photo credit: Andre Um

The word neuropeptide is so new thai it’s rare to find it in a dictionary published before 1990. I have a 1987 copy of the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary and the word neuropeptide doesn’t get a guernsey, although the word peptide is discreetly tucked away in the pages containing words that begin with the letter “P”. I have access to 225,000 words in a beautifully bound two volume set of The World Book Dictionary hut alas neuropeptide is nowhere to be found. There’s neuroblast, neurodermatitis, neuroendocrinology and neuropter which should not be thought of as a helicopter with a human brain.

Over the past 25 years spectacular advances have been made in the field of brain research. One of the landmark discoveries took place in 1973 when Dr. Solomon Snyder, a neuroscientist working at the John Hopkins University, made a remarkable discovery that the brain had its own natural opiate-like receptors (Pert & Snyder, 1973).

It was assumed that these receptors were the sites in the brain where opiates such as morphine and heroin acted to produce pleasure and the relief of pain.

Snyder and his colleague, Dr. Candice Pert, concluded that if the brain had opiate receptors then it also had its own natural opiates. His remarkable discovery led to the establishment of a new branch of science called molecular psychology.

[Molecular psychology is based on evidence that human thought, emotion and behaviour results from the interplay of chemical molecules across the surface of brain cells.]

The work of Snyder and other neuroscientists has revolutionised our
understanding of how the brain works and has had enormous flow-on
benefits in the fields of psychiatric medicine.

Neuropeptides and stress

Neuropeptides are naturally occurring substances found in the brain. They are also found in the intestine where they regulate the flow of food by altering the rhythm of contractions.

When we are under stress neuropeptide levels increase to protect the immune system, the body’s front line of defence against disease.

Generally speaking, neuropeptides are involved in many functions of the brain associated with pleasure and pain. A neuropeptide called dynorphin was discovered in 1979.

The word dynorphin means power and this is appropriate because dynorphin is 200 times more powerful in its actions than morphine.

Neuropeptides are being discovered all the time. At least sixty have been indentified so far and they rally under such fancy names as alpha endorphin; gamma-endorphin; beta endorphin; leu-enkephalin; met-enkephalin; Peptide E; Substance P. The best known neuropeptides are endorphin (not to be confused with the Australian rock band of the same name) and enkephalin. The word endorphin is a shorthand expression covering all the natural opiates produced by the body.

Spiders and monkeys have endorphins!

Endorphins are found it many other organisms besides humans. These powerful neuropeptides are present in the humble, but persistent leech; in a wide range of spiders; in monkeys swinging from tree to tree; in rats that scuffle in the night; and abundantly present in lobsters … especially those that are swimming indifferently in illuminated fish tanks in Seafood Restaurants!.

Endorphin and enkephalin are found in high concentrations in the limbic system, particularly in those areas related to pleasure and pain.

Certain parts of the brain contain dense clusters of receptors for neuropeptides. In X-rays of the brain they show up like dense galaxies of stars in a vast universe.

Neuropeptides serve many useful functions. During stress they are released to help us cope with the pain. This is probably why people who suffer severe injuries in a car accident don’t feel the full pain wave until they get to hospital. The brain has it own morphine and it uses it in times of emergency.

Shirley MacLaine talks about neuropeptides.

Actress Shirley MacLaine relates a personal incident that demonstrates the power of the body’s neuropeptides to suppress pain:

“It was the evening of the Cinderella performance. I was dancing the Fairy Godmother, and I stood in the wings after completing my plies and warming up exercises. The orchestra tuned up, the house lights dimmed, and the audience quieted. The overture began and the curtain was about to open. Before it did, I took a few practise grand jetés across the stage.

Snap!

I went down. A sharp pain pierced my right ankle and it doubled under me. Terrified, I looked quickly around to see if anyone had noticed. No one had. Dancers fall down all the time. I looked at the ankle. It was already swollen. I tightened my toe-shoe ribbon to a death grip, and stood up. The curtain went up.

I climbed on point and began to dance. With each movement I seemed to step further out of myself. The pain left me. I began to feel a sense of triumph that gave me strength – not an anesthetized strength as though I had dulled the pain, but more as though my mind had risen above me and was looking down. The dance movements came in an easy flow, and I felt that I was soaring above myself. I knew the pain was there, but I was on top of it somehow. It was probably my first experience in mind over matter. And the feeling was exquitite.

On a ballet stage in Washington, D.C., I first came in contact with my potential talent for becoming a mystic!

Two and a half hours later the ballet and curtains call were over. I asked for an ambulance and then the pain hit. I didn’t walk for four months.” (MacLaine 1970, p.12)

Neuropeptides stop us feeling like a drug addict in a state of withdrawal.

Without neuropeptides we would suffer constant wracking pain from head to toe feeling like the drug addict in a state of withdrawal. When the addict is hitting his brain with heroin, the brain lowers production of the endorphins and enkephalins. When the heroin is removed withdrawal sets in as the body tries to fight pain without its natural opiates.

Valium has been used for decades to relieve pain. It does this by stimulating the production of more endorphins. Enkephalin is known to be a natural pain-killer.

When are neuropeptides active in the body and why are they important to you?.

Neuropeptide levels are known to be high in long-distance runners. Their presence is certainly detectable during sexual orgasm. They’re the nice feelings that accompany being in love. Evidence has been produced to show that they play an active role in the positive outcomes associated with acupuncture and the placebo effect.

Their release is often triggered when we are being praised or complemented. If you meet a client who shows genuine enthusiasm to see you again and compliments you on your excellent service then the flush of good feeling that follows from this praise is a sign that the neuropeptides are at work.

The Body’s Sixth Sense.

Recent research suggests that neuropeptides have a positive effect on the body and play a key role in health and well-being. While it was once thought that communication between the brain and the body was a one- way street with the brain sending out instructions and the body responding, scientists are now finding evidence showing that the conversation is two way. The key messengers in this biological dialogue are the neuropeptides. They have even been dubbed the body’s sixth sense because they can alert us to problems even before we get sick.

Neuroscientist Dr. Candice Pert has proposed that our emotions are produced as a result of the interplay of neuropeptides in the brain and in the body. She has suggested that “…such biochemically mediated emotional patterns may have served during our evolutionary history by biasing the way that we think and behave so as to increase our chances of survival, both as individuals and as a species.” (Wood & Dienstfrey 1989, p.38)

lt seems possible that our desire to be healthy and productive may actually encourage the neuropeptides in their work. People who are high achievers and who enjoy their work experience the neuropeptide good feelings quite regularly. Those feelings actively promote a positive sense of well-being.

On an organizational level this equates to that tangible (hut difficult to describe) good atmosphere of a positive, team-based environment. Each person in the team, from the manager to the most junior assistant, benefits from increased neuropeptide activity and the accompanying highs which lead to better productivity.

Neuropeptides and addiction.

Some people are unable to produce enough neuropeptides to meet the demands of the body. Pharmacologists are now speculating that lower- than-normal levels of neuropeptides may cause the psychic-pain that drives people to turn to alcohol just to feel normal.

Enkephalins and endorphins are very powerful neurotransmitters. So powerful in fact that it is possible to become self-addicted! Experiments with rats demonstrate this phenomena. Animals given an opportunity to electrically stimulate the pleasure centres in their brain by pressing a lever have been seen to stimulate themselves for 24 hours without rest and as often as 5,000 times an hour! This is why addicts are prepared to sell their grandmother for another fix.

One way to demonstrate the power of neuropeptides is to see what happens when their receptors are blocked.

By some strange twist of nature the molecules of the opium poppy happen to fit into the receptor key locks reserved for the brain’s natural opiates, endorphin and enkephahin.

This is why heroin has such a powerful effect on mood. Once heroin gets into the brain the molecules go straight to the receptors reserved for the endorphin and enkephalins and a massive high results. The heroin switches on the body’s pleasure centres in a way that nature never intended.

lf a person is delivered to a casually ward in a hospital in a comatose state and the intern suspects heroin overdose then she has one very effective way of confirming the diagnosis. She injects the patient with a synthetic neurotransmitter called Naloxone. If the coma is heroin induced then the patient soon sits up but feels like a thousand hangovers.

Naloxone works by locking onto the receptor sites that heroin is working over. It sits in the lock but doesn’t activate the neuron. It’s like trying to start your Ford with your next door neighbour’s Ford key. The key will sit nicely in the ignition lock but it won’t switch on the motor. Naloxone does just that. It blocks the heroin. The addict regains consciousness but because the good feeling key holes are all blocked he feels exceptionally unwell.

The take away message from this post is that our brain has been marvelously designed through years of natural selection and that it will works wonders for us if we treat it with respect.

References:

MacLaine, S. (1970). Don’t Fall Off the Mountain. New York. Bantum Books.

Pert, C.B., & Snyder, S.H. (1973) Opiate Receptor: Demonstration in Nervous Tissue. Science , 179, 101 1-101

Wood, C & Dienstfrey, H. (1989) Positive Emotions and Health: A Conference Report. Advances, 6, 2:36-42.

This is quite a simple device but it could play a positive role in reducing your stress.

If you are curious you will spend 30 seconds looking at the image below and will see that it does some strange things without your conscious intervention.

Being curious also makes life less stressful.

Lucie Wekeem and her husband Bill recently decided to close their long established soft furnishings business to move on to more exciting things in their lives. I spoke to Lucie about the stress of closing the business and also how her health issues contributed to the decision.

You told me that stress is your motivator and I’d just like to explore with you how this works out in your day-to-day life. You recently had to close a business and so that’s a big transition and so tell me about that.

We didn’t have to close the business we chose to close it down because we have found we wanted to move on and do something more exciting in our lives. We had that business for nearly 23 years. I had been doing that kind of work for 30 years and my husband had been doing it for 40 years.

What was the nature of the business?

Soft furnishing manufacturing. Manufacturing and selling and installation. We really enjoyed it. I remember when we moved to Coffs Harbour we were quite excited starting up and putting our mark on the town as such and we found probably the last 10 to 14 years we didn’t advertise any more because we had established a good name for ourselves and we had enough to keep us going just by word of mouth which gave us a great sense of achievement.

But we got to the point where we didn’t want to do it any more. We wanted to do something different and also with all the work that I have done over the years, which is quite heavy work, it was affecting my health. It’s in your DNA are you going to have arthritis in one form or another in your later years but mine came on quite early. It was in the form of RSI initially but it actually was a form osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. It became quite painful doing heavy intricative work.

Tablets were just never enough and I also felt that I didn’t want to be taking quite strong medication with all the side effects and things like that.

Let’s talk about going through the process of closing down the business. How did you cope with the stress of that?

Well I had to make sure that I’ve crossed all the t’s and others all the i’s and cancel the things that have to be cancelled. Simple things just like electricity phone and working to a date. You have to make sure that you picked the right date that’s given you enough time.

We have a shed work room area and offices. All that needed to be emptied out and cleaned out. We then had to set up a home office. Knowing what things we were going to throw away, sell, giveaway, and that. That was important to us.

Everything we had was quite old but still workable and so we knew we were not going to make any money out of selling things so we actually gave a lot of things away. This was an expression of our appreciation to our staff and thanks to the people who had helped us along the way. We were really happy to do that.

How long did it take to actually wind down the business?

Longer than what we thought it would. We thought it was going to be OK just close the door today and that’s it. Obviously you’ve got your accounts flowing over for a few months. You’ve got work orders on hold where fabric might have been out of stock so you have to wait for stock to come in.

Also you have to stop taking orders. You have to decide what day you are going to stop taking orders. That was quite hard with people ringing up or coming into the shop and saying “I’d like to order some curtains” or “I’d like someone to come over and give me a quote“. We had to say “Look I’m sorry we’re closing down we can’t take your order“.

Actually a lot of the people that would ring were repeat business. They used us over the last 20 years.

You say that stress is your motivator. When you’re driving to work in the morning, while you were going through this process, what were you thinking?

Obviously what I’m going to do today. Making a priority list. Having a “to do list” and then prioritising what is on that list in relation to dates.

You saw this as an orderly process and no need to panic?

I suppose there were days when I thought “yes everything is in order its going on smoothly” and then something came and disrupted it. It was fairly orderly, yes.

So how does stress motivate you to do things?

I need to be busy. I need to have deadlines and I work to those deadlines.

So deadlines for you are positive things?

Yes definitely.

In terms of managing your illness, which I guess is long-term and not something that is going to go away, have you developed any techniques to cope with that?

Diet has been the thing I’ve found most important.

What changes did you make your diet?

I went to a Chinese Naturopath and he did some tests and gave me a list of things that I had to eliminate from my diet, things that I had to just eat in moderation and things that were good for me that I could have every day. Somethings that he told me not to eat were foods that I loved.

So what had to go?

Fruit, a lot of fruit. So I cut it all out of my diet for a good month and noticed a significant change. One of the benefits was a significant reduction of pain.

Since I stopped working I have been doing a lot of gardening. Normally doing that I would be in a lot of pain but doing the gardening and eliminating all of these things out of my diet I found a balance. I’ve had very little pain.

People who read this are going to say tell me more about the things you got rid off.

Very acidic foods. So for example I love a drink of wine but I can’t drink wine any more. I’ve just completely stopped drinking wine.

Watermelon, I could eat nearly half a watermelon in one sitting and that’s very acidic.

Grapes, tomatoes, dried fruit which apparently has a lot of sugar in it.

I had to give up a lot of sugary foods. I’ve just cut all that out as well and I love all those things. They are some of my favourites.

I’d quite often just sit down to a plate of fruit for dinner or for lunch but I just don’t do that any more.

Bread, I cut out bread.

I’ve found sugar is my enemy so I have eliminated that from my diet.

Then of course the bonus is I’ve lost nearly 5kg without even thinking I was on a diet. It wasn’t a diet I was on it was just eliminating things to manage my arms and my hands.

So you’ve been better as a result of the changes you made?

I have no swelling, and swelling obviously causes pain, but there has been no pain.

Thank you Lucie.

photo credit: americanistadechiapas

Our most accessible memories are those from experiences that result in a positive or negative reward. Negative and positive reinforcements play a key role in learning and memory.

You can’t teach infants through rational reasoning. Imagine holding a small baby in your arms and saying to the child … “I think it’s time I taught you a few facts about negotiation skills.”

Infants are not capable of advanced cognitive processing. Come to think about it, lots of adults aren’t either. So how do babies learn? They learn through positive and negative reinforcement. When bub smiles Mum or Dad return the smile – the brain is pleasurably stimulated and a positive memory is filed.

Clinical psychologist Beulah Warren and her colleagues have spent many years studying the problems of bonding that are associated with premature births (Warren et al 1987).

Deprived of a normal full-term intra-uterine experience these babies are born with basic survival skills but lack the fine-tuning of full term infants.

Premature babies are usually kept in a crib environment wired to life support systems and are often deprived of early nursing by the mother.

When the parents collect the baby and begin the challenging process of nursing, things don’t always go smoothly. Premature babies tend to throw themselves physically backwards when being nursed because of poor physical control. Their eye contact is also poor and these two factors are often interpreted by parents as rejection. This makes the bonding process much more difficult.

The child’s early learning experiences are rarely rewarding, at best confusing. Many premature babies grow into children with learning and behavioral problems.

lf learning and memories are laid down properly in the first place then a healthy child usually results. A psychologically healthy child will draw on these positive, rewarding experiences as a buffer in times of difficulty. Instead of running for cover they can reflect on the good times; open up the positive memory files and press-on.

The examples from childhood provide important lessons for management. Your contact with people needs to give them a positive, rewarding experience (even if the outcome is essentially negative) so that you build a healthy memory file for the future.

Freezing or Backward Movement.

Studies have shown that negative reinforcement will frequently produce freezing or backward movements in animials. In staff it leads to problems such as poor productivity, an unpleasant work environment and increased absenteeism. In clients it produces cancelled orders; slammed doors; rejection and bad public relations.

Professor Marvin Minsky of the Massacssachutts Institute of Technology is very interested in how memories are stored in the brain. He is a world authority in the field of artificial intelligence. Minksy believes that “…we keep each thing we learn close to the agents that learn it in the first place.”

If Minsky is right then the positive files are all together in the brain tied up not with red tape but with positive emotions. These include your positive experiences in the workplace and at home. It’s a good storehouse to draw on when you feel depressed.

Mood and Thoughts.

Our current mood often sets the tone for our associated thoughts. A shopping centre study was conducted to determine if the opinions of shoppers would change if they experienced a pleasant surprise.

A group of shoppers unexpectedly found dollars bills which had been strategically planted by the experimenters. After the lucky find these people were interviewed about a range of subjects concerning their marriage, car, work etc.

A group of shoppers who neither found nor searched for any money were also asked the same questions.

This second group served as a control group for the first group. The results showed that the first group had a tendency to be more positive than the control group.

Skilled managers will steer their staff away from negative associations. They will redirect a negative comment about the weather into the memory channel of beautiful balmy days. They will turn dire predictions of economic disaster into images of better days ahead. They will listen to their staff and build on the positive clues that can send a faint hint of light through even the darkest diatribe. They will realise that emotions are contagious. Their positive mood will he revealed in the words they speak and in their body language.

If you do this you will you get improved staff relations you will also put points on the board for your organisation.

The various encounters and experiences that we have influence all our moods and feelings. Remember that every feeling that we experience whether anger, joy, depression or curiosity has a biochemical basis.

Additional Reading:

How To Recover After An Affair – Coping With Painful Memories.

The Clearing and Weeding of Negative Thoughts

References:

Warren, B., Dolby, R., Mead, E.V. & Heath, J. (1987) A Preventative Care Programme for Low Birth Weight Infants Which Incorporates Parents Needs. A paper presented at Neuromotor Lesions in Infancy: Early
Diagnosis & Intervention Congress, Trento, Italy.