The Hypothalamus
When the hypothalamus is overactive it sends our bodies into literal chaos. As it is the balance for so many of our bodies needs and resources, when it malfunctions, we malfunction.
There are various thoughts on how it comes to malfunction in the first place, but generally we take the school of thought that most sufferers are busy people, who suffer long periods of stress, or emotional disturbance and eventually there comes one last straw on the camels back; for example, a form of trauma - in my case a car accident, an emotional issue, a virus, flu or particularly bad illness. This causes the body to 'shut down' in a sense, to give you a chance to recuperate.
Also many sufferers tend to hold back on expressing themselves and have particular beliefs that cause big stresses, for example, 'I can't say no.' or 'I should do what my parents tell me' or ' I must please everyone all the time.' Sometimes if we don't listen to our bodies and minds, like perhaps saying, 'no' when demands become too high, our bodies say 'no,' for us. Investigate your big stresses and see what you can find.
The Hypothalamus is responsible for the following:
- Regulating the immune system to fight infection (hence the reason sufferers often take colds, infections etc)
- affects the action of the heart, gut, muscles and skin through the adrenal glands
- regulating the sympathetic nervous system which produces emotional charge (CFS/ ME can make you incredibly emotional)
- controlling the sleep function, your temperature, your appetite, your sex drive, your physical growth and the renewal of tissues (is any of this sounding familiar?!)
