This video does not directly talk about any of my issues, but it does talk about some parts of the body that are involved in my medical issues. This short video is much more interesting to watch than it is interesting to read the technical resources I am reading.
The body parts and biological processes described in this video that are the most relevant to my medical issues are:
- The amygdala
- The fight-flight-or-freeze response that is initiated by the amygdala. The technical term for fight-flight-or-freeze is the Stress Response.
- The hippocampus. I think I have only mentioned the hippocampus one time, but I read about it regularly because the hippocampus is negatively affected by my amygdala hyperactivity and probably by my Default Mode Network.
- Corticosteroids: hormones produced by the adrenal gland. The most well-known is cortisol, and I have talked about cortisol before.
- The adrenal gland is not explicitly mentioned in the video, but it is where corticosteroids are produced. The adrenal gland is part of the HPA axis: Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal axis. The HPA axis is a model to describe how those three organs use hormones, amino acids, other biochemicals, and the nervous system to affect many biological processes such as the stress response (see #2 above), digestion, and the availability of energy to the body. I don’t think I have explicitly mentioned the HPA axis before because it is extremely complicated.
I already knew all of the suggestions at the end of the video, and I already use the techniques that I can use. About three years ago, I wrote a post on Facebook that included most of those techniques and about eight more techniques.
