a more relaxed or resting mode (parasympathetic). By doing short bursts of stimulation and rest, the person is able to move through much more than if they were just brought into the trauma stimulus full force. Of course, it greatly helps the person going through this to be safely supported by someone that is able to be there in a grounded way without judgment.

One good way to measure the state of the nervous system is by use of a pulse meter. I use the one pictured to the left. There are times that a person feels one way but when you measure the pulse, you can quickly see if the person is in sympathetic or parasympathetic mode. If the pulse is going high and not dropping down, you are still in sympathetic and there is still arousal or stimuli within the body. Until that arousal or stimuli is released, the body will not be able to go completely into parasympathetic mode. This of course may not happen all at once and may take time to go further and further into it. With the pulse meter, there is no guess work as to what is going on in the body. The pulse of the body is real where what one may experience may not be truly what is going on.



Other Sources of Information

1) Wikipedia - Startle Reaction

2) Evolutionary Healing Institute: Autonomic Nervous System

3) US National Library Of Medicine - National Institutes Of Health: Fear Appears Fast

4) How Stuff Works: Startle Response

5) Trauma, Biology And Hyperarousal

6) Hope And Possibility Through Trauma

*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

My Pulse Is Too High - FOLLOW UP

This is a follow up post to previous entries that I wrote about.

• My Pulse Is Too High
• Finger Pulse Oximeter

Since I last wrote this blog entry "My Pulse Is Too High" on Oct 19, 2009, I have had much improvement on my pulse rate. Instead of being in the high 90's at a resting state, I have actually come down to the 80's.

The things I have been doing include Yoga, mediation and relaxation along with a technique called the "Enteric Brain". I have been monitoring my pulse with the Finger Pulse Oximeter pictured above. This has helped me to truly know and understand what is going on within myself.

In addition, I had a session with Dr. Canali and attended the latest workshops. As usual there was a lot that came up but during this session and workshop, I began to go into the fear and emotions that were coming up instead of letting them over take me. The last time I was worked on during the workshop, I could really feel my body come down into a deeper sense of calmness and so we checked my pulse. Sure enough it was down in the 50's which is as low as I've seen it for some time. A day after this, it is still in the 70's so I'm on the right track. I'm sure it will fluctuate but as I'm seeing, there is a lot that we can do to control this.

Never in my life did I realize my pulse was so high on a daily basis until the Oximeter came along. I'm sure doctors and nurses probably recorded a high pulse rate all these years but since I get so nervous in a doctor's office setting, they probably just chalked it up to anxiety and tension. I never once heard a doctor address this with me which I find strange. Here I've been walking around with a ticking time bomb in me and if I would have let this continue, who knows when my number life would have been called.

More importantly though through re-regulation of the autonomic nervous system with Dr. Canali, I can see that it is possible to drop my pulse rate. What is nice also, is that I did not even need medication to reduce my pulse rate. Just think of the energy that has been robbed of me as my heart is beating so fast and hard. What if I am able to reclaim that wasted energy in myself and use it for positive things instead of being tired and worn out all the time. This is life changing for me. Maybe now, I've added a few years to my life.

Finger Pulse Oximeter OctiveTech 300PRO

Please note:  I had been using the Finger Pulse Oximeter from Clinical Guard, but due to their insufficiency in customer service, I have since found a different Finger Pulse Oximeter that I believe is comparable and works just as well.  It is on Amazon and at a much lower price.  Check it out on Amazon.




I am leaving the following part of this original post up so that the information is still available.

I just ordered one of these today. This is the pulse meter that Dr. Paul Canali has introduced me and many others to in order to help give real time information as to what is going on with the nervous system. It is very revealing and tells exactly what is happened especially if the nervous system is in dysregulation.

For me, I've recently found out that my resting pulse rate is at 99 which is very high. Most likely it has been this way for much of my life or so I am assuming. I have ordered this so I can help monitor my pulse rate and begin to work on getting it lowered. I also intend on using it with my clients to help not only myself but my clients understand what is going on. When fear is kicking up, it can make us think biological things are happening within our body when in fact, it may not be the case. The good news is that even though my pulse rate was at 99, I saw through some work on the table that Dr. Canali was able to drop mine to the high 60's. So, I know it is possible to do this and just have to work with my body to accomplish this.

I'm anxious to get this in the mail so I can begin understanding more of what is going on inside my body and realizing that there are many things that can be done through the nervous system to change them.

Innate Intelligence

There is an innate intelligence that you can trust. If you learn how to support and encourage this innate system, it will always engage. (from the Unified Therapy Seminar, Oct 17 & 18, 2009)

Innate intelligence is the knowledge that every human is born with that allows it to adapt to its environment and evolve into a higher level of awareness. It is expressed through the nervous system and if we restrict its operation through stress and other influences upon our mind and body, than our autonomic nervous system will become dysregulated. The innate intelligence of the body is the part that does the healing. We are much more powerful than we often recognize and this innate intelligence within us knows what is perfect for us, if we just allow it.

My Pulse Is Too High

The past couple of weeks that I’ve been finally going to the fitness center, I noticed that when I got on the treadmill, it checked my pulse and it said 99 or 100 or somewhere around there (sometimes higher). I would exercise and it would go up to maybe 115. Of course, I’ve never had problems with my pulse rate or heart rate/blood pressure that I know of. To be honest, I wasn’t even aware of what the normal pulse rate should be although I’ve most likely learned this in school a few times. I had a sense that something was off in me but could not tell what that was. I did not give it any more thought.

We went to Dr. Canali for a session and I had a big release and a lot going on. It was a very difficult session including my legs going completely out on me and my voice was to the point where I could barely utter a word. The fears get pretty strong for me just to be in this state and even though I know there is some mind/body connection to the nervous system, it is still difficult to go through.

On Saturday (day 1 of the weekend seminar), I again went into a very deep place with so much going on. In fact, I felt as if I was in a dark tunnel during the session hardly recognizing that anyone else was in the room. I wanted to jump up and run away from the table, the room and everyone there. I did not want to connect with the implicit memory. Implicit memory is remembering something without being aware that you are remembering it. I had the support of a few people trying to help me but I was so frightened and so afraid that it was all they could do to keep me in my body. Finally the only word I could get out was “Paul” because deep within me, I knew that I trusted him to bring me back from where I was. When I told him “I Can Not Speak”, which was hard to get out, he responded, “you feel like you cannot speak”. It shifted my thinking from being hopeless to the possibility that I had the power to change this. That along with the next statement where he reminded that what I was experiencing at this moment was not happening now. Although it felt very scary, I was ok. Those two things shifted everything in me and I came back from the deep dark place I was.

The tears were plentiful after that and I felt almost disoriented in the room as I tried to come back. That night, I felt like I wanted to cry the entire night and there was an overwhelming sadness that permeated every cell of my body. I felt like I wanted to hide, withdraw and just find a cave to hide in. Sleep was not easy that night and arriving at the seminar on Sunday, I just felt like if someone looked at me wrong, I was going to cry forever. Fortunately, I started hearing others talk about how rough they were feeling and so I did not feel as alone. I realized through the sharing of others, that this was part of the process that was unfolding. As I realized this, I knew that I did not have to fear this part of the process.

Back to the pulse rate for a moment. We took my pulse rate with the Finger Pulse Oximeter Dr. Canali has and it was around the 99 rate again. Even with all the release and stuff that I had gone through, it was still high and had not come down to a resting state. There was still to much charge in my autonomic nervous system that needed to be released. It was frightening to me, to see that my pulse was not coming down but Dr. Canali told me that we would get it down.

Sunday, was a time we did more work and Dr. Canali used me to demonstrate things on others. This time, he would take me just a little ways into something and then back off because my nervous system did not need to be overloaded at that point. This was done multiple times and in very short time spans. We got to the point of working on the Enteric brain and that’s where things changed. Up until that point, my back and shoulders had been pretty painful. Dr. Canali put the pulse meter on me and sure enough the pulse was high. He demonstrated and took me through the enteric brain stuff where it released a little. The pulse rate was still somewhat high and I was still feeling a lot of discomfort there. So again, he worked with that spot with the help of others in the room. There was a much bigger release at this point which then allowed my body to go into a deeper state of peace and healing. I could feel it in my body because the pain in my back and shoulders dissipated and my breathing seemed to be more relaxed than it had been for some time. He checked the pulse meter and indeed, it had dropped to a more normal resting state.

I’m not sure how long my pulse had been high but I know it had been up there for at least two weeks, if not longer. Something in me just helped urge me that something was off. Now I know where the pulse should be. More importantly, I know that if it gets high, it means my autonomic nervous system is in dysregulation but that through the work I’m learning, there is a way to reregulate the nervous system. This is not something that is pie in the sky voo doo magic but it is real and a very natural innate part of our human bodies.

When the autonomic nervous system is out of balance, it often shows up through chronic pain, health and mental conditions among many other things. The good news is that it can be reregulated without drugs and many of the things that we consider as health care today. The problem is, that no one has been taught about these things and the collective consciousness of our country does not really allow us to be aware of these things. If I had not experienced these things first hand and seen the same things happen in others, I might not believe it either. However, these things have been demonstrated to me in my own life and that is something I cannot deny.