Man was designed to survive. The primary function, initiated subconsciously, of every physiological process and reaction (including thinking) is to survive the moment. Man was not designed specifically to be comfortable while he is surviving.

While a goal of individuals, comfortable, pain-free survival is not necessary for survival. Regardless of the comfort level produced by any physiological activity, all functions of the body are directed toward the entity maintaining life at that precise instant.

In order to survive, we must defend against conditions and elements that threaten survival. In our society, those conditions and elements of everyday living that must be defended against are as diverse as improper food, air pollution, hazards of traffic, perhaps, even, physical assault, and countless other by-products of modern society.

Defense physiology is literally a life-saver. Without these autonomic responses, we would have to consciously evaluate each situation and determine what if any action was needed. In the short time all of this thinking and deciding takes, the opportunity for an effective defense response would probably have passed and disaster a fait accompli.

Defense physiology is a physiologic response activated by the subconscious in response to sensorially perceived external stimuli or to internal stimuli of thoughts accompanied by feelings.

Little physiological response accompanies unexciting mental activity such as reading a junk-mail flyer touting a sale at the local bird feed outlet. However, a great deal of physiological response usually accompanies noticing, opening, and reading a notice of impending audit from the IRS, or a court summons, or an eviction notice. The actions for perceiving both junk-mail and an IRS notice are the same. The reactions are entirely different. The difference is in the mental interpretations of the perceptions.

Most defense physiology in our society is brought about by internal, non-physical threats: emotions. Anger, worry, prolonged fear, jealousy, hurt, grief, and all of the other emotions we term "negative" bring about defense physiology. Defense brought about by negative emotions can be devastating to the body and to health. Defense brought about by actual external emergencies -- accidents, physical attacks, alerts of impending disaster and the like -- is natural, normal, and necessary.

The difference between internal emotionally-induced defense physiology and external emergency-induced defense physiology is that the external emergency situation ends relatively quickly, and the body can return to its natural homeostatic function. Yet, internal emotionally-induced defense physiology often has no discernable end. Situations that foster the defense go on and on, and even after the situation ends, the memory, consciously or subconsciously, lingers.

Defense physiology generated by thoughts and attitudes is ordinarily more potent, therefore more detrimental to health. Thoughts and attitudes are accompanied by feelings. Strong feelings (negative feelings more so than positive feelings) are cemented in memory along with the memory of the event, which triggered the feelings. In fact, my clinical experience shows the suppressed memory of the feelings can outlive the conscious memory of the event that precipitated the feelings.

Nearly every patient who consults a health care specialist of any discipline is functioning under emotionally-induced defense physiology. The body was designed to prepare itself for defense. However, it was not designed to withstand days, week, months, or years of unremitting defense without damage. In time, the body becomes exhausted. The body cannot defend and replenish at the same time. As a result, the immune system suffers, and the maintenance and repair functions are suppressed. The stage is set for disease, and symptoms begin to become evident.

Treating symptoms brought on by continuous defense physiology is futile. If one symptom is suppressed, another will appear. Eliminating symptoms may increase the comfort level of the patient for a while, but it won't correct the cause that brought on the symptoms. The cause of defense, and, consequently, the ultimate cause of pain and disease brought on by sustained defense physiology, is in the patient's thoughts.

For years, the verdict of doctors encountering symptoms for which they could find no discernable physical cause has been that the patient was suffering from psychosomatic illness ("it's all in your mind"). We can see that not only are allegedly psychosomatic complaints products of the mind, but symptoms, with sources verified by examination or laboratory tests, stem from "the patient's mind."

The way a patient thinks governs the way his or her body functions. He or she will eventually become sick as a result of constant worry, fear of losing a job, hatred of a parent, jealousy of others, living in an on-going financial crisis, or constantly being under negative stress of any kind.

Prolonged defense physiology mandates illness.