6.6 The systems for adaptation and defence shake hands.

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The lymphoid and the neuronal systems are neighbours in the time-window. Systems with response times that are not far apart interact with each other, and we can expect them to do so. The interfacing of the lymphoid and neural systems is self-evident to any unprejudiced observer. It has been obscured by the fact that lung- and skin-specialists have been more captivated by chemistry than by behaviour science. The contingencies of behavioural and allergic symptoms has not remained unnoticed, but has only led to a host of publications explaining the phenomenon as the result of allergic encephalitis, a very clumsy hypothesis. The recent upsurge of psycho-neuro-immunology as a new discipline was as predictable as the appearance of desert flowers after a shower. Experts in this field collect evidence that learning processes in the lymphoid and neuronal systems mutually influence each other. One could hardly expect otherwise: the systems are each other's environment, and as such in the best position to develop conditioned stimuli in relation to each other. At the end of this chapter I summarise briefly and I'll add to the example of the previous paragraph another one in which mutual conditioning has led to verifiable consequences.

A baby of a few months old has been left unattended for extended periods of time. Long periods of crying without response from the environment result in apathy and a psychological crisis. The result is periods of immuno-suppression, with an increased chance of relative overstimulation by antigens with which he has not yet learned to cope. As a result the antigen is not met properly by the first line of defence (by lack of a differentiated antibody response), it penetrates into primitive defence lines and causes inflammation. Since the antigen has not been recognised and properly coped with it gives rise to inflammatory reactions on subsequent occasions. As an allergen it gives rise to a skin rash or bronchial wheezing. The distressing consequences have been described in 6.5.3. The flow of events is depicted in Maps 6.6.1 - 3. It is clear that a vicious circle can be brought into motion at any point. As it is self-perpetuating, considerable effort is needed to bring it to a stop.

7. VARIATION OF HUMAN FORM, FUNCTION AND BEHAVIOUR