Thanks for the reply.
I would just like to add that I am a practitioner of a breathing techniquecalled the Buteykop Method. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buteyko_methodThis encourages people to basically condition their mind/nervous system so thatit is finer tuned to shallow breathing patterns. What is also does is allow youto overcome emotional stress or anxiety. For example a particular thought orimage in your mind will bring on a 'urge' or nervous response for you to breathmore heavily. Thus the fight or flight response as you have interpreted danger..forcing your breathing to remain in a shallow pattern therefore becomesdifficult and challenging. This in affect is an exercise whereby you becomestronger in mind/nervous control and breathing just like a bodybuilder wouldwhen lifter heavy weights. The keyword is conditioning.
So what has this got to do with the immune system? Well as you pointed out theyare all interconnected and which I well agree upon and understand to somedegree. The usage of mental imagery as I have mentioned can bring on a degreeof 'nervousness' or low scale flight or fight response. For most people thesereactions go unrecognised by the 'conscious' mind but in truth their body'sreaction is to inhale more air and therefore suppress the 'nervousness' byallowing greater intake of oxygen for the body to absorb.
Meditation as you have pointed out allows the practitioner to develop a greaterrelationship with their mind, in affect it teaches people to more easilyrecognise their mental behaviour/mood swings etc and therefore deal with it.Likewise when using the Buteykop Breathing Method one learns to finddistressing thoughts or memories in their mind and through forced effort can 'reprogramme' as if it were their mind/nervous system response. Thatis to say these people can achieve emotional stability in highly stressfulsituations.
This breathing technique also conditions your body to go without oxegen moreoften than used to, therefore becoming more tolerant to carbon dioxide buildupthroughout your body. Obviously not to the extreme where it becomes life threateningbut to the point where it becomes a little uncomfortable. This in affect asresearched by Dr Buteykop allows the body to increase its absorbtion rate ofoxegen and therefore provide greater maintenance of cells. Hence its claims forenhancing the immune system.
In short the Buteykop Method achieves to some degree the same results for thecardio vascular system as anaerobic/aerobic exercises would but without theintense physical strain on the body.
So back to the original question of external stimuli affects on the immunesystem. Again the case of imagery and the role it may have on the subconsciousmind. It has yet to be determined whether or not this 'weird feeling' as wecall it has anything to do with the immune system (or as we know it anyway) butnone the less it is a nervous reaction. Obviously a virus comes to be known tothe body through actual physical interaction and therefore the immune systemcan work about analysing as if it were the chemical composition of the virus.On the quantum scale of things a photon from just a picture of the virus would hardlyconvey the required information for the immune system.
However we have yet to realise just how much the emotional and even 'spiritual'well being of a person can affect on the efficiency of the immune system.Immune efficiency is perhaps the cure of all cures. Everyday hundred of virusesand bacteria enter the body but are outdone by the anti biotic good guys as mymother used to call them. In the case of a HIV sufferer, his immunity isclose to zero in respect to his blood T-cell count and therefore suspect tonearly everything and everything.
SO perhaps conditioning your mind to deal with gross imagery and stressfulsituations and what not could be a working towards improved health and a morerelaxed enjoyable life. the pursuit of all science I should add.
Look forward to reading your comments.
