Communicative Disease
By: Olive Polson
BUS 268: Organizational Behavior
Instructor: Cheryl Meheden
Lethbridge College
Abstract
Communicative Disease is defined as, “The absence of heartfelt
communication in human relationships leading to loneliness and social
isolation.”
James J. Lynch labelled the name, “Communicative Disease,” after many years
of research. He discovered that communication and touch were directly linked to the
disease.
There have been many studies done on the importance of communication and
touch. This report will describe the studies and results that James Lynch had
discovered.
It was totally shocking to discover how just a little touch, kind word, praise, and
love can turn a human person around. How with just those elements you can live
longer, happier, and healthier lives.
Communicative Disease
James J. Lynch, Ph.D., a psychologist, researcher, and author
Communicative Disease, “is the absence of heartfelt communication in
human relationships which leads to loneliness and social isolation,” and was
labelled by James J. Lynch.
James has written several books on Communicative Disease, “A Cry Unheard”:
New Insights into the Medical Consequences of Loneliness (2000), “The Broken Heart”:
The Medical Consequences of Loneliness (1976), “The Language of the Heart”: The
Human Body in Dialogue (1985), and “Speaking of Love”: What does it Mean to say I
Love You.
James has also authored fifteen chapters in medical textbooks and over 100
articles in peer reviewed medical journals. James also maintains a Web site called,
“www.lifecarehealth.com”
James J. Lynch has worked in this field since 1965 as a post-doc student at
Johns Hopkins Medical School under W. Horsley Gantt, M.D. They were trying to
create hypertension in animals to develop drugs to control high blood pressure in
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humans. Coincidently they observed the impact that humans had on these animals
cardiovascular health. Dr. Lynch and Dr. Gantt discovered by just merely petting a dog,
the dogs blood pressure would drop by 50%.
After the experiment with the dogs, James became a professor at the
Maryland Medical School. This is when he asked the question, “If human beings can
affect the hearts of animals, can we affect other human being’s hearts in a similar
way?”
James started to monitor patients around the clock. James would ask families of
his patients to just sit by their bedside and watch while nurses simply took a patients
pulse to see what their responses were. James studied patients in trauma units when
they were in a coma and couldn’t move a muscle. James was totally fascinated and
amazed at how they would respond to simply holding their hand. There is an immediate
heart rate reaction to the human touch. When patience’s are in a coma’s, people are
under the assumption that they do not even know you are here and cannot hear you.
That’s is a totally wrong diagnosis. Holding their hand and speaking to them is the best
medicine in the world and could speed up their recovery.
After observing these patients James wondered what would happen with the
long-term absence of human contact. What would it eventually do to your heart?
In 1970 James did a census. James discovered that single people, whether
never married, widowed or divorced, had a 2-10 times higher death rate than married
people. This study was done on all ages, races, and both sexes.
People know that loneliness has something to do with their health, but how does
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it go from loneliness to hypertension, stroke or cancer? What are the mechanisms?
James went on to experimenting with people by putting automatic blood pressure
machines on them and monitoring their blood pressures to see how they would respond
by simply talking to them.
James found that there was a direct link between talking and your blood
pressure. The first study was discovered that the higher a person’s baseline blood
pressure was, the more it rose when they spoke. Hypertensive individuals increased
their blood pressure significantly more than normotensive individuals and no amount of
medications seemed to be able to block this reaction. People who speak rapidly and
breathlessly increase their blood pressure more than those who spoke slowly. Blood
pressure rises when you speak to others, yet falls below baseline levels whenever you
listen to others.
With the exception of people with schizophrenia, everyone’s blood pressure rises
when speaking. Did you know that when a baby cries, their blood pressure doubles?
There is a linear equation across time that the older you are, the more your blood
pressure goes up when you speak.
James continued his research by following a large group of his heart patients for
several years. The heart patients who had pets had a far better chance of living longer
than those who did not have pets. Statistics showed that 78 of the 92 patients that he
followed lived for at least one year longer. Out of the total group of patients, 58% had
one or more pets, while 42% did not have any pets. One year later, after their release
from the hospital, 28 of the patients without pets were still alive and 11 had died. Of
those with pets, 50 were still alive and only three had died. Four times more patients
without pets had died within the first year.
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Another phenomenal discovery was when children read books aloud in school or
at home that their blood pressure would go up. From this observation, James decided
to introduce a dog into a school program and observe what this effect would be on the
children. The results were quite surprising. The presences of the pet dog resulted in
lower blood pressure, both when the children were quiet as well as when they read
book aloud.
James discovered there were two physiologies: a hydraulic machine physiology
and a communicative physiology and had to pay special attention to the specific
communicative needs of people if health was to be restored.
At first,it looked like a paradox that loneliness kills, but when you talked to them
their blood pressure would go up. James discovered that the people with the largest
blood pressure rise when spoken to tend to withdraw from contact with people because
of stress.
Recent medical and scientific research discovered that from your childhood such
thing as: school failure, divorce, and what is termed as “toxic talk” by adults, which is
the use of hurt, control, and manipulate rather than to reach out and listen, contribute to
an unbearable type of loneliness that, in the end, breaks our hearts ten to forty years
down the road.
James spent ten years in the eighties observing the epidemiological extent of the
phenomenon. James began to see that communication had a lot to do with regulation
of the cardiovascular system. There was a huge surge in blood pressure when people
would try to talk about emotionally provocative topics. This lead James to understand
that over time emotional catharsis-ort of “vomiting up” your feelings can actually cause
damage.
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When James was asked, “What’s the best thing person can do to deter
communicative disease?” James answer was very heart sent. James reply was,
“We are our brother’s keepers, so the best thing you can do is try to love and
your words are the only place that love resides.”
The medical toll is made heavier by powerful social forces-school failure, family
and communal disintegration, divorce, the loss of loved ones. While loneliness is the
lack of human companionship, the absence of face-to-face dialogue, and the
disembodiment of human dialogue, have all been linked to virtually every major disease
such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, tuberculosis, mental illness, but is linked
particularly in the cases of heart disease, which is the nation’s number one killer.
Every year millions die prematurely, lonely and broken hearted, no longer able to
communicate with their fellow human being. You have heard the phrase, “He died of a
broken heart,” it has been proven to be quite possible. Loneliness indeed can
contribute to an increased risk of disease and premature death.
There was a song by Elvis Presley, “I get so lonely, I could die”, maybe he was
really onto something way back then.
Communication is an important part of connecting, but not just any
communication. The way people communicate affects their health. People need to
have a positive, healthy and open communication. Be able to be a good listener as well
as showing human companion.
Those who found communicating the most difficult were also most likely to
withdraw from communication and social interactions and end up in a vicious,
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downwardly spiraling cycle of events that led to ever increasing physiological stress and
increases isolation.
People can talk their way into heart disease, but by communicating you can help
them. When you are talking to people, you are touching their hearts and people need to
pay attention to this. When you speak, your blood pressure rises and when you listen, it
falls.
A simple touch of your hand, a smile, a kind word, a hug, or just listen to what
they have to say can make the world of a difference in a person’s life.
People may also be fascinated to know that when they feel overwhelmed or
stressed out, just watching fish swimming around in a fish tank can significantly lower
your blood pressure and calm you down.
So, next time you see someone, extend your hand, smile, or just say hello, you
may be saving their lives.
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References
Bancroft Press (2010): “Health & Fitness”: An Interview with James J. Lynch: (retrieved
on web, Feb. 27, 2014: www.books.google)
Lynch, James J., Ph.D.: “Life Care Health”: (retrieved on web, Feb. 27, 2014 from
www.lifecarehealth.com)
Meadows, Charlson: “Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing”: A Personal
Interview (retrieved on web, Feb. 27, 2014 from: wwww.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu)
Pederson, Kristin, (2007): “Driven to Discover”: University of Minnesota: (retrieved on
web Feb. 27, 2014: www1.umn.edu
Rosch, Paul J., M.D., F.A.C.P: “Speaking Heart to Heart”: A Personal Interview
(retrieved on web, Feb. 27, 2014 from: www.stress.org)
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