Ashok Gupta explains how the brain's threat-detection system stays stuck in overdrive after an infection clears, amplifying fatigue and pain into a feedback loop. The condition is reversible through brain retraining, which produces measurable changes like thickened prefrontal cortex and reduced amygdala reactivity. He recommends six months of commitment without pursuing competing theories.
Chapters
Why doesn't our defense system go back into the off position once the infection has been removed? There is something else that happens during this traumatic experience.
Because the brain is already on high alert, it's easy for it to learn to perceive new threats, new dangers, and it can learn new defensive responses. The brain learns to become hypersensitive to those symptoms in the body, because when there are symptoms in the body, it indicates that we're still in danger unless you tell the brain something different. So at step eight, those very symptoms which are being caused by overstimulation, those same symptoms loop back to the brain, telling the brain that we're still in danger and triggering new defensive responses. The signals from the body are magnified and then they easily get detected by what is now a very sensitive brain. In me and cfs, those signals, such as exhaustion and those immune symptoms, they suggest to the brain that the body is still in danger from a potential virus or bacterial infection. In fibromyalgia, those signals, such as pain, might be interpreted by the brain as evidence of ongoing danger. So it magnifies the alerts and triggers more inflammation. And in MCS and electrical sensitivities, the signals of those immune reactions indicate that a chemical may still be present or we're about to have a strong reaction. And so it becomes a snowball of triggers and reactions with IBS and food intolerances. Those gut reactions indicate that the food is still dangerous or that our gut is about to react.
In summary, our brains have learned to over defend against threats, even if the threat has gone. And for some people, the brain also learns to over defend against symptoms. It now perceives the symptoms in the body as dangerous. And because of that, it overstimulates the nervous system and the immune system, creating those very same symptoms. And again, those symptoms double back to the brain. The brain over responds and creates the very same symptoms.
Again, the brain is stuck in a loop and it keeps reacting to itself. And the severity of the illness depends on how vicious this cycle is and how we respond.
Here are some analogies that can help us understand what's going on in the brain.
Let's take the example of a smoke alarm. Now, can there be smoke without fire? Well, perhaps. Don't we do this? Sometimes we burn some toast and the smoke goes up and triggers off the smoke alarm. And so we get out a tea towel and start madly waving it at the smoke alarm to try and get rid of the smoke. And we think there's no fire. It's, it's just a bit of Smoke. That smoke alarm has gone off unnecessarily. And that particular reaction is the same as the reaction going on in our brains. The brain is reacting when actually there isn't any real danger. Another analogy I'd like to share is that of a Japanese soldier. Now, when do you think the last Japanese soldier was taken off duty after the Second World War? 1945, 1947. Believe it or not, he was taken off duty in 1974. Now, this soldier had been fighting even when the war was over. And he didn't believe the war was over because he had become traumatized by the experience. He felt he had to defend against anybody approaching the island. It was only when the formal commanders came to say to him, the war is over for sure, that he believed that he could go off duty.
In the same way, we can persuade and re educate our brains that we're not in danger and we really are on the road to recovery. How can such severe symptoms be caused by our own system? Well, when we have flu, for instance, the symptoms aren't caused by the flu virus, but by our own defenses. At the end of the chapter in this book, I list the main symptoms that many people experience and then a short explanation of how they're caused. I believe that this is a real physical illness. However, the good news is that I don't believe there's any permanent organic damage in our bodies because the illness comes and goes in cycles, just like in the diagram. People have good days, bad days, good weeks, bad weeks. So I believe that the hardware of our body is fine, it's just an issue with the software.
Now, I'm a bit of an IT.
Geek, so I really love that analogy. As an example, if you break your leg, your leg is broken, you don't have better leg days. It's permanently the same, but with these conditions, the, there's a lot of variance. Now, this is positive news because it means that if we could just reprogram the software, the hardware of your body would function correctly. Now, I'm sure it feels like you want to do more research, try and understand what's causing your condition. But I've learned over many years that continuing that research doesn't help our recovery because we come from a place of fear. You know, we ask questions like, what if my cells aren't working properly? What about my mitochondria? What if I have viruses in the body? There are so many other theories out there, but what we can focus on is just our intuition, our body signals just telling us that we're on the.
Right track, you may well have some other physical issues in the body. And this is normal because the condition can affect every single cell and organ in your body. So it's likely there might be some temporary secondary effects, but that doesn't mean that it's the root cause.
And so our minds hang on to this idea that we can't get better until we fix such and such issue in our body. But we can just observe our minds doing this, and it's only doing it because it's anxiously searching for solutions. This program, however, helps you to address the core underlying factors of the condition. And many people find that this resolves those secondary issues, or at least gives you the strength to resolve them. Therefore, I suggest letting go of any skepticism, just focusing on the explanation. And let's commit for that minimum of six months. And whilst we're on the program, let's not look at any other theories or forums online. Let's fully embrace the program and let's go for it. In a nutshell, the tools in this program have been clinically shown to thicken our prefrontal cortex, thickening and strengthening those neurons. This is really interesting neurology.
The reason that we don't want to keep researching is because, firstly, there's a lot of negative stuff online about getting better, and this can create doubt in our minds. We might be successfully retraining our brain, but a part of us might keep thinking that it's caused by something else beyond our control. But with this program, we're empowered to take back control. And finally, in terms of any medication that you might be taking, we advise that you keep everything the same until you get your strength and energy back. Once you're feeling much better, then you can very slowly come off other medications under the supervision of your doctor. This program puts your body in the optimal healing state to support your body in overcoming any secondary conditions that you may have. These tools are likely to be reducing the reactivity of the amygdala. Also, researchers find that when we practice awareness, mindfulness, being the observer, the insular part of the brain becomes thicker. Now, in my view, the reason this helps us is because in the insula, rather than just taking in information and panicking, when it's thicker and larger, it's able to process the information better, take a more rational perspective on it, and therefore it reduces the panicking about the state of the body.
So in today's session, we've been through that medical explanation. In our next session, we'll go through how we experience the condition internally and we'll put everything in place, ready to retrain our brain for health and happiness.
These illnesses are real physical conditions in the body. They often occur after a period of stress combined with some kind of physical trigger. After this event, the brain learns to over defend the body against future threats. This over defence involves triggering the immune system and the nervous system. For me and chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and ibs. The brain learns to over defend against the very symptoms it's creating in the body. In other conditions like mcs, electrical sensitivities and food intolerances, the brain defends against perceived dangers in the outer world. The good news is that there's unlikely to be any permanent damage to the hardware. It's likely to be a software issue where that part of the brain needs reprogramming. And the Gupta program has taken 20 years of research to put together to help you retrain your brain towards health and happiness.
