If I asked you to point to where your mind is located in your body, I suspect most westerners would point to their head. However, on Sunday, when I attended a meditation class at our local Thai Buddhist Dhammapadipa Temple, I learned that when monks mention the mind, they point to the left side of their chest… ie their heart!
I was fascinated by this concept and it occurred to me that we have so many expressions in our language describing our emotions, that actually mention our heart eg “broken hearted,” or “listen to your heart.”
Two days later (Tuesday), in a completely unexpected turn of events, I had a call with an innovative organisation who have developed a device capable of detailed analysis of the microvasculature surrounding the heart and the conversation quickly turned to diagnostics for mental distress disorders.
Is modern western science finally catching up with ancient wisdom? What is the connection between the heart and the brain.
In fact it seems neuro-cardiological link is well recognised by cardiologists. Of course we all know that chronic stress has a detrimental effect on our cardiovascular system, it’s one of the major risk factors for heart attack. But did you also know that the heart acts almost like a second brain (or 3rd if you take the gut into account) in that it is an endocrine organ which secrets neurotrasmitting hormones noradrenaline, dopamine and even oxytocin1?
One of the significant challenges in neurological and psychiatric studies, is qualifying objectives measures and reliable diagnostics. What if we could use imaging of the microvasculature for this purpose? Why not ask us how we can include these objective measurements in your clinical trial design.
We call emotions “feelings” because we physically FEEL them in our body and so often we feel them in the region of our heart that I can’t help thinking those monks are onto something…
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that I wanted the Caritas Neuro Solutions logo to represent both a heart and neurons!
1 Gutkowska J, Jankowski M, Mukaddam-Daher S, McCann SM. Oxytocin is a cardiovascular hormone. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2000 Jun;33(6):625-33. doi: 10.1590/s0100-879×2000000600003. PMID: 10829090.