Re: Whew!

Hello.



Re:
"
"My observations indicate that the 'emotional interaction' between the parasite and the host may be more complex than thought. I'm suspecting a bidirectional interaction, but I have no evidence of this yet."

I have no idea what you are getting at here and I would enjoy hearing you elaborate.
"



Well, I have read and heard a number of times the theories that seem to point out that 'parasites' may "affect" emotions, and/or that emotional states "affect" 'parasites'.

As I've gone along with my observations, I've started to picture the possibility that the interaction involves BOTH possibilities, but it could go far beyond that. Let me give you a simple example:


-----------------
Let's say that a patient is infested with several types of parasites. He[or she] is feeling tired all the time and sometimes depressed, among other symptoms, most of which we all know or heard of.

By receiving POSITIVE stimuli [external, probably some good news], the patient reacts in a positive fashion, releasing certain chemicals that may or may not "affect" one or all of the parasites at certain different levels. At that point in time, the patient feels "happiness" or "joy".

Immediately after, as a reactive response to this stimuli [positive or negative from the point of view of the parasite, most probably negative], the parasite exerts some type of [biochemical] reaction that is in consequence reflected back onto the host [the 'host' = the patient]. How it'd be reflected back onto the host we could only guess.

According to this 'reactive response', the host [the patient] may 'see'/feel his or her mood altered afterwards because of biochemical factors that are in part due to the reactive response of a certain type of parasite as an answer to the positive stimuli that the patient received externally to begin with. [an 'emotional hangover' afterwards?]

-----------------------



This would be a simple bidirectional interaction that may be happening inside the host and in relation to his/her host-parasite relationship with the infesting organism.

In that example, IF in fact it were like that, it would be clear that the interaction between parasite and host is more complex than a simple emotional 'host affects parasite' or 'parasite affects host' argument. Because most actions are likely to produce [elastic] reactions, specially where biochemistry is concerned, maybe this interaction is in fact bidirectional as I'm suspecting. All data seems to be moving slowly towards this direction. However, so far it's all just ANOTHER theory.


Also, I may have noted:

- patient behaviour [gradient] in relation to parasitic infestations
- patient/disease [host/parasite] response to MUSIC during infestation/treatment
- patient's need for glucose AFTER/DURING positive stimuli
- parasites TENDING to hosts' lethargy?
- patient's NEED for certain types of psychotropic stimuli ["vices"?] during infestation
- overstimulation of "state of lethargy" [both parasite/host] during overfeeding
- mood changes related to certain chemical imbalances [later 'balanced' by some foods, unless infestation is too 'deep seated']

[outline the word "may" in 'MAY have noted'.]







"
Also on this

""I'm reminded of Diane Zimberoff's approach to weight loss, "Trim Life," where she teaches that people won't be sucessful losing weight and keeping it off until the emotional reasons for overeating are addressed.
"

Could be. Caution should come into mind in this regard, however, in my opinion.""
"

Because of this "complex interaction" that I suspect, then it would be quite possible that IF in fact overeating were caused by parasites [as a hypothesis], the "emotional reasons" for overeating could then be caused by the 'parasites'' chemical responses, just as the "emotional reasons" could well be a by-product of the process of overeating itself; all of that meaning that then it would be pointless to try to address emotional issues FIRST as a measure against overeating, because a vicious cycle could be reached, which is of course what happens to most people facing obesity.

This is NOT to say, of course, that parasites cause obesity. I have no data either way.

[Personally, I think that obesity IS A DISEASE caused by some pathogen(s). A good suspect location for these 'pathogens' would be somewhere in the integumentary system; that's where I'd start looking first if I had to work on that problem: I'm not sure what I've observed from those locations under the microscope, but there seems to be "something" there. I may have grown part of that "something" already, but there's no way to be sure of anything yet.]

[** I'd like to apologize to all readers for sounding so vague with these "somethings", but until I can identify 'them', that's just what they are to me, "something" [in lack of fancy terms]] Tweet