Emotional disorder and your health

Reading time: 4 min There is increasing evidence supporting the close link between our emotions and imbalances in our health. Hormonal imbalances, skin problems, infections, autoimmune pathologies, among others. What relationship do they have with our thoughts and structure of our mind? Researchers such as Paul Broca in 1878 coined the term limbic system to refer to the system configured by our emotions. In this system, the hypothalamus would be our "orchestra conductor", as the nucleus in charge of harmonizing all the neuroendocrine axes, directly affected by our emotional response to any situation. In today's article, we talk about the impact of emotions on the balance of our physical body and we invite you to reflect on various aspects that we can do with them to enhance their positive side.

1. The "CEO": Your hypothalamus

Today, the brain nuclei that make up the limbic system continue to be investigated and defined. Although much remains to be investigated, we know that the hypothalamus is the main nucleus , something like the "CEO" of our neuroendocrine axes, in charge of coordinating their work and proper functioning. When our CEO receives a stimulus, it produces a neurological signal that passes through different areas to regulate the response and thus try to guarantee that cosmos or internal balance in our body.

2. The directors and assistant directors: your neuroendocrine axes

The nervous and endocrine system depends on the hypothalamus, the well-known neuroendocrine axis that, like good "bosses", work as a team to coordinate the functions of all the organs and organic systems, the main ones are:

• The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
• The hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis
• The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (linked to our sex hormones: ovaries in women and testicles in men)
• The neurohypophyseal axis

In this way, if we establish the analogy with an important multinational, our CEO would always be the hypothalamus. Directly influenced by the different circumstances that surround him, he is responsible for making the most important decisions for the good course of the company. In a second scale, we find the pituitary gland . As a good Director, she coordinates and collects the CEO's messages in order to produce and stimulate the rest of the deputy directors to produce while she herself produces tasks (hormones) with fundamental (biological) functions, when they are required.

3. Teamwork: dependency relationship

When one of the members of the team of deputy directors/glands in charge of producing hormones does not execute its work adequately, either due to an excessive workload or poor performance, the rest of the team members will be affected to treat to compensate for the malfunction of one of them. Therefore, if we have our stress axis (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis) with an excessive workload, it is more than likely that the gonadal axis will be affected. How many of you have your menstrual cycle altered in periods of stress ? Do you have a lack of performance in training under stressful circumstances? It seems complex but we are constantly experiencing these situations in which the excessive load on one axis alters the proper functioning of another to supercompensate this situation.

3.1. Stress and emotional disorder

In this context, if our CEO, the hypothalamus, is subjected to a situation of chronic stress, the rest of the areas will undoubtedly be affected, giving rise to an environment or work climate in which this situation is breathed. Therefore, everything that happens emotionally will have an impact in one way or another on each and every one of our neuroendocrine axes and, therefore, not only on our nervous and hormonal systems but also on our immune systems. We can affirm that all our endocrine responses have a strong emotional component. Talking about emotions is talking about science and medicine and any treatment focused on restoring balance and resetting our body cannot and should not be left aside.

4. Wrong conclusion: emotional rationing

As with many other aspects of our lives, emotions are a double-edged sword. There are times when they allow us to become aware of truths that are difficult to access and understand by our rational being, but in many others, they give you a blurred vision of your reality. Emotional reasoning is nothing more than an attempt by our rational being to seek a justification for the messages of our emotions instead of analyzing them objectively and judiciously assessing whether or not such emotions conform to reality. When we reason emotions, we can come to draw wrong conclusions with the impact on our physiology that this entails ( stressed hypothalamus → cascade alteration of neuroendocrine axes). Examples of emotional reasoning that lead us to stressful conclusions:

• I have a mental block → I am not able to face the situation
• I feel lonely → nobody loves me
• Something scares me → I am in danger

In short, we allow an affirmation, a belief to be born from an emotion. We do not allow ourselves to carry out an objective analysis of the situation, from reasoning, which only generates emotional and, consequently, physiological stress. Culture broth for multiple pathologies. "He who dominates others is strong, but he who dominates himself is powerful" - Lao Tzu .

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