|
 Return to main page of Native American Health Issues and IHS
Killing Us Slowly: When We Can't Fight and We Can't Run
http://www.okit.com/health/2002/killingus02.html
by Ann N. Dapice, Ph.D., Clark Inkanish, ICADC, Barbara Martin, B.S.,
and Pam Brauchi, MHR, LPC
In the American Indian community, the experience of reading current Indian
Health Service statistics on death and disease among Indians is similar to
that of reading about a third world country in the news. Yet, since American
Indians are such a small percent of the US population, these numbers are not
"statistically significant" to the US as a whole and thus are seldom seen.
The numbers read, age group by age group, like a road map to disaster. What
is less clear to most people is the relationship between these terrible
numbers and their causes. The effects are the result of complex interactions
between previously adaptive survival mechanisms, pre-Columbian culture and
diet, and include past and present US policy. Even though many know that
Indians suffer greatly from alcoholism and Type II Diabetes, our work
demonstrating the physiological relationship between the two was,
unexpectedly, groundbreaking. The other high morbidity and mortality
statistics can be understood in the same way.
Accidents, homicide and suicide kill Indian children and youth in far larger
numbers than any other racial group. Later in life, heart disease, chronic
liver disease/cirrhosis, and diabetes kill Indian adults greatly out of
proportion to other groups. Physiologically and socially, these causes of
death are all related to alcoholism, smoking, and other addictions such as
those to food. Lung cancer is increasing among Indians but even though
Indians smoke more than any other group (Indians-40%, all races-25%), they
have usually suffered and died of other maladies before developing lung
cancer.
History and factors which provide background to the problem
As noted in our article published in the Native American Times (See "Killing
Us Slowly," June, 2001), conquest by Europeans resulted in genocide, great
poverty and oppression for all Indians across the Americas, but until
recently, diabetes and alcoholism were mainly seen as problems among Indians
north of the US-Mexican border. This was true even for tribes divided by the
border. The present incidence of alcoholism and diabetes and related diseases
among Indians are the continuing result of earlier European and US policy
towards Indians from the beginning. The physiological relationship between
alcoholism and Type II Diabetes and the allergic response to grains brought to
the Americas by Europeans affects Indians in great numbers. But it is
important to note that these phenomena are not limited to indigenous peoples,
since modern processed foods and addictions are becoming a scourge around the
world to all people.
Genetic differences in alcoholism have long been noted. A number of
researchers have demonstrated that EEG patterns are different in alcoholics
and non-alcoholics. It has been determined that the differences are not that
of alcohol use but that these differences are present at birth in identical
twins. Individuals at risk for alcoholism can be differentiated on the basis
of their EEG alpha activity. Alcoholics have greater increases in slow alpha
activity and greater decreases of fast alpha activity after use of alcohol. A
reduced P300 wave is a good predictor of alcoholism. Recent studies show that
alcoholism relapse can be predicted by brain waves. Alcoholics are said to
use alcohol, sugar, nicotine, and caffeine in vain attempts to quiet their
irritable brain waves.
The impact of stress
More recently understood however, is the reality of what happens to the body
and brain during high or chronic levels of stress. The adaptive mechanism
known as "fight or flight" that allows people to protect themselves in
emergency conditions becomes destructive when people are not allowed to fight
or flee, or when the stress becomes chronic. Cortisol, produced during these
times, becomes toxic to the body and the brain, killing brain cells and
leaving depression in its wake.
Ray Smith, Ph.D., speaker at last year's Return to Your Roots Conference, has
noted that human responses to physical and psychological threats seem not to
have changed since our ancestors were hunting large animals. We humans
survive periodic threats and challenges by maintaining homeostasis-a delicate,
dynamic equilibrium. If that harmony is disrupted, neural and biochemical
events in the brain, the endocrine, and immune systems are jolted into action
to counter the effects of the physical or psychological stressor-and to
reestablish homeostasis. If such homeostasis isn't reset, debilitating
illness results. When we are threatened, a series of responses occur-our
physiological processes which have to do with conservation and restoration of
energy are put on hold, and the processes which prepare us for fear, fight and
flight takes over resulting in the release of cortisol into the bloodstream.
Once the threat is addressed, the body returns to homeostasis and the brain is
relaxed through the inhibition of several chemicals (the neurotransmitters
serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine). If the threat is not removed, a
stress cycle develops where more cortisol is produced causing further
problems.
Now there is a permanent state of stress homeostasis which impairs our immune
systems, decreases our bone density, weakens our muscles, increases heart and
vascular diseases, and lowers our resistance to diabetes.
After prolonged exposure to severe stress the body secretes internally
produced opium-like substances which inhibit pain and reduce panic. Memory is
impaired in animals when they are no longer able to influence the outcome of a
dangerous situation. The "freeze" response and panic interfere with memory
processing-the internally produced adrenalin and opium-like substance
interfere with the storage of experience in memory. This protective mechanism
may serve to keep the individual from consciously remembering an event but
often results in confusion regarding related emotional pain and behavior. It
can also prevent learning from the experience.
Post traumatic stress disorder, oppression and genocide
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from traumatic events
continues the effects of the stress over time, continuing a cycle of cortisol
production with ongoing depression. PTSD patients typically continue to
re-experience a trauma, avoid stimuli associated with the incident and feel
numb. They demonstrate hyperarousal, irritability, insomnia and inability to
concentrate.
In circumstances where we are under someone else's power with little of our
own-whether a child in an abusive family or in the extreme situation of
genocide and slavery-we cannot fight or flee so stress becomes chronic and the
levels of cortisol remain elevated. At some point in time we may no longer be
able to produce the cortisol needed for times when it might actually help with
fight or flight actions that are appropriate to a situation. Not only can we
ourselves become cortisol depleted, but children born to mothers with low
cortisol levels have often been found to have low cortisol levels as well.
The related behavioral effects can be seen in situations of hopelessness and
poverty where people no longer seem to be able to fight for their survival,
leading to assumptions that they are lazy and don't care-as opposed to
depressed, hopeless-and cortisol-less!
When powerlessness has been sufficiently abusive and lasted for a long enough
time, an individual develops an expectation of ongoing abuse and even when
moved to a safer situation often has great difficulty responding in any other
way. New situations are interpreted as the same as those in the past so that
fear continues to stimulate what small levels of cortisol may still be
produced.
Eduardo and Bonnie Duran, in their book, Postcolonial Psychology, write that
American Indians experience intergenerational PTSD similar to that of
survivors of the Jewish Holocaust. The authors note that not only did the
survivors of the Jewish Holocaust suffer from PTSD but many of their children
did as well-even though they had not directly experienced the events of the
Holocaust. Normal human development is "mutilated by the traumas of loss,
grief, danger, fear, hatred, and chaos" write the Durans, and dysfunctional
patterns of behavior come to be seen as part of Native American tradition-the
alcoholism, child abuse, suicide, and domestic violence (p. 35).
Child abuse
Harvard researchers Martin Teicher and Carl Anderson have demonstrated
through brain imaging technology that there are three major changes observed
in the brains of adults who were abused as children: 1) Limbic irritability
with increased incidence of clinically significant EEG abnormalities. 2)
Deficient development of the left hemisphere of the brain (throughout the
cerebral cortex and hippocampus). 3) Deficient integration of the left and
right hemispheres of the brain with diminished development of the middle
portions of the corpus callosum that serves as a bridge connecting the left
and right brain. These changes do not require actual physical damage to the
head but are most often the result of neglect, emotional and sexual abuse.
Anderson found that repeated abuse affects the blood flow and function of the
cerebellar vermis, a part of the brain implicated in the coordination of
emotional behavior which is strongly affected by alcohol, cocaine, and other
drugs of abuse and may help regulate dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is
critically involved in addiction. Anderson and colleagues focused on this
part of the brain because it is "exquisitely sensitive to stress hormones" and
develops slowly. "Damage to this area of the brain resulting from neglect,
emotional and sexual abuse may cause an individual to be particularly
irritable and to seek external means, such as drugs or alcohol, to quell this
irritability," said Anderson.
Stress and substance abuse
As noted by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), studies in the
Journal Psychoneuroendocrinology indicate: 1) Stress and cortisol sensitize
animals for drug-seeking behaviors and facilitate self-administration. 2)
Animals that are under-aroused and have low levels of cortisol are more prone
to develop drug-seeking behaviors. 3) Severe stress early in life induces a
series of physiological, neurobiological, and hormonal events that result in
dysregulation of biological reward pathways in the central nervous system and
in stress response systems; these changes seem to prompt self-administration
of drugs and alcohol later in life. 4) Prenatal exposure to stress and drugs
predispose animals to drug-seeking behaviors in adulthood. 5) Post traumatic
stress disorder is a risk factor for substance abuse. 6) The administration
of cocaine to humans causes similar physiological reactions such as secretion
of adrenalin and cortisol, and psychological reactions similar to arousal
caused by stress.
Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California observed a few
years ago that heavy drinking not only depletes the brain's supplies of
substances necessary for feelings of wellbeing and pleasure (dopamine,
serotonin, GABA, and opioid peptides), but it also promotes the release of
cortisol. This release of cortisol causes tension and depression which in
turn causes the individual to drink more which leads to an ongoing vicious
cycle. In a similar way, carbohydrate craving is self medication, with
resulting physical destruction.
Once adaptive, but no longer
Like insulin, cortisol levels may be high or low. There are physical and
emotional consequences to both. Chronic over-stimulation of insulin (from too
many carbohydrates) and cortisol (from too much stress) may cause depletion
with negative impact. The production of insulin and cortisol are both
important mechanisms to survival. The production of insulin in response to
the ingestion of carbohydrates once allowed fat storage in the body for
protection during long winter months or times of famine. In some parts of the
world where famine still exists, this process still assists in survival. When
refined fast foods are a constant, this is no longer the case. Similarly, the
stress response was once important to survival, now that is rarely true.
Solutions
We cannot change all the social and historical factors that have caused us
disease and death in the past, but there are well researched, healthy and
affordable solutions. We can now adjust our diets to the real needs of our
bodies. We do now have the technology called cranial electrical stimulation
demonstrated through research to balance the stress system and return the
irritable brain waves to normal-without the use of addictive substances. We
have other options-
we don't have to fight and we don't have to run.
Dr. Dapice will be speaking at this year's "Return to Your Roots" Diabetes
Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Continuing Education Units (CEU's) available for this session and many others.
For references and research information, contact the authors at T. K. Wolf,
Inc.,
918-437-5560 or email: tkwolf7@aol.com
home : mission statement : contact : site map : search : store : links
DLN coalition : DLN issues : DLN nation : related issues Any reprints are under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law : See http://www.dlncoalition.org/fair_use.htm.
|
