November 5, 2007

Emotion and Health – Heart Freedom (Part 3 of 8 )

"Emotion and Health – Heart Freedom"

Part 3 of 8

Healthy Emotions for Healthy Lives

A direct connection between your heart (emotion and feeling) and the rest of your body affects your state of health. Neurobiologist Candace Pert and a team of researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified “molecules of emotion.” Combinations of tiny bits of protein on the surface of cells form receptors, sensors that collect chemical information carried throughout your body by other molecules called ligands. Receptors and ligands are very particular about the company they keep; to bind together they must be perfectly matched. Some ligands are natural to the body, such as peptides, neurotransmitters, and hormones; some are natural but foreign to the body, such as viruses; and others are artificial chemicals. When a ligand binds with a receptor (in what Pert calls “sex on a molecular level”)i information is deposited onto and into the receptor in a biochemical exchange that has profound effects. If a receptor waiting for a natural body ligand is unoccupied, because emotional repression has reduced the supply of peptides, for instance, a matching virus can dock and illness results.

According to Dr. Pert:

All emotions are healthy… Anger, fear, and sadness, the so-called negative emotions, are as healthy as peace, courage, and joy. To repress these emotions and not let them flow freely is to set up a dis-integrity in the system, causing it to act at cross-purposes rather than as a unified whole. The stress this creates, which takes the form of blockages and insufficient flow of peptide signals to maintain function at the cellular level, is what sets up the weakened conditions that can lead to disease.