When we have been sitting or lying for a long time we can suffer from orthostatic hypotension due to an insufficient operation of the sympathetic nerves.

When we are lying down, the blood pressure in our arteries is pretty much equal throughout the body. When we stand up, the blood pressure is affected by the gravity and increases in the vessels under the heart, while decreasing in the brain. If we lie down again, the blood pressure in the arteries balances once again. If these changes cannot be naturally controlled, then we may suffer an increase or decrease in blood pressure, which could result in a fatal injury.

There are baroreceptors in the walls of main arteries whose tasks are to measure constantly the blood pressure and to send data (electrical signals) to the brain, informing it about the blood pressure in the body. These baroreceptors are located in the aorta as it leaves the heart and in the carotid artery as it enters the brain. With the onset of hypertension, the frequency of the signals that are sent to the brain increases and this drops in case of hypotension. The center of vessel movement in the brain, with regard to the frequency of electrical signals it receives, perceives a low or high blood pressure.

In the brain is a vasomotor center; this continuously controls the blood pressure and regulates it. This center constantly receives data about blood pressure. If the pressure decreases, the signals of the sympathetic nerve increase. If the pressure increases, the signals to the parasympathetic nerves are suppressed. As a result of sympathetic irritability, the heart begins to beat faster and stronger. It pumps much more blood in a unit of time, and thus the blood pressure increases. The arteries and veins also constrict and owing to this constriction in the arteries, the blood pressure increases further. As a consequence of constriction in the veins, the extra blood that is stored inside the veins is pumped into the heart. Now, as the heart is receiving greater volumes of blood, it works faster and contributes to the increase in the pressure. In the meantime, as a result of the suppression of parasympathetic nerve signals, the heart contracts faster and stronger, thus pumping much more blood.

As the blood pressure rises, the mechanism which is in charge of reducing the pressure via vasomotor center is triggered. While pressure is applied to the sympathetic nerves, the signals that are being sent to the heart and vessels decrease. Thus, the rate of systole and the amount of blood which is being pumped decreases. As the arteries receive less blood the volume of blood in the system falls off and as the arteries and veins expand, the blood pressure falls. Due to the dilatation in the veins, the volume of blood which is sent to the heart also decreases and as a result the heart pumps less blood and the blood pressure drops.

However, by triggering the parasympathetic nerves, the signals that are sent to the heart increase. This helps to slow the heart down and ensures that there is less blood pumping through the system. As a result, the blood pressure which has been reduced via the sympathetic system is reduced even further with the parasympathetic system. At this point, it is necessary for there to be a rapid drop in blood pressure, which is provided by the simultaneous functioning of different mechanisms.

We cannot control this system and it acts extremely rapidly and with great elegance. Even in the systole period, when the heart is pumping the blood and there is a short and sudden increase in pressure and in the diastole period, when the heart relaxes and there is a short and sudden decrease in pressure, the system is in charge and functioning at every second, operating to increase the hypotension and to decrease the hypertension. The average healthy human heart beats 70 times per minute. Consequently, there are 70 systole and 70 diastole stages every minute; thus a normal balance can be maintained by decreasing the pressure, which increases 70 times every minute, and by increasing the pressure, which decreases 70 times every minute; this is how the body maintains a normal balance. In other words, this system functions 140 times every minute. Is it possible that this system, which operates throughout our life, a system that we are not aware of, a system that is so sensitive and vital to our lives, a system the details of which have only recently been understood after centuries of observation could be nothing more than a coincidence?

The pressure regulating system mentioned above carries out other important tasks while we are sitting and standing as well. The amount of blood going to the brain is related to the maintenance of a difference in blood pressure between the arteries and veins and to the recirculation of blood. In connection with hypotension, the pressure in the veins to the brain decreases, in order to partially compensate for the decrease in the arteries. By preventing a decrease in the difference of pressure (perfusion pressure) between the two systems, the continuity of blood going to the brain can be maintained.

In addition, a small decrease in the blood going to the brain can lead to an increase in acidity and carbondioxide in the brain tissues and to a decrease in oxygen; this results in the dilatation of the blood vessels in the brain. When these systems go into action anyone who is not suffering from orthostatic hypotension will have a stable amount of oxygen consumption in the brain when they stand up, and thus not experience dizziness.

In fact, scenes from karate movies are wonderful displays of the perfect functioning of this system. In such scenes, the fighter will jump up, and then suddenly fall to the ground; he will then suddenly spring up and performs different moves. Certainly with every movement, the blood pressure changes suddenly, but as a sign of the Creator’s mercy and grace, the body is able to maintain a balance. Should not the person watching these scenes stand in amazement, thinking: “Oh my God, what an incredible order! How great is Your knowledge, power, wisdom and art!”

As mentioned at the beginning of the article with reference to an actual sad incident, when a person whose sympathetic system is not functioning normally suddenly stands up, they can suffer from dizziness and perhaps even faint due to irregular blood pressure.

For patients suffering from orthostatic hypotension patients, it is important that they do not stand up rapidly. In addition, exercises that encourage the use of leg muscles before standing up will help pump blood towards the brain.

Pause for a minute… What would happen if this miraculous system did not exist? Consider how much time it would take you to merely get out of bed every day!

We invite you to embark on a journey with us to explore some fascinating perspectives that shed a light on our relationship with sound and music.

Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, the Founder and Director of the Center for Neuroacoustic Research in California (www.neuroacoustic.com), is recognized as a worldwide expert in the field of acoustic pacing frequencies that are incorporated into musical sound tracks. A consummate musician and composer in his own right, he has established a method for using modulated sound-pulses that change states of consciousness for optimal “Mind-Body” healing. Dr. Thompson believes that the sounds in nature resonate with us because they take us back to the beginning of our journey and our primary senses.

Matter&Beyond: Why are sound and music so central for us, both culturally and personally?

I don’t think I’ve found a single culture on earth which at some point hasn’t used sound as a prominent technique in healing, in religious rites, or as a means of attaining a change of consciousness in one way or another. I think the tradition probably dates back to the first use of sound as a soothing or healing means for mothers; that is lullabies for babies.

M&B: Is this our earliest experience with sound? Is this what you call primordial sounds?

If you go back to before the lullabies, we’re talking about womb experiences and it’s one of the primal things we all share; this is what I call primordial sounds. Certain type of sounds have the same influence on anyone who hears it, no matter what age you are, what sex you are, what culture you were brought up in, what language you speak; womb sounds fit that criteria.

M&B: Why is it sound, but not the vision?

Because at 16 weeks, when the fetus is very small, the nervous system is developed enough that all the senses are functioning; however it is dark, so the eyes aren’t working, no information is being received and the nose and the mouth are filled with fluids, so there is no tasting or smelling, but sound travels through water five times better than it does through air; therefore the ears are working but amplified by five times, and the largest sense organ we have, the skin, is a huge sense organ for vibrations. Thus, we’re experiencing vibration and sound for nine months in the womb and that sound environment is a very specific type of environment; the amniotic fluid sounds, the watery bubbly sounds, the mother’s heartbeat through the placental artery, respiratory sounds from the diaphragm, noises of the internal organ; it’s a rich complex, three-dimensional sound environment that is exactly the same for everyone of us; we all experienced this in the same way.

M&B: How does the fetus perceive this sound?

Remember the fetus is small and the ear is small; the eardrum is extremely small. If the eardrum was blown up to the size of my eardrum and the mother’s heart was blown up in proportion it would fill this room. So what kind of sound would such a heart make? It wouldn’t be the sound that you would expect it to be listening to the adult’s heart with a stethoscope from the outside; it would be a very large, slow sound, a large thumping sound.

M&B: How is this related to the use of sound in therapy or for relaxation?

Most of us who have gone on vacations and have explored nature feel a peaceful, beautiful return to nature; why?

Because if you take the sounds of the amniotic fluid and you slow those sounds down, they sound a lot like the ocean. The size of the sound waves compared to the eardrum would make these watery sounds sound like they have also slowed down. So many of the watery sounds in the womb sound like other sounds that we can hear later in nature. This can spark a similar kind of primordial recognition which is beyond the control of the rational thinking mind.

So when we build up these kinds of sounds on a soundtrack you can then push the button and the body will automatically go back to what it felt like to have a natural experience; when we combine the sounds of nature with music this makes a relaxation tape. So I would say that the sounds of nature provide secondary primordial sounds, as not all of us would have heard the same natural sounds in our lives.

The idea is to extend the power of the primordial recognizable components of sound in order to create a physical response. The technique is to connect with a primal recognition at a subconscious level; this will tap into experiences that you have had in the womb and at other times.

M&B: You not only use sound for relaxation, but also in order to combat stress. Could you please talk about this?

When a person has a fight-or-flight response, a stress response, we know very precisely what happens physiologically. The very first thing, the most sensitive organ, to respond to stress is the heart and thus when we look at the heart waves we can gain important information.

M&B: Why the heart and not the brain?

The reason for this is that the heart is the perfect system in the nervous system; it is called the autonomic nervous system or the automatic functioning nervous system; it knows how to organize and control my organs and glands and body chemistry and perform biomechanics that I’m not aware of and can’t control.

My rational-thinking brain can control physical body movements and thinking processes, but there’s another section that controls the automatic functioning of how my body runs. There is another control of this autonomic nervous system, which has two large branches of nerves that innervate all the organs and glands; these two branches of the nerves are the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system.

While the sympathetic nervous system switches on, the parasympathetic switches off and mobilizes energy from the higher brain centers, from my digestive system, from my elimination system and from my immune system, it pulls that energy into my muscles to fight for my life.

This is when the brain freezes when you take an exam. You’re frightened about the exam; it is your final exam and you’re frightened that you’re not going to pass it or that you’re not going to do well. That fright causes the sympathetic system to switch on and drain the energy out of your brain; this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You don’t have a brain left, because all the energy has gone to your muscles. At the moment the sympathetic system switches on, it mobilizes the pituitary which signals the adrenal glands; these fires adrenaline, the adrenaline starts the heart and the respiration and a number of other things. At the same time it suppresses the pancreas and lets loose extra glucose so you can fight for your life more and so what you end up with is the very first thing that happens.

M&B: What is the normal stress response and how do we return to a normal state?

When a person is required to carry out special tasks, like running or fighting for one’s life, then the sympathetic nervous system has to switch on, mobilize the energy from various places and send it to my muscles. If I am injured, but I survive and win, then the parasympathetic system is going to switch on and build up; that energy will be sent to my immune system, healing centers and recuperation areas for my muscles; when this is finished these are basically switched off, because we don’t need this energy anymore. This is certainly the normal way of functioning.

Thus, there are certain normal ways in which the body should function when a person is okay and normal. When the patient comes in and lies down on their back we hook them up and look at what’s happening in the autonomic nervous system. Normally when you lay down for three to five minutes your system should relax. Gravity isn’t affecting you, your heart doesn’t have to do extra work to pump the blood up to your brain; as a result the muscles relax and the sympathetic system and parasympathetic nervous systems should be at a level playing field. Now they can conserve their energy and this state of balance in the autonomic nervous system is known as homeostasis. The best state of health you can have is in homeostasis, where you’re not using energy in an unnecessary way. Homeo means unity, one, within my body, while stasis is a perfect state of rest.

M&B: What are the results of your studies to date? How many of us return back to homeostasis in three to five minutes?

Clinically what I see is maybe two patients with a normal response; I’ve been checking every patient with the real time heart rate variability system now for 7 years. This means thousands of patients; in all of that time I have seen one, maybe two patients with a normal response. I hook the patient up, and see what the response is. Most people’s response is abnormal; what this abnormality says is that after five minutes they have not attained a balance, and they have a good strong, healthy, dominant sympathetic stress response which never stops.

M&B: What do you think is the reason for this?

This state is constant because of the artificial, extremely stressful world that we have artificially created for ourselves. It wasn’t supposed to be like this; you are supposed to wake up in the morning and grab your spear and go catch a rabbit and that’s your workday; when you get there and you see that rabbit the sympathetic system turns on and the heart rates increase, the same thing happens with the rabbit, and it’s all going to be over in a couple of minutes. You’re going to catch the rabbit or he’s going to get away and then everything goes back, the clutch pushes in. Let’s say you get the rabbit, and the clutch pushes in; everything is fine and you are going to go home. Now you hear a growl behind you and there’s a saber tooth tiger looking at you, thinking about dinner; now the sympathetic system switches on, the heart rate is up, and you are running and he is running. It is all going to be over in a couple of minutes and either you are going to get away or you’re not.

But what I’m talking about here is that the nervous system, at its core, and its stress response are both designed for a sprint and not a marathon; but what we have had in the twenty-first century and throughout the twentieth century is a marathon of stress; but these are the kind of stresses that we can’t see, i.e. invisible stresses. They’re electromagnetic frequencies; the walls in this room, television channel frequencies, military frequencies, microwave frequencies, air pollution, food pollution and traffic jams when going to work to a job that doesn’t pay enough money for a boss who has the emotional development of a three-year old are all problems for us. The stress goes and then it’s back again; it’s time to get dinner for the kids and watching 7:00 news. This doesn’t stop; the nervous system’s solution to surviving this is to invent a mechanism of merely stepping on the gas, switching on the emergency sympathetic system on and bulldozing your way through the stress for the rest of your life with great momentum; but at nighttime, when it’s time to go to bed the nervous system doesn’t want to let go of this momentum that it has built up to get through the day.

M&B: And this has devastating effects on our health?

You can’t keep running in high gear for the rest of your life without some horrible consequences; the body’s not designed for it. You can only do this for a few decades before your heart or your brain blows up, the two biggest killers in Western society are heart attacks and strokes – there is also high blood pressure and diabetes. But what can we expect if our sympathetic nervous system is all the time working, which means by definition that our heart pressure is up and the pancreas is suppressed, so there is extra glucose being sent out? So people who don’t have the constitution to handle the stress blow a fuse; they have no way to handle the stress and as a result they have immune system problems, digestive problems, and problems that come from that colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune diseases, allergies.

M&B: You are using sound in order to help people return to their normal healthy state. How does this work?

I’ve come up with a way to use sound to force the autonomic nervous system to push in the clutch, removing us from a place of high stress from which you can leave by using sound; we do this by using the heart-rate variability to see how bad the heart rate is and then explore various precisely tuned sound frequencies which will actually force the nervous system to push in the clutch. There will be a very specific tone for every person; this is like a glass vibrating if I sing the right note. An opera singer can sing the right note to make the glass vibrate. Well, now let’s imagine that your autonomic nervous system is the glass and we’re going to explore various sound frequencies that are very precisely tuned to find out which one affects your autonomic nervous system function; when we find it the response will be like pushing in the clutch and sending it into a state of relaxation. So we hit the right note and we get the response; this is what I’ve been looking for. Now we can see this phenomenon clinically. Once we’ve got the tone that’s associated with the pushing in of the clutch of the autonomic nervous system we can use that therapeutically through a specially designed sound table that I have made; this consists of low-frequency sound components which drive the low frequencies right into your cells via headphones. This relaxation mode is introduced to your nervous system over an extended period of time. We can burn this sound onto a CD and you can take it home and work with it at home on your stereo; it is like an internal training program. Every time your nervous system pushes in the clutch, the ability to push in the clutch grows, just like working a muscle in a gym.

This is a kind of high-tech stress reduction training program for the nervous system with sound. This is one of the three components I mentioned earlier; there are three parallel processes using sound for healing. This one is the idea of using the physical resonance to cause an effect on the nervous system to relax people.

M&B: This is what is called a sound table, right?

Yes, the sound table I needed had to have specific requirements, which is why I had to make my own to attain the exact clinical results I wanted. The power in the table actually delivered more power to your body than I wanted to be delivered. Therefore, I had to be able to have the sound that was coming from the table split into the right and left speakers, but none of those that were available on the market could do that. So I had to have it specially designed. As a composer, musician and audio engineer I was able to design the sounding board of that table and the transducers so that a lot of free sound could be delivered and spread out, therefore it is much more effective and delivers the sound to your body via headphones. Thus there is a lot going on in that table that you cannot see and this is what makes it work properly.

Interview conducted by Mustafa Tabanli for Ebru TV for the Emmy Award winning television series Matter and Beyond.

In a healthy body, all of the involuntarily functioning mechanisms seem to know what to do, at the right time and in the right amount. But are these systems really “autonomous,” doing what they will? Can it be coincidence that each time the perfect choice out of thousands of possibilities is made?

Regular controlling mechanisms are needed for our bodily activities to function properly. This duty has been given to the nervous system. The autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is in charge of controlling the vital functions of the body, is designed to function in an involuntary, reflexive manner. The operating systems of several machines that make our life easier are developed by being modeled on the ANS. Take an air-conditioned car with a thermostat for example. When the air is cold, a heat sensitive mechanism automatically starts and it provides the engine with more gas and it produces more energy. And when it is warm enough inside the car, this time the thermometer urges the system to reduce the gas-flow back to normal. Likewise, sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves placed in the autonomic system are given the duty of a regulator that restores the altered functioning of organs back to normal so that they do not upset the balance of our body.

If the light coming to our eyes is too bright, vision is blurred. When the retina is exposed to excessive stimuli this causes the parasympathetic nerves to send signals to the eyes to contract the pupils so that the sensitive layers of the eyes are protected and the vision is cleared. In darkness or under dim light, the sympathetic system is called to duty again and this time the pupils are enlarged. The sympathetic-parasympathetic (autonomic) nervous systems granted to human beings play a role in optimizing eyesight under differing intensities of light.

Parasympathetic nerves are created in a way to stimulate the saliva and tear glands, as well as the glands in organs like the nose, stomach, intestines, pancreas, etc. When the secretion in these glands is surplus to our requirements, the canals in connection with them are shrunk and the secretion is lessened. Without such a system, germs would boom, morsels would not soften in our mouth, food intake would not decompose in our stomachs, the gastric mucus which protects the inner stomach from acid would not be secreted, and the final stage of digestion, absorption of digested nutrition, would not happen. Likewise, if our tear glands did not function, sores would emerge on our eyes; if there were no nasal mucus, dust and germs suspending in the air would easily reach our lungs.

The physiological functioning of the lungs and their protection are also maintained through the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. When our tissues need more oxygen, the sympathetic system is activated. The air sacs are enlarged and more air is let in. If toxic gases, dust, cigarette smoke or other harmful elements enter the respiratory tract or the lungs are exposed to any destructive matter, the air sacs are narrowed by the immediate intervention of the parasympathetic system. In this way, the secretion in the air sacs increases and the harmful substance is prevented from going deeper into the lungs. Then the harmful substance is thrown out through secretion and the reflex of coughing.

When the blood pressure drops below 50mm Hg for any reason (due to hemorrhage, medication, body position, etc), the sympathetic system immediately works to send blood to the brain and the heart. As these are the most vital organs, they are given priority at receiving blood. Our blood circulation is carried out within a closed-circuit system and there is a constant amount of blood. Therefore, sending an organ more blood means lessening the blood sent to other organs. To maintain this, the sympathetic system again works to cause narrowing. When food intake reaches the stomach, the parasympathetic system is stimulated to enlarge the relative veins. More blood is pumped to the stomach.

Everything in both systems is designed to protect the organs, tissues, and systems; in other words, the entire body. When a person’s blood pressure goes up, the baro-receptors, which help regulate the pressure in the veins, are stimulated in order to ward off the danger and the narrowing effect of the sympathetic system on the veins is taken under control. In this way, the pressure applied by the blood to the walls of the veins is eliminated. During physical exercise or in a state of stress, anxiety, or worry, the tissues use more oxygen and the sympathetic alarm is switched on.

Blood is pumped faster to meet the need of the tissues. During sleep, the body needs less energy and the metabolism is slow. Therefore, a slower heartbeat is required. During a time of distress or fear, the sympathetic stimulators are under pressure due to hyperventilation. Then the parasympathetic system is put into service and the heartbeat and the blood flow to tissues slow down.

Sphincters are ring shaped muscles that maintain the constriction of a body passage or orifice. With sympathetic signals they constrict and block the passage, and the parasympathetic signals ease them to open the way. If it weren’t for the sympathetic system, the urine produced in the kidneys would not be under control and we would wet our trousers. However, what happens in practice is that when the kidneys produce a certain amount of urine, two sphincters controlled by the sympathetic system contract and they prevent an untimely emptying of the bladder.

Similarly, there are sphincters in the gastro-intestinal tract. If the sympathetic system had not been given the duty of controlling them, the food we eat would not stay with us until it was absorbed and it would be disposed of immediately. On the other hand, the malfunctioning of the parasympathetic system would cause obstructions and we would suffer greatly. Take the parasympathetic system working in our urinary tract for instance. It works without our control and if it did not work, the urine collected in the bladder would press back on the kidneys and cripple them.

In some functions, like the breaking down of fats, ejaculation, increase in brain activity, or the contraction of skeletal muscles, the parasympathetic system is not involved. Since its involvement might harm the body, it is not given a duty here, and the sympathetic system on its own suffices.

There are several other functions carried out by the autonomous nervous system. It works without our will or conscious control. As humans we tend to claim: “I did this, I did that.” When you eat something, your conscious control is limited to chewing the food and swallowing it. We cannot tell our stomach to digest or not to digest the food. In a healthy body, all of the involuntarily functioning mechanisms seem to know what to do, at the right time and in the right amount. But are these systems really “autonomous,” doing what they will? Can it be coincidence that each time the perfect choice out of thousands of possibilities is made? Is it at all possible for these fascinating systems to be a just a work of random causes?