Mind over matter

I just viewed on CNN TV an interview between Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Deepak Chopra where Dr. Gupta reiterated his usual view of the mind's control over bodily functions, such as blood pressure.

In my earlier blogs I have discussed that  during embryology, the neural crest cells migrate from the embryonic brain and neural tube areas to extraneous regions of the body forming structures like the adrenal medulla (located on top of the kidney), the iris, melanocytes (check Wikipedia for other examples). In the case of the adrenal medulla, these embryonic cells have lost nerve connections or nerve fibres but can secrete under brain control noradrenalin and epinephrine (their neuro-endocrine hormones) directly into the blood stream to exercise their control.

Fundamentally I agree the adrenal gland can exercise control - but this is what we expect of the brain. Incidentally, as mentioned in this case of the adrenal gland, this function is performed without the requirement of connecting nerve fibers. I believe it is this phenomenon - i.e. the absence of nerve fibers connections - which camouflages that the brain is really exercising this control.

Our two medical TV celebrities mentioned above, should not be surprised of the so called mind over body control. It seems to me that the brain is just performing its normal control over such bodily functions using these embryonic cells which have migrated to specific cites outside the original neural crest sites. Dr. Chopra, may wish to detail this embryonic feature and discuss its possible role in mind over matter control as I have postulated.