What is This "Think Right" Anyway?

~~You know when I came up with the Four Pillars of Health for my book, I was motivated and inspired by many mentors. One in particular led me to a great degree, down the Health and Wellness path. His name is Dr. James Chestnut, and he solidified the first 3 Pillars for me. 
 
The last pillar is one that has been researched a great deal, but never truly incorporated with the other three to form the ultimate Health and Wellness Paradigm. Once I put the four pillars together with the concept of Sufficiency and Purity, which was also a concept that I learned through my studies with Dr. Chestnut, I felt that the Health and Wellness concept was complete.
 
But, what about this second pillar, the Think Right component? What does that truly mean?
 
It really takes into account a whole host of physiologic functions in our cellular ecosystem that we commonly refer to as our body. You see the way that you think truly does affect your entire system.
 
Let's cover how the state of your mind affects your body, and in what ways. First of all let us clarify for a moment that the Think Right component of our Four Pillars of Health really refers to the dreaded and infamous "Stress" that we all encounter on a daily basis. Certainly, we can also include the other elements of the Think Right category here such as depression, anger, fear, and low self esteem. But, when you truly distill it all down we can really include all of these elements of the Think Right in the overall category of "STRESS". I have to take a moment here to direct those of you who have not reviewed the chapters in my book on Stress the Problem, and Stress the Solution, that you need to do this. In those chapters you will read in detail about how an initial "Issue" will create progressive rings of increasingly severe emotional and physiological change in your body, which ultimately culminates in disease, or at least the diagnostic label of disease. I refer to this process in my book as the "Emotional Ring of Fire".
 
This is why it is so important for you to understand how your Think Right will affect your physiology. So, let's just review how your mind and the mental effects of Stress culminate in physical and physiologic changes in your body.
 
First of all recognize that when you are under a "stress attack" you will experience a heightened response of the Sympathetic division of the Autonomic Nervous System. This is the part of your nervous system that makes your body do things without any conscious effort on your part.
 
Therefore, you will see an increase in your heart rate when you are under stress. You will also experience an increase in your blood pressure as well. You will experience a heightened pain response, a reduced libido, a concurrent increase in your cholesterol levels, with an increase in LDL (what medicine calls your "bad cholesterol"), and a reduction in HDL (what medicine terms your "good cholesterol"). Digestion is slowed down, and your short term memory is reduced.
 
Do you see the challenges to anyone who is under long term stress just from the short list that I have outlined to you above?
 
You must recognize that all of the changes I have listed are totally appropriate for the body to make when it is under stress for the short term. But, when the stress is extended over a long period, these physiologic changes become pathologic. In other words they become conditions that you are diagnosed with, and often prescribed drugs for in order to force your body to make a physiological change.
 
Let's take a quick look at what may occur when you are under a long term stress response. You might be diagnosed with the following and prescribed drugs to combat these symptoms: High Blood Pressure, or Hypertension, Sleep Deprivation, GERD, Constipation, High Cholesterol, Anxiety, Depression, Erectile Dysfunction, and Alzheimer's.
 
That would amount to nine different prescription drugs at a minimum, for the conditions that I just outlined.
 
My goal is to see that you can identify the cause of these physiologic changes, which are normal, and work toward a correction to the "CAUSE" of the symptoms.
 
I want you to be aware that we are here to assist you in any way that we can. The reason that I wrote my book was so that I could help more people in a different way. There are solutions in my book to many of the issues that I have outlined here. We also offer our seminars to be able to give you more information and ideas to help you create solutions. Here at the Center for Nutrition and Wellness and at Upper Perk Chiropractic Center we offer solutions to many of the signs and symptoms of stress that I have reviewed with you today. 
 
Sometimes the solution can be as simple as creating priorities in your life, or perhaps taking some "me time" to decompress.
 
Whatever the solution is for you, it is imperative that you first identify the cause of your "situation", and then move on to the solution. 
 
If we can be of assistance in any way please let us know. We are here for you!
  
Dr. Pfeiffer's "Think Right"
  "The pursuit of truth is like picking raspberries. You miss a lot if you approach it from one angle." ~Randal Marlin