Integrative Therapies

Psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology is a functional and integrated network made up of common mediators, including cytokines, neurotransmitters, and hormones. These represent the mediators of the immune system, nervous system, and endocrine system, respectively. In regulating the integration between the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems, the pineal gland plays a fundamental and irreplaceable role, capable of modulating biological life in relation to universal energy conditions.

The pineal gland in history and cultures

The pineal gland is named for its pinecone shape, a symbol present in various past cultures. The Vatican scepter is made up of a pinecone, and the same goes for the scepter of Osiris, an Egyptian symbol representing a pinecone with two intertwined snakes. In history, the ancient Egyptians represented Ra's all-seeing eye with a hieroglyph similar to the cross-section of the human brain with the pineal gland at the center. The pineal gland is venerated and represented in spiritual architectural works of the Annunaki and Buddha. Additionally, in Hindu culture, the Bindu is drawn in the part of the forehead that corresponds to the pineal gland.

The pineal gland

The pineal gland or epiphysis is a small endocrine gland located in the brain, precisely in the hypothalamus between the two hemispheres. Its dimensions are 5-8 millimeters, and it weighs about 150 milligrams. This gland is sensitive to light stimuli that are translated into hormonal messages. Despite being so small, the relative blood flow it receives is second only to that of the kidneys.

Physiology of the Epiphysis

Contrary to other endocrine glands, the epiphysis is not under the control of release or inhibition factors from the bloodstream but under that of the nervous system, in particular, its sympathetic section. It can, therefore, be considered a neuroendocrine transducer that converts nerve impulses into hormonal secretion variations. Melatonin is the hormone produced by the epiphysis during the dark period and is synthesized from two substances: tryptophan and serotonin. The latter is a neurotransmitter used in regulating body temperature, the sense of hunger/satiety, and mood, and is nicknamed the happiness hormone. Melatonin is the most important substance for regulating sleep-wake rhythm but also plays other important functions in the central nervous system and immune system.

Metodo Lissoni

According to the pioneer of PNEI in Italy, Professor Paolo Lissoni, PNEI represents the foundation of a radical cultural revolution in the medical-scientific field. Starting from a new way of holistically conceiving Biology and Medicine, PNEI extends to all human knowledge, bringing it back to its original unity. An end is put to the separation between Psychology and Medicine and progressively also to that between Philosophy and Natural Sciences. This shows how false that type of Philosophy is that would pretend to give meaning to Reality before even knowing its structure, thus coming to overturn the relationship between Philosophy and Science. Not only is the subordination of Science to Philosophy annulled, but Philosophy itself derives from Science, highlighting in particular some anthropological-psychobiological realities, which require a general rethinking in the philosophical and theological fields:

The human body taught in all Western Universities is not the real human body, but a biological body reduced to a mechanism after selectively amputating all those anatomical-functional structures that make the expression of pleasure and spiritual self-awareness possible, i.e., the pineal gland, the cannabinergic brain system, the cognitive activity of the cerebellum, the thymus gland, the cardiac psychoneuroendocrine activity, and the chemoreceptorial coccygeal gland.

All this could and should lead to a totally new way of interpreting not only the care but also the physiopathology of the main still incurable human diseases. Tumors and autoimmune diseases should be considered as consequences of an altered psychoneuroendocrine modulation, which in turn expresses the psychological and spiritual experience of the sick person, as well as the immune response. In particular, neoplastic diseases would originate from a prevalence of the opioid brain tone, linked to stress and the unconscious, over the cannabinergic tone, which mediates pleasure perception and spiritual sensitivity in the opposite direction.

Clinical trials of PNEI have allowed to evaluate cancer in terms of a pathology that involves profound imbalances at the endocrine and immune levels and in this perspective, the goal to be achieved could be to restore an anticancer immunity in the patient himself that would allow him to fight the tumor. The progression of neoplastic disease is accompanied by a series of organic alterations that ultimately affect the immune system: psycho-neuroendocrine alterations with a decrease in the production of melatonin, an increase in opioid tone, and a decrease in cannabinoid tone. The decrease in melatonin production results in the disappearance of the light and dark circadian rhythm and becomes increasingly serious with the progression of the tumor disease. Endocrine alterations are also visible: increased secretion of cortisol and disappearance of its circadian rhythm with worsening of the prognosis, increased production of prolactin, especially in metastatic breast and prostate carcinomas, with worsening of the prognosis and worsening of the response to therapies. Increase in the protein related to PTH (PTH-rP) growth factor for several tumors and associated with a worse prognosis, increase in IGF-1, also a growth factor for numerous tumors, increasing their biological aggressiveness.

Psycho-oncology has also shown that cancer patients are in a state of anhedonia, that is, the progressive loss of pleasure, to which unconscious self-punishment and lack of a psychosocial identity can be added. These factors are associated with more severe immunosuppression, which partly justifies the immunodepression of cancer patients, as it would be at least partly correlated with their psychological state. Further studies have highlighted the central role of Spirituality, which cannot only be understood as a mere psychological aspect, but as an autonomous reality that needs to be investigated with appropriate clinical procedures and tests in the oncology patient. In light of these scientific discoveries, it is necessary that the diagnosis of the oncology patient is based on the physical, psychological, and spiritual evaluation of the individual. From a biological point of view, it is important to evaluate not only the histology and extension of the tumor but also its endocrine and immune status, with simple laboratory tests that highlight: the circadian rhythm of melatonin, cortisol, determine prolactin levels, blood concentration of IL-2, IL-12, IL-6, IL-10, the total number of lymphocytes, and the helper T lymphocytes/regulatory T lymphocytes ratio. With regard to the psychological sphere, investigate the dimension of pleasure and sexuality, by performing a Rorschach test and, from a spiritual point of view, evaluate spiritual faith through an appropriate clinical test. In this perspective, the patient's therapy is also modulated, as Tumor Bioterapy aims to correct the main immunological and endocrine alterations in the cancer patient, by administering substances that can restore, first of all, their immunobiological status.

Therapy

Professor Lissoni proposes a patient-tailored treatment with anti-tumor molecules from the pineal gland. Above all, it is an economical and non-harmful biological therapy that does not suggest a replacement for classic medical treatments, nor an alternative to them, but rather an improvement in their effectiveness, a reduction in potential toxicity, and a possible solution in the face of the failure of all standard therapies. Pineal hormones control cytokines, whose production is progressively decreased with the increase of cancer. The mechanisms through which pineal hormones exert anti-tumor action are complex, but include both a direct anti-proliferative action on neoplastic cells and a stimulation of the anti-cancer immune response, stimulating lymphocytic and inhibiting chronic inflammatory immunosuppressive mediated by the macrophage system. PNEI therapy also has significant palliative effects in oncology patients and, in particular, has been proven effective in treating the following symptoms of the disease: cachexia, asthenia, depression, anorexia, thrombocytopenia, neurotoxicity, and cardiotoxicity caused by chemotherapy.