The Origins of Health and Disease

Some phenomena in medicine and psychology remain unexplained by current theory. Chronic fatigue syndrome, repetitive strain injury and irritable bowel syndrome, for example, are all diseases or syndromes that cannot be explained in terms of a physiological abnormality. In this intriguing book, Michael E. Hyland proposes that there is a currently unrecognised type of illness which he calls 'dysregulatory disease'. Hyland shows how such diseases develop and how the communication and art of medicine, good nursing care, complementary medicine and psychotherapy can all act to reduce the dysregulation that leads to dysregulatory disease. The Origins of Health and Disease is a fascinating book that develops a novel theory for understanding health and disease, and demonstrates how this theory is supported by existing data, and how it explains currently unexplained phenomena. Hyland also shows how his theory leads to new testable predictions that, in turn, will lead to further scientific advancement and development. Half-title......Page 3 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Dedication......Page 7 Contents......Page 9 Figures......Page 11 Tables......Page 14 Boxes......Page 15 Acknowledgements......Page 17 What is this book about?......Page 19 Two philosophies......Page 22 The mechanical analogy......Page 23 The ecological analogy......Page 27 Treatment and prevention from the perspective of the two philosophies......Page 29 Moderate success......Page 32 Poor success......Page 33 Where is modern medicine going?......Page 34 A brief history of psychological therapies......Page 35 Where is psychotherapy going?......Page 38 The behaviour of living systems......Page 39 The laws of physics......Page 41 The discovery of parallel processing systems......Page 43 Basic features of the theory......Page 44 Health versus disease......Page 45 The influence of Cartesian dualism......Page 48 What is this thing called mind?......Page 51 Methodological complementarity and emergentism......Page 52 Why do living organisms need a mind? Why did it evolve?......Page 55 The mind as a signal of the internal environment......Page 56 The mind as a signal of the external environment......Page 57 Introduction to the immune system......Page 58 Relationship between the mind/brain, behaviour and the immune system: psychoneuroimmunology......Page 61 Introduction to the immune theory of depression......Page 63 How the external environment alters the internal environment......Page 66 Mood and emotion and internal–external balance......Page 69 Immune conditioning......Page 71 Introduction to the gut......Page 73 Relation of the mind/brain to the gut......Page 74 The effect of the mind on the gut......Page 75 The behaviour inhibition system......Page 76 Putting it all together: the infornet, the inf lammatory response system, the HPA axis and the behaviour inhibition and activation systems......Page 79 The mind, the infornet and the specific system: a summary......Page 86 Introduction......Page 88 What is personality?......Page 89 Trait dimensions and health......Page 91 1. Symptom reporting and diagnosis bias......Page 93 2. Disease affecting mental states......Page 94 Putting the first two models together......Page 95 3. Unhealthy habits, external environment......Page 96 4. Unhealthy habits, internal environment......Page 97 5. Common factors......Page 98 Integration of the five mechanisms; the integrative model......Page 99 Personality and disease: specific relationship investigations......Page 101 The disease-prone personality......Page 105 Fatigue, depression and anxiety in major illness......Page 107 Other psychological variables that correlate with neuroticism or its components (depression, anxiety and fatigue)......Page 109 Recent developments in trait personality theory: the Big Two and the Big One......Page 110 Personality and underlying biological approaches: a biological explanation for the Big Two......Page 113 The meaning of infornet dysregulation......Page 115 The meaning of general infornet dysregulation, and different types of dysregulation......Page 121 The meaning of specific infornet dysregulation: allergy and asthma......Page 123 A classification of diseases......Page 126 General infornet dysregulation: summary......Page 127 Some potential tests......Page 128 A very brief history of networks......Page 131 Clocks versus flocks: an intuitive first understanding......Page 132 Does structure make a difference?......Page 133 Units, causality and stability......Page 135 Perception, pattern recognition and hidden layers......Page 138 Pattern recognition......Page 140 Tolerance of local error......Page 141 Distributed memory and distributed cause......Page 142 Intuition, soft decisions and multi tasking......Page 143 Resolution, history and local minima......Page 145 Networks as learning devices......Page 146 Associative learning......Page 147 Supervised learning......Page 148 The genome as the supervisor......Page 150 Self-regulation......Page 152 Homeostasis and homeodynamics......Page 156 The theory of the infornet: its representation in network theory......Page 158 Self-organisation......Page 160 Representation of the meaning of the infornet......Page 162 Summary of network properties and the infornet and a prediction......Page 163 A prediction from infornet theory......Page 164 Associative learning......Page 165 Food intolerance: description of the phenomenon......Page 166 Explanation for non-biologically mediated adverse food effects......Page 169 Food intolerance as a derivative of taste aversion learning......Page 170 Detecting food intolerance......Page 172 The effect of stress in adults, in the fetus and in childhood......Page 173 Long-term effects of stress explained by associative learning......Page 175 Predictions from infornet theory......Page 178 Summary......Page 179 The compensation rule......Page 180 Repetitive strain injury: description of the disease......Page 182 Repetitive strain injury: explanation......Page 183 Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): description of the disease......Page 184 ADHD explained......Page 186 Chronic fatigue syndrome: description of the disease......Page 188 The infornet explanation of CFS and depression: introduction......Page 194 Three ways in which the compensation rule leads to long-term activation of the behavioural inhibition system......Page 195 Combination of infection and stress......Page 196 Ignoring reactive inhibition: the effect of repetitive exploratory activity......Page 198 Goal-based explanations of negative affect: self-actualisation, learned helplessness, goal conflict and interruption of goal pursuit......Page 202 Explanations why some people develop fatigue and others depression......Page 205 Biological contributors to general behavioural inhibition and infornet dysregulation......Page 209 Summary and predictions......Page 210 Asthma: description of the disease......Page 212 The non-specific inflammatory response......Page 214 The asthma specific response......Page 215 From precursor to specific disease......Page 216 Gene expression......Page 217 Mechanisms in the specific system......Page 218 Idiopathic variability......Page 219 Trigger factors......Page 220 Fuzzy boundaries between dysregulatory disease......Page 222 Common predictors......Page 223 Summary......Page 224 The placebo in medicine and the art of medicine......Page 225 Drug therapy and the problem of depression......Page 230 Placebos in psychotherapy research......Page 236 The dodo bird effect......Page 237 Component studies......Page 238 Explanations for the dodo bird effect and null results from component studies......Page 239 Therapist effects......Page 242 Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)......Page 244 Does complementary and alternative medicine work? The problem of placebos in CAM medicine research......Page 247 Use of complementary medicine and alternative medicine......Page 252 Specific and non-specific revisited......Page 253 How effective is non-specific therapy?......Page 255 Comparison with biological treatments......Page 256 Effect size......Page 257 Percentage improving......Page 258 The problem of trial effects......Page 259 Psychotherapy for major illness......Page 261 Conclusions......Page 263 Introduction......Page 265 Response expectancy theory......Page 266 Conditioning theory and its relation to response expectancy theory.......Page 267 Infornet reinterpretation of response expectancy and conditioning theories......Page 269 Short-term placebo effects of the subjective experience of pain......Page 271 Placebo pain paradigm......Page 272 Short-term placebo effects of a physiological outcome: placebo response to bronchodilator inhalers......Page 273 Placebo asthma paradigm......Page 274 Commentary on short-term placebo effects......Page 276 Long-term therapeutic effects......Page 277 Infornet interpretation of long-term therapeutic effects: overview......Page 279 Changing negative cognitions and affect......Page 282 Changing positive cognitions and affect......Page 283 Therapy as lifestyle change and the attainment of important goals......Page 284 Therapy as a disinhibitor......Page 287 Relaxation......Page 288 Short-term versus long-term mechanisms: the evidence......Page 290 Unknowns......Page 292 Long-term change in physiological outcome......Page 293 Predictions......Page 296 Introduction......Page 298 The psychology of people living during the Palaeolithic......Page 301 Happiness and pleasure as signals that you are getting it right – most of the time......Page 303 A healthy lifestyle: general orientation and the importance of wealth......Page 305 A healthy lifestyle: lifestyle choices......Page 308 Positive social interactions: the goal of relatedness, being loved and cared for by others and loving and caring......Page 309 Quality and nature of goal attainment: autonomy, competence, learned helplessness theory, chronic stress, individualised goal achievement......Page 311 Rest and relaxation......Page 313 Conflict resulting from simultaneous completion of incompatible activity, including simultaneous immune and external challenge......Page 314 Too much of a good thing: the problem of reactive inhibition......Page 316 Infornet theory and lifestyle: an interactive perspective......Page 319 Summary......Page 321 11 Infornet theory in perspective......Page 322 Summary of infornet theory......Page 326 References......Page 330 Index......Page 357 "Some phenomena in medicine and psychology remain unexplained by current theory. Chronic fatigue syndrome, repetitive strain injury and irritable bowel syndrome, for example, are all diseases or syndromes that cannot be explained in terms of a physiological abnormality. In this intriguing book, Michael Hyland proposes that there is a currently unrecognised type of illness which he calls 'dysregulatory disease'. Hyland shows how such diseases develop and how the communication and art of medicine, good nursing care, complementary medicine and psychotherapy can all act to reduce the dysregulation that leads to dysregulatory disease. The Origins of Health and Disease develops a novel theory for understanding health and disease, demonstrates how this theory is supported by existing data and how it explains currently unexplained phenomena. Hyland also shows how his theory leads to new testable predictions that, in turn, will lead to further scientific advancement and development"--Provided by publisher. Machine generated contents note: 1. The two philosophies: health, disease, medicine and psychotherapy 2. The body's mind: psychoneuroimmunology, stress and adaptive response 3. Personality, disease and the meaning of infornet dysregulation 4. Networks and their properties 5. The causes of dysregulation: associative learning, food intolerance and the effects of stress throughout the lifespan 6. The causes of dysregulation: supervised learning, repetitive strain injury, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome and depression 7. The causes of dysregulation: asthma and precursors to specific disease 8. Three different types of psychologically mediated therapy: placebos and the art of medicine, psychotherapy and complementary and alternative medicine 9. Therapeutic mechanisms 10. Finding the pattern: health in modern society 11. Infornet theory in perspective.