bioenergetics

1. (Bioenergetic Analysis, bioenergetic method): Offshoot of Reichian Therapy developed by psychiatrist Alexander Lowen (b. 1910), author of Language of the Body (1958). Its theory posits bioenergy (life energy), and its principle is that all bodily cells record emotional or energetic reactions.

Practionars hold that such cellular memories are adaptable to healing and consciousness-raising, and that patients can release them by crying, screaming, and kicking. Practitioners may be called bioenergeticists.

2. Science practiced by former boxing instructor Yefim Shubentsov, called The Russian and The Mad Russian. It is a treatment for phobias, addiction, bulimia, overeating, pain, migraines, and hearing deficiency. According to its theory, such problems are remediable through effects on the patient's force fields.

(See also: Bioenergetics , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Repressed Memories

A repressed memory is the memory of a traumatic event unconsciously retained in the mind, where it is said to adversely affect conscious thought, desire, and action.

It is common to consciously repress unpleasant experiences. Many psychologists believe that unconscious repression of traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse or rape is a defense mechanism which backfires. The unpleasant experience is forgotten but not forgiven. It lurks beneath consciousness and allegedly causes a myriad of psychological and physical problems from bulimia to insomnia to suicide.

The theory of unconsciously repressing the memory of traumatic experiences is controversial. There is little scientific evidence to support either the notion that traumatic experiences are typically unconsciously repressed or that unconscious memories of traumatic events are significant causal factors in physical or mental illness. Most people do not forget traumatic experiences unless they are rendered unconscious at the time of the experience.

No one has identified a single case where a specific traumatic experience in childhood was repressed and the repressed memory of the event, rather than the event itself, caused a specific psychiatric or physical disorder in adulthood. Often the memory that is recovered is false or greatly altered by the influences of the psychiatrist or hypnotist.

Most psychologists accept as fact that it is quite common to consciously repress unpleasant experiences, even sexual abuse, and to spontaneously remember such events long afterward. Most of the controversy centers around recovered memories during repressed memory therapy (RMT). Critics of RMT maintain that many therapists are not helping patients recover repressed memories, but are suggesting and planting false memories of alien abductions of alien abduction, sexual abuse, and satanic rituals.

(See also: Repressed Memories , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Prolactin has many effects, the most significant of which is to stimulate the mammary glands to produce milk (lactation). Increased serum prolactin during pregnancy causes enlargement of the mammary glands of the breasts and increases the production of milk. However, the high levels of estrogen and progesterone during pregnancy acts directly on the breasts to stop ejection of milk. It is only when the levels of these hormones fall a ...

See also:

Prolactin, Prolactin - Production of milk, Prolactin - Variance in levels, Prolactin - Diagnostic use, Prolactin - Conditions causing elevated prolactin, Prolactin - Conditions causing decreased prolactin, Prolactin - Use of breastfeeding as contraceptive

Read more here: » Prolactin: Encyclopedia II - Prolactin - Production of milk

As a contraceptive, demand breastfeeding is said to be more than 90% effective in the first month of post-partum even if no other forms of contraception are used, with decreasing effectiveness in successive months. This effect is said to be responsible for the natural spacing of children seen in countries where contraception is not widely available and is thought to be an evolutionary means of ensuring adequate care is provided to each newborn. The 90% effectiveness only applies if three criteria are met: 1. The mother has no periods at all (Amenorrhea) 2. The baby is exclusively breas ...

See also:

Prolactin, Prolactin - Production of milk, Prolactin - Variance in levels, Prolactin - Diagnostic use, Prolactin - Conditions causing elevated prolactin, Prolactin - Conditions causing decreased prolactin, Prolactin - Use of breastfeeding as contraceptive

Read more here: » Prolactin: Encyclopedia II - Prolactin - Use of breastfeeding as contraceptive

Prolactin levels may be checked as part of a sex hormone workup, as elevated prolactin levels suppress FSH and GnRH and hence lead to hypogonadism, for example causing erectile dysfunction in men. Prolactin levels may be of some use in distinguishing epileptic seizures from psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. Prolactin - Conditions causing elevated prolactin. Hyperprolactinaemia is the term given to having too-high levels of prolactin in the blood. Prolactinoma Hypothyroidism Prolactin - Conditions causing decreased prolactin. See also:

Prolactin, Prolactin - Production of milk, Prolactin - Variance in levels, Prolactin - Diagnostic use, Prolactin - Conditions causing elevated prolactin, Prolactin - Conditions causing decreased prolactin, Prolactin - Use of breastfeeding as contraceptive

Read more here: » Prolactin: Encyclopedia II - Prolactin - Diagnostic use