I was reading an article about the observations of an AIDS doctor back in the 80’s. A critical observation he made clicked in my mind and tied several pieces that had been floating around for years about the essence of our immune system. His observation was that AIDS did not act the way the press presented it. It was not the killer disease it was promoted as being, except for one very specific sub-population of AID’s patients – those that were opiate drug users. If you were an opiate drug user and you contracted AIDS, you had months at best left to your life. This was not the case for those that got AIDS, but did not use any opiate-like drugs. AIDS was still not a good thing, but it was not the immediate death sentence it was for the opiate drug users. By the way, it did not matter whether the opiate drug use was heroin or prescription pain pills given by the doctors.
The research by this doctor points to an aspect of opiate use that is not generally discussed – taking opiates suppresses the immune system. A quick Google search revealed that this effect has been known about for over a hundred years, yet in all my years as a doctor I have never heard this mentioned as an important consideration in using such drugs. Even more interesting is that this effect is specific to exogenous opiates – meaning opiates taken from the outside. The exact opposite effect is created by the opiates created by our own bodies. These internal opiates are generally called by the name endorphins and impact every cell in our body.
The biggest name in the research field concerning this was Candice Pert after she published her groundbreaking book “Molecules of Emotion.” She literally started the whole field of psychoneuroimmunology. She demonstrated that the same neurotransmitters involved in our emotions also controlled the actions of every cell in our body – in particular our immune system. She even went on to state that our immune system is literally an extension of our emotions.
OK, that is all groovy and what not, but how does that help me here today? The implications of this work have been investigated as the basis for the whole mind-body interaction in health. Lots of work has been done on using mind based visualization exercises to battle cancer and present awareness meditations to control pain. The results are highly variable. Some researchers get real miracles, while others get no results at all.
For years I have known that anything you do for the body, it quickly stops doing for itself. Knowing this has had a huge impact on my decision process when suggesting remedies for patients.This is why I shy away from using splints and supports and braces and heel lifts with patients. Yes, they help give relief, but the body quickly becomes dependent on them and actually weakens as a result.
The same is true for certain supplements, such as adrenal support. Yes they can partially replace the job of your tired gland making you feel much better, but any hormone you give the body simply teaches the body to stop doing the job itself. This was the light bulb moment for me with the article I mentioned at the beginning. Giving the body external opiates for pain teaches the body to stop making its own endogenous opiates – the endorphins. So not only does the outside in opiate use suppress our immune system, it also suppresses our own natural endorphin production that instructs our immune system to keep us healthy.
Now for the double bonus piece – gluten containing grains also contain opiates called gluteomorphins and dairy products contain casomorphins. These are exogenous morphine like opiates that act just like any other opiates. We feel good eating them, but then we crave them when they are missing – just like we would if we were addicted to heroin or morphine. They suppress our own natural endorphin production, and that makes us feel icky, so we look for more pizza to replenish the wheat and cheese opiates instead of making more self-happy endorphins.
Bottom line is we want lots of self-made endorphins and do not want exogenous (from the outside) opiates. Our own endorphins boost up our immune system and make us resist disease and cancer. There are lots of different endorphins, but they all seem to have to do with feeling good. About the most powerful boost to your immune system happens when you fall in love. This is Mother Nature at work here. She figures that since your most important duty is to reproduce, that is most likely to happen when you fall in love. So she maximizes your endorphins to make sure you are strong and healthy so you are able to reproduce. That is why I called this article immune joy. Joy is a key feeling for boosting your immune system. If you don’t have any love prospects at the moment, you can fake it by taking the love hormone oxytocin.
Pleasure of many sorts boosts your immune system by boosting your endorphins. Having a good time with friends, getting a massage, laying out in the sun for a bit, a warm bath, good food, a good nights sleep, chocolate, a good workout, even funny movies. Years back I bought a whole course on improving immune function called “The Pleasure Principle.”
Another stimulant for endorphin release is short-term stress. A cold shower or an ice plunge is a good example. An intense racquetball game or a brief physical or mental challenge that you are able to successfully overcome will raise your endorphins – you have heard of the runner’s high – endorphins. This is another Mother Nature thing as endorphins reduce our awareness of pain. If we sprain our ankle while being chased by a lion, it is in our best interests not to feel the pain of the ankle until later after we have escaped.
Many times patients report to me about how they did not feel any pain at the time of an injury, but it all came on later. This is endorphins at work.
Other things that can raise our endorphin levels include Acupuncture, laser therapy, and transcutaneous direct current stimulation of the brain. Supplement wise – pregnenolone (in the office), magnesium, capsaicin, the probiotic L. Reuteri, marijuana, and low dose naltrexone are all used to increase endorphin levels. The article I read that started this thought train was about using low dose naltrexone combined with a no opiate/high probiotic diet to use the immune boosting effects to fight MS and other autoimmune diseases. Naltrexone is a drug used to block opiate receptors to treat opiate overdose in a hospital setting. In tiny doses, just before bed, it blocks the receptors for just an hour, which stimulates the body to boost its production of endorphins to compensate. This compensation will last for most of the next day, thus increasing the levels of endorphins significantly. You only take this before bed, because without the good feel of our endorphins, we feel pretty crappy. So, it is better to have this happen while we are asleep. When used in high doses in the hospital, it is so nasty they usually knock the person out first.
The simple takeaway from this article is that being happy makes your immune system stronger and protects you from disease and cancer. I believe this is why the research in the mind-body control of health is so confused. No one is looking at the design of the experiment to see if it induces hope and joy or if is cold and clinical. The exact same experiment performed with a different mindset will produce very different results. Literally it is the mindset that produces the positive results, not the particular intervention or modality they are using.
As I write this article my endorphins are raising. Why? – because as I write this I am also listening to Mozart. Music is an excellent way of entraining our emotions into different feeling states. Music that raises our tone and lifts our heart also raises our immune function. Who knows, some day we may actually see prescriptions for funny plays, good music, and some time with good friends as the treatment of choice for disease, instead of poisonous drugs. Food for thought…