Why incorporate integrated (applied) psychophysiology into traditional medicine when it concerns lifestyle related diseases and mental problems?
Evolution of life and its consequences today for human lifestyle medicine.
Although definition of life is complex here we refer life preferably to reproduction, growth, metabolism and energy as well as information transformation.
Information how life constructs, and evolve is decisively based on gene blueprint information. Its construction carry needed information. As adaption refers to more effective development of the organism flexibility more and more becomes a decisive part of the evolution. Blueprint becomes more and more flexible and move towards abstraction of information transmission. Gene-expressions becomes a more and more flexible transformation within and between individuals, situations and time. Still there is a composite of information construction and abstraction and our brain is still based on c 450 billion development, where reptilian and mammalian brain play a decisive part in biopsychosocial stress- or lifestyle medicine.
Back to start early again; anabolic (recovery, building up) and catabolic processes are basic dynamics enabling survival and development of all organisms. Here is dynamics of habituation and dishabituation (as well as orienting response) critical for anabolic and catabolic functioning – survival as well as health. This is equally critical for man as for “simple” (but complex) organisms even if our biological medical development had and is doing progresses.
In man we call the above dynamics passive (and active) relation, where biologically correct passive relaxation is the state where we habituate and in a anabolic state. Catabolic state refers to biopsychosocial activities including mobilization for real or anticipated treat against survival (Lazarus, 1966, Zajonc, 19??), the latter called strain or stress (Seyle, 19??). If we cannot cope effectively with stress, then stress related (mental) problems and diseases emerge. This is also called lifestyle related diseases, that is, we do not life (behaviorally) our life in accordance with our evolutionary prerequisites.
Thus, stress is mostly defined in terms of (short- and log-termed – automatic) strain our biopsychosocial systems cannot cope effectively well with and dynamics of anabolic and catabolic processes/behaviors are out-of-order. Normally this is solved while either we find ways to survive the tiger attack or not. If stress reactions continue without a functional solution, the tiger is an anticipated abstraction of real emergency threat, then chronic stress develops.
Stress, especially chronic stress, concerns systems integration of complex interactions of biopsychosocial factors/event/behaviors/processes where (preferably) Autonomic Nervous Systems (ANS), sympathetic adrenal medullary (SAM) and Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal systems as well as basic cell-metabolism constitute a platform for stress related dynamic functions.
Now to the good news: As ANS is basically critical to all the above systems and partly measureable with psychophysiological technology and methods its incorporation into a sound biopsychosocial stress (lifestyle) medicine is needed.