Talking to your body is not the same as talking to yourself. Talking to yourself is a form of hallucinations, delirium , or affective disorder; while talking to your body is a form of reconciliation, internal communication, pondering, contemplation or a real desire to understand yourself….. it is in essence a form of “reflecting”.

This article was triggered by reviewing my 63 patients out of 2500 who suffer from multiple sclerosis who all are under our care. These 63 patients are all suffering from a mild form of MS or otherwise could be called “benign MS”. 

The interesting thing about all of these patients with not a single exception is that they are all happy, positive, motivated, futuristic, engaged in physical activities, none smokers, drink very small amounts of alcohol or not at all. They are  exceptionally very pleasant people and easy to deal with in their follow up clinics. They are followed up once every two years, and with two or three exceptions, they have no real relapses for more than 10 years. Their disability (EDSS) scales remained less than 2.0, and they do have a very small demyelinating loads(plaques), which are affecting brains, but with no cerebellum or spinal cord involvement. They are very rarely taking any medications, and they appear very healthy in every aspect of their lives.

 When anyone of you is suffering from a chronic illness, and you knew very well that; it is a progressive disease, and contrary to what expected, you’ve felt better, happier, and more confident… that is really very nice and very optimistic. I would like to say in this context that, inside your body, you do produce a lot of chemicals which are in essence and in many ways similar to the medications you may take for your MS to keep it under control. Take for example,  β- interferons.. they are used externally for the treatment of MS in the form of disease modifying therapy. Your body produces that chemical with even much better effect than those commercially available with their many side effects. Your own  β- interferons  are more effective with no side effects !!. Your body produces interferons (α, β, and γ) and each one of them has a different function. Some of them causes inflammations , some of them stop inflammations. Some of them beat cancer and reduce damage from some medical conditions. Your body knows exactly what to produce and when to produce it. Your body if given the right conditions can produce the exact amounts needed for the exact purpose. Your body has the ability to produce thousands of chemicals in different compounds and cocktails to  beat cancer, inflammations, infections, and even the degenerative (wear & tear) materials which are responsible for many medical conditions including dementia, osteoarthritis, ageing, and wasting processes. That is the art of creation and that is how we humans can survive bad times and stressful conditions. Many other chemicals produced by your body have their functions changing in amount, concentrations, timing, and locations in your body in response to any unexpected or expected attacks which may affect you. There are the interleukins, tumour necrosis factors, cortisols, immunoglobulins, and other immune supporting factors.  All those body products have different jobs depending on when , where, how much, in which shape, the structure they are produced in, and the conditions they are produced in or against what state.

Internal body products are designed to protect us from many invaders from infectious materials, to foreign bodies, to poisonous substances, to internal body wrong reactions such as auto-immune conditions. The internal body control systems are so much sophisticated, and as much complicated. To the best of our knowledge, we are still far away from understanding their natures, functions, triggers, and switches off or on. I need also to mention those chemical body products which have the medicinal effects similar or even better than the external remedies we – doctors – are prescribing for our patients to help them beat their ordeals. I love always to call the internal products as “the hidden powers”, because they are for real hidden powers those we own and can use when we need them, but we need to learn their secret codes or otherwise “pass words” to  be able to use and adjust them according to our real needs.

The human body in essence is nothing more than a “chemical factory” that produces chemicals out of raw materials those we eat, digest, absorb, and then utilise. Each one of us humans has a very sophisticated chemical factory that should be able to produce anything we need in our day to day lives. We can produce chemical materials those are able to prevent cancer or to beat cancer if it does escape all body defensive and protective systems in place. Our natural chemical factories are able to produce everything we need, but we need to learn how to control the productivity through our wills. Some 60 chemical elements are found in the body, but what all of them are doing there is still unknown. Trillions of chemical reactions happen simultaneously in the body. They drive the processes that keep a human body ‘alive’.  

Hundreds of chemical very useful materials are produced inside our bodies. They are produced, regulated, adjusted, and calibrated every minute if not every second to cope with our body functions those we know about(conscious level) and those we don’t feel them (sub-conscious level). These are very simple examples of our own chemical products. They are produced inside us, and we can learn how to control their production inside our bodies if we hardly try:-

Endorphin — the pain-masking chemical.
Encephaline — nociceptive pain control (internal opioids).
Dopamine — the goal-achieving chemical.
Serotonin — the leadership chemical.
Oxytocin — the chemical of love.
 It is not just a production issue, but control, balance, and timing of that production. Each factor is as important as the other.The balance of brain chemicals as an example is crucial for healthy mood and behaviours. Any disturbance in brain neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, nortriptyline, acetylcholine, glutamine, or gaba-amino-butyric acid(GABA) could produce depression, and that can sometimes be very difficult to treat especially if we don’t know how to put chemicals back to their physiological normal balance.  

Researchers believe that, lower than normal levels of neurotransmitters can lead to symptoms such as:

• Feelings of sadness, helplessness, worthlessness, or emptiness.
• Overeating or loss of appetite.
• Insomnia or sleeping too much.
• Restlessness.
• Irritability.
• Feeling of impending doom or danger.
• Lack of energy.
• Distancing yourself from others.
• Feeling numbness or lacking empathy.
• Extreme mood swings.
• Inability to concentrate.
• Thoughts of hurting yourself or others.
• Being unable to carry out day-to-day activities.
• Hearing voices in your head.
• Alcohol or drug misuse. 

I must tell you… all of you, that every one of us has the ability to control their own chemical products if we just learn how to do it. Everything is at your disposal because its your own body, and your body can be so generous with you if you just know how nicely you can talk to your body using the very language that your body understands.

I would like here to remind many of you about what will happen if you talk nicely to your body and if you know how to relax, feel positive, confident and if you genuinely believe in your powers. You need to learn how to trust yourself and believe in your abilities. You no doubt need to conciliate with yourself and with your body, then your body will by your slave and you will be the master of yourself. 

All what you need to do is very simple and can be very easy. You need to relax, to calm down, to concentrate…. to try and touch your soul. Can you do it?. It can be hard, but never impossible. Try today and you will for sure learn tomorrow but you need to put your foot on the first step, then you will soon find yourself on the top of the ladder. Never look down. Try to look forward, and try to be brave… learn how to become confident.

I want you to always remember that your body needs fuel to do things. Your fuel is carried by your blood, and your blood is pumped by your heart to your organs via your blood vessels, and your organs contain cells those work like small factories producing chemicals those you need so much to execute functions. Also please remember that your heart and your blood vessels are controlled by your autonomic nervous system(sympathetic & parasympathetic), and even though it is an autonomic(self controlled), but you can control it if you manage to learn how !.

 You need to learn how to relax, how to concentrate, and how to control your body functions or at least to be able to subject your body to listen to you. It can be very difficult for some people, but it is never impossible to any one of us. We need to learn how, and we need to learn the art of “self-control”. Concentration and relaxation programmes are available to every one of us such as yoga, meditation, mind fullness, massage, relaxing stretching workouts, spa, life sonic relaxation, etc. All of those tools and programmes are aimed to teach you how to relax;  physical, mental, and psychological relaxation… a kind of full chilling out.

Let me now tell you what could happen inside your body when you fully relax:  When you are happy and deep inside you, you really  feel happy and relaxed; your body organs function much better and more integrated. Your heart beat becomes more regular, stronger and more efficient. Your heart pumping of blood gets stronger, and the amount of blood circulates faster and more efficient around your body and towards your internal organs. In other terms, when you are relaxed, motivated, feel positive and optimistic; your autonomic nervous system works at its best and the harmony between the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous systems peaks to send the needed blood to the needy organ or cell for them to do their functions at their best. When you are relaxed, your arteries are wider to receive blood from your heart, and your veins are stronger to take blood from tissues and pump it back to your heart. When your heart receives more blood coming back from your organs, it’ll send it to your lungs to filter out carbon dioxide and other gaseous bad products, then loaded it with oxygen and send it back to your heart to pump it away to every cell in your body. Some of it will be sent to your kidneys to filter out bad products such as urea and creatinine, as well as other products such as salts and trace elements to keep the required balance that your body cells need to do their jobs.

When you are relaxed and feel happy, your lungs expand much bigger to let more oxygen in and then squeeze it to your blood. The good expansion of your lungs will ultimately be followed up by a good shrinking(deflation) of your lungs pouring the extracted bad gas out through your breathing pipes to the outside world. When a cleaner blood loaded with oxygen, sugar, protein, and minerals as well as trace elements reaches your organ cells, they function at their best to produce those different chemicals in the form of hormones, neurotransmitters, and other pharmaceutical products those you need to ease pain , to relax muscles, and to secrete liquids such as tears, saliva, sweats, urine, and greasy materials. Those will help to clean your body from toxins, debris, and other waste materials. Your body is a very sophisticated big factory, and you are the one to make that factory function at its best at any time of your life. Talk to your body, and your body will very gently and carefully listen to you and may as well obey your orders including the none-verbal ones !!. Please make your body your first and closest friend, and from their you can build a network of good friends with people you meet and work with every day in your life time. Please have fun, and be happy.