Abstract
Maintaining the function and integrity of the brain seems the most fundamental biological drive in human physiology. The brain is selfish even in a severe intra-uterine energy-deficient state and during adult starvation. Almost all survival systems are programmed to protect and provide energy for the brain and therefore it is very strange that neurodegenerative diseases, several neurological disorders and pathologies such as fibromyalgia syndrome and chronic fatigue, based on energy disturbances/deficiency in the same brain, are common and increasing in frequency. In acute disorders only three situations seem to be able to override the dominating role of the brain in humans and all three activate the immune system. In situations of major surgery, burning wounds and sepsis, energy is almost for the full 100% allocated to the immune system through activation of the so called systemic stress response. This response, including the production of inactive thyroid hormone, should be considered as the last possibility to survive, although secondary damage can be severe. Fibromyalgia syndrome, chronic fatigue disorder, depression, Alzheimer, Parkinson, depression, diabetes type II and III and multiple sclerosis are examples of diseases characterized by low energy at the level of the central nervous system. The only feasible explanation for this resource deficient situation is the presence of something more important than the consequences of low brain energy; severe and perhaps even lethal danger. We propose that chronic invalidating diseases are a consequence of a protective systemic stress response causing a state similar to mammal hibernation. This hibernation state protects the host against further damage, induces reverse evolution and is essential for direct survival with reproduction. As hibernation is protective at start, it produces severe physiological dysfunction on the long run. The only feasible explanation for the evolutionary acceptance of the development of such disorders seems to be the accumulative effect of factors such as oral sepsis, severe childhood abuse and sedentary life style, causing a systemic stress response including a long lasting activation of the immune system and leading to a human hibernation state. In the end, the demand on resources of a 'perpetual' activated immune system will override the interests of the selfish brain leading to loss of function and change of anatomy of the brain.
Over de spreker
Director Master in Clinical PNI, University of Gerona, Graz; Scientific Advisor Natura Foundation; Scientific President International and European Association CPNI; Assoc. Professor Uni Graz; Invited Prof. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Leo Pruimboom is woonachtig in Lanzarote en heeft na zijn opleiding aan het Atheneum de opleiding tot fysiotherapeut gevolgd. Hij is gespecialiseerd in fysiologie en biochemie. Hij stond, samen met wijlen Bram van Dam, aan de wieg van de opleiding 'Orthomoleculair therapeut volgens klinische Psycho-Neuro-Immunologie. Tevens is hij één van de oprichters van de Academia Española de Psico-Neuro-Inmunología (AEP). Dit opleidingsinstituut is in Nederland, Spanje, Portugal en Duitsland actief. Het instituut werkt samen met de universiteiten van Santiago de Compostella, Graz, Gerona en Lissabon. De AEP heeft in 2006 een European Master of Science in klinische PNI ontwikkeld.