stillpoint

1: Too ill to meditate: ME and the Alpha State

Meditation as Medicine

Researchers have applied scientific measurements to the subjective experience of silence, fullness, and eternity. They have discovered that the physiological state of meditators undergoes definite shifts toward more efficient functioning. Hundreds of individual findings show lowered respiration, reduced oxygen consumption, and decreased metabolic rate."
Deepak Chopra: Ageless Body, Timeless mind

We're increasingly being told that meditation is good for us: it's going mainstream. Taught in hospitals, 'clinically standardised' meditation and mind-body techniques such as such as autogenics are being recognised as effective methods for dealing with painful and chronic health conditions. The scientific establishment has belatedly caught up with the benefits of practices that have been part of non-Western spiritual teachings and health care for thousands of years.

For ME/CFS sufferers it’s important to develop relaxation skills and learn to listen to symptoms. It enables us to monitor our condition more effectively; within a programme of pacing it can prevent relapses and aid recovery. Many sufferers seem to be attracted to meditation, whether as a practical exercise to benefit health, or as a spiritual practice - or both. So why do we often find meditation so difficult? Do beginners with ME have more problems to overcome than most people new to the practice?

The Healing Role of the Alpha State

Dr David Mason Brown, a former GP and now an ME/CFS specialist, has done pioneering work on the condition in the UK. Interestingly, Mason Brown has promoted the use of meditation for ME/CFS sufferers whilst acknowledging the difficulties in practice that are caused by symptoms - most notably, cognitive dysfunction. He is at the forefront of developments in complementary medicine and what he calls the New Energy medicine, having drawn on research across the world and his own clinical experience with hundreds of ME patients.

Mason Brown’s interest in meditation stems from both a spiritual and a medical perspective. Stillpoint is grateful to him for assisting our understanding of how ME symptoms affect meditation and vice versa.

A recovered ME sufferer, when Mason Brown was ill he learned to meditate. "The use of the Alpha state helped enormously", he told us, explaining, "this is a healing state which enables your body and mind to heal itself. You can teach yourself the alpha state, or learn it with the help of a qualified practitioner. Modifying the frequency of your brainwaves and entering the Alpha state places you in direct communication with your subconscious mind and the rest of your body. It produces a healing state described by Dr. Benson, the cardiologist who heads Harvard University's Mind-Body Institute, as the Relaxation Response. This is the exact opposite of the Fight/Flight Response. When working I try to function in alert alpha. If I did not do that I could not maintain my pace of work."

"Meditation, Yoga, deep prayer, etc all use the Alpha state”, says Mason Brown. “It is the brain frequency from 8 to 12 cycles per second and has a very large electromagnetic pulse, which allows transmission throughout the body and the mind and beyond. In that state one can go into the centre of one's being or be connected with infinite intelligence or with the Divine, whatever one perceives it to be. Thus phrases like 'Be still and know' or 'The still small voice within', etc. A mantra combined with slowing and deepening the breathing allows one to focus on this and exclude all the mind clutter that prevents the average person from being in this state. In reality everyone goes into it a little, even if only for thirty seconds at a time with what are called the ultradian rhythms."

Dr Mason Brown summarises the different states of the brain:

Beta: Brain Wave Frequencies of 12 to 26 Cycles per Second. Conscious Thought including Intellect & Emotion. The lower the frequency the more relaxed and the higher the frequency the more intellectually stimulated and/or stressed (e.g. a panic attack).

Alpha: Brain Wave Frequencies of 8 to 12 cycles per second. This is the frequency that is able to change subconscious programming and also produce healing states. It is essential for long-term fitness, stamina, and health. Used in medical hypnotherapy, meditation, yoga, etc.

Theta: Brain Wave Frequency of 4 to 8 cycles per second. This is the Light Sleep or Dream Sleep Level. Also called REM Sleep as during dreaming there is rapid eye movement from side to side. It is essential for good mental health.

Delta: Brain Wave Frequency of 4 and less cycles per second. This is the Deep Sleep Level. It is very important for physical rest, tissue renewal, and healing whilst deeply asleep.

::next: Meditation with ME... obstacles

2: Meditation with ME... obstacles

by Joelle Marlow

Obstacle no.1: the stress response

Characteristics of CFS include: Damage to nerves - Central nervous system (psychological problems, psychiatric, sleep, brain fog etc); Autonomic nervous system (sweating, temperature control, hyperventilation, etc) and peripheral nervous system (numbness, tingling etc). Dr Sarah Myhill, Diagnosing and treating CFS

The initial illness often follows prolonged periods of stress, which compromise the immune system; it is triggered by a viral infection. Links have also been made with environmental pollutants that are toxic to the nervous system.

When we encounter a situation that causes stress, the autonomic nervous system responds without our conscious control, and a series of changes occur in the body. A vital role is played by our adrenal glands - actually two glands in close proximity. The adrenal medula is an extension of nerve cells of the sympathetic nervous system, secreting adrenaline, which creates physiological responses that enable the body to call forth the extreme strength, speed and reaction time that were necessary for survival in prehistoric times. Attached to medula is the adrenal cortex, stimulated by pituitary hormones to release adrenal cortical hormones, such as cortisol. In effect, although mobilising the body, these responses suppress healing processes and the immune system.

This ‘fight-flight’ response remains with us from the days when we needed to escape a predator quickly. It wasn’t designed for a sedentary life, in which the nervous energy stays stuck within our bodies- in traffic jams, in offices; nor for the relentless repetition of different stress triggers we meet in a complex, fast-paced environment.

"my body was like a broken machine, my nervous system on overdrive, and I had no control over it."

Imbalances in the endocrine system

So things start to go wrong in the body. Unnaturally high levels of cortisol lead to other imbalances in the endocrine system, and can be very difficult to correct, long after the initial sources of environmental stress or viral infection have gone and ME/CFS diagnosed. These problems are responsible for a range of symptoms differing from one patient to another, from the 'drugged' feeling causing abnormally long periods of sleep, to the wired, 'manic' associated with insomnia and a nervous system that feels constantly over-stimulated and ‘jittery’. When these tortuous symptoms are accompanied by flu symptoms, cognitive disorders, migraine/ headache, dizziness and painful muscles, is it any wonder settling down to meditate can be so hard?

“My body was like a broken machine”

Learning to meditate can be a huge challenge for those recently diagnosed. These people are only beginning to come to terms with a life dominated by disorientating symptoms and extreme discomfort. Joanne, now almost recovered, remembers: “I knew meditation was what I needed. But whilst I desperately wanted to get new skills to relax, after overwork and stress had contributed to my condition in the first place, I had a sense that my inability to slow down my body’s processes was innate - out of my conscious control. It was so frustrating!” She adds, ‘my body was like a broken machine, my nervous system on overdrive, and I had no control over it. But I consoled myself I had to just go slowly and I wasn’t managing to relax for medical reasons - it wasn’t my own lack of motivation or effort, and I had to be patient.”

Learning to meditate can be a huge challenge for those recently diagnosed. These people are only beginning to come to terms with a life dominated by disorientating symptoms and extreme discomfort. Joanne, now almost recovered, remembers: “I knew meditation was what I needed. But whilst I desperately wanted to get new skills to relax, after overwork and stress had contributed to my condition in the first place, I had a sense that my inability to slow down my body’s processes was innate - out of my conscious control. It was so frustrating!” She adds, ‘my body was like a broken machine, my nervous system on overdrive, and I had no control over it. But I consoled myself I had to just go slowly and I wasn’t managing to relax for medical reasons - it wasn’t my own lack of motivation or effort, and I had to be patient.”

Dr David Mason Brown, an ME specialist and recovered sufferer with many years' experience of using meditation with patients as well as in his own recovery (see his website), clarified many of the problems ME sufferers contacting us described, when overwhelming physical symptoms seem to militate against meditation practice.

and the fight-flight response

Mason Brown pinpoints a factor linking fatigue related illness and the stress response, which explains why ME patients can incur relapse after over-exertion and experience involuntary ‘nervous’ reactions to minor stimuli. He explains that when an ME/CFS sufferer is ‘decompensated’, their body is forced to resort to the fight-flight response to carry on when rest is what is needed. "When a person ‘compensates’, they are able to keep going even when they are not feeling well; decompensating happens where a person's compensating abilities have become exhausted and they are suddenly no longer able to compensate". This is why patients may feel as though their system is getting more 'stressed' the more ill/exhausted they are, yet the reaction does not reflect their conscious emotional state. The fight-flight response, an 'emergency' stress reaction, is last thing we need. It not only stimulates an already over stressed autonomic nervous system, but reflects the fact we are doing more than our finite energy levels will allow at this time. So it becomes clear why meditation can play a vital role in symptom management and recovery. By becoming aware of sensations in the body, we notice signs that our energy bank is running low. Through trial and error, we slowly learn to pace activity with rest to maximise the limited energy we have at our disposal - and avoid unnecessarily triggering the stress response.

Obstacle no. 2: Brain fog

"The aim is to be in the healing Alpha state as much as possible", says Mason Brown. But although he recommends meditation to his patients, he admits to the paradox: "ME sufferers often can’t meditate. The difficulty in ME is our brain fog".

Here is the difficulty. What is needed in meditation is concentration. Stillpoint member Maggie complained, “I know we aren’t supposed to be ‘trying’ to do anything when we meditate, but I have found with a fogged mind even the mental 'letting go' does take energy -mental energy.” It’s difficult if not impossible to 'watch the thoughts' as one is meant to do when lacking any control over concentration, and the mind feels like cotton wool.

Mason Brown uses different analogies to explain the cognitive problems facing those meditating with ME. It’s "as if [ME sufferers] have decreased power to the computer, so that the software will just not run properly," his web site says. In a talk given to Edinburgh MESH for whom he is medical advisor, he compared the ME brain trying to meditate to an aircraft trying unsuccessfully to take off without the engine working. In other words, the mental focus has to be sustained to remain in the Alpha state or 'hold' the experience. But he adds, "even with brain fog, there are simplified [meditation] techniques we can use. It is finding what each person can do and not do." A long-term practitioner himself now, he says, "I can usually clear my occasional brain fog within an hour."

Problems with meditation - Members Experiences

Vanessa is glad "to have contact with others who seem to be struggling like I am with meditation and the quest for stillness", adding, "I suspect that those of us with neurotically busy minds are the sort who are prone to getting ME in the first place and then we know a quiet mind is exactly what we need but find it so hard to achieve. Except that meditation isn't meant to be about achieving anything - so that's difficult too!"

Many members mention that their problems meditating seem directly related to their illness. Jane recalled that "during the extremes of the ME although focused meditation was difficult, I used it more as a means of calming myself and relaxing."

We all know the problems of a 'busy' mind, but comparing the experience of this as a healthy person to having ME, I feel it's on a different scale, and harder to control. This overstimulated, 'nervy' feeling can dominate our quest for stillness. For other sufferers, or at other times, it can be the opposite: sleepiness and brain fog takes over.

Margaret, who is severely affected, laments, "I find it so hard to hold my attention on anything, and it's worse now than ever, but I persevere... meditation has never been easy and latterly even harder with so little mental energy and attention."

Rosie's problem seems to have a related problem, alternating from over-stimulated to sleepy, making it impossible to 'hold' the focus needed: "my approach is to try and find stillness," but she adds, "weirdly, I find this quite exhausting, and also if I'm already feeling very ill I can't relax, or if I do I fall asleep!"

::next: Meditation and ME... some solutions (maybe)

3: Meditation and ME... some solutions (maybe)

by Joelle Marlow

ME/CFS patients face two significant obstacles to meditation practice: a dysfunctional autonomic nervous system leading to frequent triggering of the fight flight response, and ‘brain fog’.

These barriers can seem especially disheartening to beginners who are learning, but they don’t mean we should stop trying. However, forcing oneself, feeling like a failure and getting more anxious as a result (all common experiences among our members) are clearly not helpful approaches either! Let’s look at constructive methods of working with the mind-body landscape ME creates: treatment (this page), meditation as a healing attitude, and aids to concentration.

Treatment

There are many views and much controversy surrounding ME/CFS and its treatment and plenty of other web sites addressing this area. Here, we will briefly summarise some mind-body approaches that some of our members found helpful.

Treat the brain circulation and brain nutrition

Dr David Mason Brown advises that first and foremost "the brain circulation has to be treated. The priority is correcting the brain and pituitary circulation. It is like coming out of hibernation. Once the brain circulation is working again, then the meditation and other skills start to return." For this, the drug Nimodipine is used. (As this product is not licensed for ME/CFS on the NHS it can be difficult to obtain via your GP.) For ME, doses can be as small as an eighth of a tablet - a fraction of the usual dose for other conditions. Another part of the treatment is the herbal product Gingko to improve brain circulation. He warns against using large doses of this herbal product. A final, vital component in the process of improving mental clarity "is the brain nutrition and the removal of pollutants, both environmental and internal (neurotoxins).” Products used for this include the amino acid supplement l-Glutamine and Prime Directive, a prebiotic superfood.