How does stress take its toll? Body mind dualism

Medical science is finding itself stuck trying to explain how a man under considerable stress could have a heart attack and die, say on hearing a shattering news.

Many people with reasonable intelligence would tell you noticing attacks of migraine headaches his wife suffers from going up when their daughter is going through a divorce, the tummy rumbling more often before exams and job interviews, acidity episodes spiking when we are facing uncertainties, and the blood pressure and blood glucose levels going haywire when there is a serious emotional crisis at home.

Yet, when patients are asked if they are under stress most hastily deny it, drawing the doctor’s attention back to the bowel or head or chest, as though an admission of stress would amount to a serious failure that would tarnish his or her brave image.

Psychosomatic disorders are NOT all in the mind, but they do have a link with how the mind, especially the subconscious one, works, and sends signals to the organs of the body. For instance, a troubled banker running losses (stress in the mind) could have his BP shoot up, suffer a myocardial infarction and die (body). The mind and the body could be connected by what we now call as a “psychosomatic disorder”.

After every clinic, I often land up cursing the great French philosopher Rene Descartes who lived in the 16th century. He was a great mathematician, scientist and philosopher. He however also propagated the theory of Cartesian Dualism – a view that the mind and body are separate entities and are not connected. And this theory unfortunately has stuck on in the minds of most medical doctors for over 5 centuries!

Science has a funny concept that what cannot be seen or measured does not exist. We now have means to measure some of the effects of stress such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, hormones, and cardiac impulses, but not yet one to measure stress itself!

Cartesian dualism therefore continues to prevail, leading doctors to perform a lot many tests to assess the effects of stress, as they cannot evaluate stress itself, and to provide a pure “bio-medical” diagnosis, rather than a Bio-psychosocial one.

The circumstantial evidence of stress in the causation of disease has however been so overwhelming, that medical science has had to recently accept stress as a factor. Both patients and doctors are however still comfortable perpetuating Descartes’ theory and denying themselves the most obvious solution.

Hollywood stars Penélope Cruz and Maggie Gyllenhaal became big winners at the closing ceremony of the 78th Venice Film Festival, with Audrey Diwan taking home the top prize for her abortion drama, L’Evénement (Happening).

French-Lebanese Diwan has become the sixth female director to win the fest’s top prize, the Golden Lion, with her 1963-set film. She is also the second woman to win the honour in a row after Chloé Zhao took last year’s Lion with Nomadland, reports ew.com.

Gyllenhaal picked up the Best Screenplay prize for The Lost Daughter, her debut as a writer-director, while Jane Campion became the second woman to receive the Silver Lion for Best Director since the award was introduced in 1990. Cruz picked up the Volpi Cup Best Actress trophy for her role in Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas).

According to Deadline, Cruz dedicated the win to her director, husband Javier Bardem and their children as well as to Bardem’s mother, who passed away recently.

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