Ondanks dat er vrij wel geen fatsoenlijke studies gedaan worden naar de belangrijkheid van ons vegetatieve zenuwstelsel tegenwoordig, kunnen we in de oudere bronnen duidelijke aanwijzingen vinden, hoe belangrijk dat poude deel van ons zenuwstelsel is.

Ik citeer uit een boek van 1919: Vegetative neurology : the anatomy, physiology, pharmacodynamics and pathology of the sympathetic and autonomic nervous systems.Vegetative Nervous System 1919 door Higier, Heinrich. Het gaat in dit geval over onze ingewanden (viscera) en de rol van het vegetieve zenuwstelsel bij de waarneming van pijn.

Vooral de laatste opmerking is van groot belang, namelijk dat intense activerende emoties via het autonoom stelsel onze pijn gewaarwording versterken:

Both types of pain, visceral and radiating, are increased by
intense emotions, as fear and anger.

Dat geeft ook aan dat bij chronische pijn het logisch is om het vegetatieve zenuwstelsel te ondersteunen met oefeningen die de parasympaticus stimuleren en de sympaticus in balans brengen, oefeningen die we elders op deze website in detail beschrijven.

“The viscera not only have a sensory reflex, but also a
motor and a visceral reflex (Mackenzie).

I. The sensory reflex which serves for protection is composed
of a sensory stimulus in the zone of the organ concerned. This is
either internal or splanchnic and is pain, though all authors are not
agreed upon this, or external or somatic, where pain is readily felt
in the hyperesthetic zones. The following are the characteristics
of these sensations of pain.

(a) Splanchnic pain usually is in the midline, even if the organ
by which it is caused lies on one side or partly so (esophagus,
stomach, liver, intestines, kidneys).

(b) Contrary to the pain of hyperesthetic zones, splanchnic pain
is not relieved by moderate chloroform narcosis.

(c) The radiating external pains are never precisely denned.

(d) The radiating external pains are felt in deeper structures
(muscles, breast) not in the superficial layers of the skin.

(e) Artificial stimuli as alcohol, mustard plasters, hot applica-
tions, cantharides and the galvanic or faradic currents prevent vis-
cerofugal stimuli from passing through the spinal roots to the
hyperalgesic zones. They act as quieting, pain-relieving agents
(derivantia et revulsiva).

(f) Both types of pain, visceral and radiating, are increased by
intense emotions, as fear and anger.”

Bron: the sympathetic and autonomic nervous systems.Vegetative Nervous System 1919 by Higier, Heinrich; Kraus, Walter Max, Publication date 1919, Publisher Washington : Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co.