BODY WORK AND NEUROPEPTIDES-THE MOLECULES OF HEALING
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by Donald J G1assey, D.C., L.M.T.

The title for this article is a take off on Dr. Candace Pert’s groundbreaking book on neuropeptides entitled Molecules of Emotion. (Dr. Pert’s book is a must read for anyone working with the human body.) Vitalistically speaking, healing involves a closer connection between mind, body, heart and Spirit. And neuropeptides are the molecular language that allows mind, body and emotions to communicate. From a vitalistic perspective, healing and feeling are synonymous terms, as in order for one to heal they must first get in touch with the healing feeling.

The basic principle of vitalism states that there is an inherent or in-born intelligence that animates, motivates, heals, coordinates and inspires living beings. (Since the body is organized in such a varied and complex manner it must be “intelligent”.) Vitalism assumes that life is self-determining and self-evolving. Healing is seen as a process of personal evolution, growth, self-development and self-discovery. Growth and development need mutual support, and that support is a feeling state, an emotion.

Feelings are just information, (just as touch is information), that needs to be listened to and not “manipulated”. When the feeling state is experienced, the body can make a physiological shift. For example, a “gut feeling” is a visceral response to one’s external environment. The feeling state then is a response to internal and external life conditions, which are recorded when information is received by the nervous system. The memory of the information is related to the feeling at that time, and a biochemical condition correlates to the healing process.

According to Dr. Ida Rolf (Structural Integration, aka Rolfing), Dr. Janet Travell (Trigger Point Therapy), John Barnes (Myofascial Release), Dr. John Upledger (Cranial Sacral Therapy) and others, muscular patterns are formed in psychological arrangements. The chemical of emotion intersects with the muscular patterns, and muscles respond to psychological states. Feelings and motor patterns develop together where the feelings are “fluid” born chemicals whose emotional chemistry and muscular behavior are linked.

Neuropeptides (nerve proteins) are biochemicals that regulate almost all life processes on a cellular level, and thereby link all body systems. They are produced primarily in the brain, although almost every tissue in the body produces and exchanges neuropeptides. Scientists like Dr.Pert have discovered almost one hundred different neuropeptides, the first of which were hormones because they are larger molecules. Neuropeptides are one of three types of the most powerful biochemicals in the body, categorized as ligands from the Latin “ligare”, that which binds. Neurotransmitters and steroids are the other types of ligands, however, neuropeptides constitute ninety-five percent of all ligands.

Neuropeptides circulate throughout the body in the blood, lymph and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). (It is interesting to note that if the formed elements are removed from these body fluids; blood plasma, lymph and CSF are all a similar chemical composition- the same as sea water.) Neuropeptides are called messenger molecules because they send chemical messages from the brain to receptor sites on cell membranes throughout the entire body. It is like a “lock” and “key” mechanism where the neuropeptide is the “key” that opens the “lock’ on the cell membrane to cause complex and fundamental changes in the cells they lock onto. However, Dr. Pert feels the standard scientific "key fitting into a lock" analogy is too static an image for this dynamic process. She uses the description of two voices, ligand and receptor site, hitting the same note, and resulting in a resonance that rings the doorbell of the cell to open it.

The information message of the neuropeptide enters the cell membrane and goes through a lattice work of glycoproteins in the cell membrane and cytoplasm. These glycoproteins are linked by extra cellular collagen fibers to the larger fiber arrays of the myofascial system around the cell by a framework of fibronectins. This information readies the nucleus of the cell, and selects a DNA template to make a protein to “export” to surrounding cells to bring about a physiological change in tissues, glands, organs and systems of the body.

An example of this mechanism is angiotensin, a neuropeptide that responds to thirst. Angiotensin is formed from renin, which is released from glomerular cells in the kidneys, and effects the following receptor sites; the brain (hypothalamus area) “feels” thirsty and causes the person to drink water, the lungs decrease the amount of water which is exhaled, and the kidneys decrease urine production.

All systems of the body exchange neuropeptide information, and it is the internal feeling state that elicits the neuropeptide response. This is the mind/body connection in which every change in the mental-emotional state (conscious or unconscious) causes a change in the body physiology. Likewise, every change in the body physiology causes a change in the mental-emotional state (conscious or unconscious).

Neuropeptides, above and beyond their specific responses in cells and tissues, are generally mood specific. In fact, the structures of the limbic system, (the seat of the emotions) which include the thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala and parts of the basal ganglia, are concentration areas for neuropeptides called nodal points. For example, serotonin, which is responsible for our mood and feelings of well being, is produced in the basal ganglia and projected into the hypothalamus from the brain stem where it is also produced. Thus, the emotions we feel may facilitate the biochemical process that occurs between neuropeptides and receptor sites on cell membranes.

Current research in cell biology has discovered that the “brain” of the cell is the cell mem-brane, and that the DNA is just a storehouse of programmed memory, which environmental signals “turn on or off”. According to this new research, each cell has the potential to develop alternative gene programs in response to the external environment. Feelings are seen as just waves of information (molecules of emotion) (messenger molecules) moving through the body that can alter our perception of the environment.

The literal “key” to the entire neuropeptide mechanism may be the connective tissues of the body. It is suggested that connective tissue collagen fibrils may be the primary pathway by which neuropeptides enter cell membranes. In fact, one past researcher has theorized that the microtubules of collagen fibrils are filled with a component of CSF! This finding and current research suggests that the connective tissue network is formed of liquid crystal proteins that may conduct information. This research correlates with recent neurophysiologist claims that neuroglial cells, the connective tissue of the nervous system, form a communication network of their own.

Neuropeptides could then be seen as “informational connective tissue” that unite and coordinate all the cells, tissues, glands, organs and systems of the body. According to a well-known author and physician, Deepak Chopra, the significance of the discovery of neuropeptides is that it has shown that the body is fluid enough to match the mind. Dr. Chopra asserts that neuropeptides serve as a point of transformation between thoughts and bodily reactions, i.e. a transformation of non-matter into matter.

The implication of the neuropeptide mechanism for body work practitioners is enormous! It may be that the connective tissue framework of muscle fascia, tendons and ligaments also provide a supportive network to transport neuropeptides along with neuroglial cells (the connective tissue of the nervous system), and thus help to form the body’s biochemical message system. The information communicated by touch might then elicit the flow of the neuropeptide messenger molecules to facilitate healing. Healing in the sense of getting in “touch” with the feeling state phenomenologicalIy. Feelings that then cause and create neuropeptide shifts and their subsequent dramatic physiological effects.

The emotions we feel may facilitate the mechanism of the biochemical message patterns on every cell mem-brane. However, if the cells keep experiencing the same habitual behavior patterns, these patterns don’t allow changes in the receptor site/neuropeptide connections. Said differently, if we do what we’ve always done, we will be what we’ve always been, and get what we’ve always gotten. Do we want to stay the way we are or do we want to be set free?

The aforementioned statement purports the far-reaching implications of body work as a tool to promote healing. Body work is such a powerful healing art that it can facilitate a process whereby the recipient can get in touch with their feelings, and bring about a healing of mind, body, heart and Spirit- to be set free!

Bibliography

Chopra, Deepak, M.D., Quantum Healing, Bantam Books, NY, 1989

Pert, Candace, PH.D., Molecules of Emotion, Scribner, NY, 1997

Juhan, Dean, Job’s Body- A Handbook for Body Work, expanded edition, Station Hill, Tarrytown, NY, 1998

Restak, R.M., M.D., The Brain- The Last Frontier, Warner Books, NY, 1979

Lipton, B.H., Ph.D. ,“Consciousness and the New Biology”, Journal of the ASK_Us, 1999 conference

Erlingheuser, R.F., D.O., “The Circulation of Cerebrospinal Fluid Through the Connective Tissue System”, Academy of Applied Osteopathy Yearbook, 1959

Oschman, J.L., “Readings on the Scientific Basis of Bodywork”, Nature’s Own Research Association, Dover, NH, 1993

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