The Hypochondria Webpage

The Hypochondria Webpage ©.

The Posture Theory solves a 2000 year old mystery: How do symptoms occur when there is no evidence of disease???

Postural Hypochondria

A set of symptoms caused by postural pressure on the internal anatomy beneath the cartilages of the ribs and sternum. (From Latin - positura = position, Gk, - hypo = below, and Gk - chondro = cartilage, in particular; the cartilages of the ribs and breastbone. reference: The Posture Theory.

The ancient Greeks who provided the term Hypochondria believed that the condition was due to a disorder of the upper abdomen, or midriff.

The six primary symptoms are chest pains, palpitations, breathlessness, fatigue, faintness, and upper abdominal pain.

These symptoms occur in the absence of any evidence of disease, and because of the similarity to those of heart disease, have previously been attributed to anxiety, in particular, to the fear of imagined disease.

The reason for the actual cause being obscure is because the link between posture and symptoms is subtle and delayed, and because other factors contribute to the pressure, such as a stooped spine, a thin physique, a long narrow or flat chest, tight belts, and sedentary activity (leaning toward desks).

see also Chronic Q-fever Fatigue Syndrome

What is hypochondria

The term hypochondria was coined by the ancient Greeks from

Hypo = below

Chondros = cartilage (of the ribs)

It was their opinion that the set of symptoms originated just below the ribs (i.e. in the upper abdomen). They also believed that the psychological symptoms which often accompanied the ailment were the result of the illness.

The Chondria (shown in bold)

Hypochondria is also nowadays referred to as hypochondriasis, somatoform disorder, and somatization disorder, and since the advent of the internet, with people surfing the web for health information, it has also been called cyberchondria.

The Hypochondria Webpage Index

Hypochondria Anatomy	Other Opinions from the twentieth century
The Posture Theory Diagram	The History Of Hypochondria, Somatization disorder, somatoform disorder, and cycerchondria
The Posture Theory and Hypochondria	Response to Criticism of this webpage (16-5-06)

The Undetectables

"Tens of millions of patients suffer from ailments which cannot be detected by the most advanced diagnostic methods available today, and must therefore have a psychological cause . . . "

Such a statement has been made in the name of medical science in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and is still being argued by some doctors today, without due regard for the fact that, in the interim, microscopes have been invented to reveal thousands of types of bacteria and viruses, previously not detectable. Then a sequence of inventions such as X-rays, CAT scans, and MRI's, revealed previously undetectable lesions, lumps, splits, cracks, or breaks which have been responsible for thousands of previously undetectable ailments.

People who don't learn from the mistakes of history, will repeat the mistakes of history. M.B.

Regions of the human abdomen

RH = right hypochondriac, EG = epigastric, LH = left hypochondriac RL = right lumbar, U = umbilical, LL = left lumbar
RI = right inguinal, HG = hypogastric, LI = left inguinal

Anatomy

Li = liver, GB = gall bladder, St = stomach, Sp = spleen, B = bladder.

Diagram reference: H. Gray (1858) Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical, p.598
Original Artist - H.V. Carter. Reprinted 1991 by The Promotional Reprint Co. Ltd., U.K.

**The Posture Theory And Hypochondria**
The word hypochondria is derived from the ancient Greek terms hypo, which means below, and chondros, which means cartilage, and it refers to a set of symptoms which were thought to have been caused by a disorder of the anatomical organs beneath the cartilages of the ribs. This included disorders of the liver and spleen, but there is also some indication that it referred to a disorder originating beneath the cartilage tip at the base of the breastbone. This area includes the base of the heart, and the junction of the foodpipe and the stomach, and it is crossed by the diaphragm which is the main muscle responsible for breathing. The solar plexus which supplies nerves to every part of the chest and abdomen, is also below the tip of the breastbone.	The symptoms of hypochondria include backache, neckache, upper abdominal pain, palpitations, breathlessness, faintness, fatigue, pain in the lower left and right side of the chest, kidney pain, and a variety of others which all have undetectable causes. The cause of hypochondria had remained a mystery until the publication of an essay entitled "The Matter Of Framework" in 1980.This essay proposed that poor posture strained the spine and compressed the chest and abdomen to cause a multitude of varied and alternating symptoms. This concept was devised between 1975 and 1979 and has since been referred to as The Posture Theory. This theory was improved between 1994 and 1999 to show that the ailment is more common in people who have a stooped spinal deformity and who also have a flat chest.	This is because the combination of those features results in the torso buckling when the person slouches forward, and in this movement the midriff acts as a hinge. Consequently the midriff moves backwards, and the chest rotates forwards and downwards, toward the abdomen which rotates forwards and upwards. This produces mechanical forces along that axis which directly compresses the lower chest, diaphragm, stomach, liver, and spleen, and secondarily compresses the heart, lungs, colon, and kidneys, and drives the lower tip of the breastbone inward towards the solar plexus.
The axis of hypochondria runs through the area of (1) left-sided chest pain, (2) upper-abdominal pain, and (3) right-sided chest pain.	Flat chest slouch where the torso buckles (left) Deep chest slouch where the torso retains its shape (right)	Leaning forward repeatedly with a stooped spine and a flat chest stabs the lower tip of the breastbone into the stomach and is one of the main factors contributing to undetectable abdominal pain according to The Posture Theory.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD HYPOCHONDRIA AND ITS VARIOUS USES

The word hypochondria is derived from the ancient Greek word HYPO, which means beneath, and CHONDROS, which means cartilage, and it refers to diseases which had their origins beneath the cartilage's of the ribs, which would nowadays be known as the midriff or upper abdomen, and which contain the liver, stomach, and spleen.
The Greeks, and the later physicians of The Dark Ages had a theory that the body contained four fluids, namely, blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile, and that when these were in proper balance the patient was healthy, but if they changed in any way they would cause disease.
For example, if a physician felt the right side of the midriff and the liver was hot (due to infection), they thought that the black bile was cooking, and becoming toxic, and if it was very hot, that it was boiling and producing a vapour or spirit (similar to alcohol being a liquid spirit), which was a finer toxin, and presumably accounts for the term "evil spirit" because it caused disease. They could also feel heat or cold over such areas as the diaphram, stomach, or spleen and attributed some of it to obstruction of those parts or to obstruction of the veins of the liver, stomach or mesentery, or to the suppression of haemorrhoids.
They also wanted to be able to explain how disease in one part of the body could cause symptoms in multiple other parts.
Therefore, for example, they proposed that the black bile boiled in the stomach to cause abdominal pain, and then entered the blood stream to cause symptoms wherever it traveled or settled, such as going up to the heart to cause palpitations, and the lungs to cause breathlessness, and the chest to cause chest pains, and then soreness in the throat and the eyes, and ultimately headache, sullen moods, and anger or rage.
These ideas were recorded by 17th century writer Robert Burton who studied the subject in an attempt to find a cause and cure for his own ailments. He could read many languages, and he traveled to the great libraries of England, Europe, and Arabia, in search for the knowledge. Most of those libraries have since been destroyed by fires, floods, or wars, so his study provides a valuable legacy which is not readily available from other sources today.
He wrote one of the most popular and best selling books of his era, and according to Sir William Osler it was "the greatest medical treatise written by a layman". His book "The Anatomy of Melancholy" was published in 5 editions during his lifetime, and several editions since, and had a section dealing with a group of disorders called hypochondriacal melancholy
By the nineteenth century it became popular to believe that the symptoms were trivial or imaginary, as they rarely resulted in death, and with the advent of psychology, it was thought that they must be caused by mental states such as anxiety or depression.
By the twentieth century the name hypochondria became associated with the idea that some people complained about chest pains because they thought they had heart disease, or they thought that every headache was caused by a brain tumor, when no such diseases existed. However those interpretations are not consistent with the original meanings of the word and could be more relevantly referred to as disease phobias.
The general meaning of the word came to refer to anyone who complained a lot about trivial illness. For example, it was thought that a person who complained about a cut finger, or who went to bed with a cold, was just a whinging, sympathy seeking hypochondriac.

The actual cause of hypochondria remained a mystery for 2000 years until the publication of an essay entitled "The Matter of Framework" in 1980, which described how leaning forward with a stooped spine compressed the chest and abdomen resulting in chest and stomach pains, palpitations and breathlessness. Also pressure on the air and blood vessels in the chest impaired blood flow between the feet and brain, causing fatigue and faintness.
The cause remained a mystery because there was no immediate link between cause and effect and because not everyone with poor posture developed such symptoms. That is because many other factors contribute to the problem such as a stooped spine, a thin physique, and a long, flat, or narrow chest, sedentary work (which involves leaning toward a desk), and tight corsets or belts which reduce the chest and abdominal space, and add to the effects of postural stooping. It was also because there are subtleties and delays between the the causative activities and the symptoms, as there are with many other ailments.
That essay has since been referred to as The Posture Theory, which developed as an attempt to determine the cause of those symptoms, hence the term "Postural Hypochondria", which is self evident from a view of "The Posture Theory Diagram".

Other opinions about
the nature of hypochondria in the 20th century

"HYPOCHONDRIASIS - The hypochondriac usually fancies himself the subject of all the ills that flesh is heir to . . . and . . . seems to be the correlative in the male sex of that which, in the female we call hysteria . . . Most frequently there is functional derangement of some part, generally of the stomach, though sometimes there is real alteration in structure . . There is . . . generally a most obstinate indigestion and if that be cured the patient is usually in a fair way to be relieved of his mental symptoms . . . and hypochondriases . . . seldom occurs in those who lead an active, healthy life in the open air."
The Doctor at Home and Nurses Guide Book, 1910

"HYPOCHONDRIAC - used of complaints that appear to lack a physical recognizable basis."
Ruddock's Homoeopathic Vade Mecum, 1914

"HYPOCHONDRIASIS - the term used for the condition in which people get pleasure out of ill health."
Illustrated Medical and Health Encyclopedia, 1957

"HYPOCHONDRIA - neurotic reaction characterised by habitual preoccupation with physical health and unwarranted concern with an imagined or negligible defect."
The Colombia Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition, 1960

"HYPOCHONDRIA - [NL,fr.LL, pl., upper abdomen (formerly regarded as the seat of the hypochondria)] - extreme depression of mind or spirits often centred on imaginary physical ailments."
Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary, 1972

"HYPOCHONDRIACS - constantly imagine they are ill. Serious hypochondria is a form of neurosis."
The Australian Family Health Encyclopedia, 1986

"HYPOCHONDRIA - is characterised by excessive concern about one's health in the absence of actual physical disease or disorder . . . The patient is capable of developing successive sets of symptoms of alleged new illnesses . . . catalogues of aches and pains
. . . or he may become fixated on a single illness. This disorder is observed more often among women than among men."
The Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition, 1990

"Hypochondria . . . (is now also called) cyberchondria (when patients search the Web for information about their symptoms) . . . (but) . . .we have no good explanation for them . . . it's a disorder of thought, not of the body . . . (now called) heightened illness concern".
Time Magazine (South Pacific edition) October 6th 2003 Comments on the Time Magazine article

Hypochondria in the 17th century

Diseases which could be seen with the eyes

Hypochondria

(the default diagnosis)

Undetectable illnesses which were deemed to be imaginary ailments and to have a psychological cause

Hypochondria in the 20th century

Diseases which could be seen with the eyes

Diseases which could be seen with microscopes

Diseases which could be seen with x-rays

Diseases which could be seen with cat scans

Diseases which could be seen with magnetic resonance imaging machines

Diseases which could be seen with other modern diagnostic equipment

Hypochondria

Undetectable illnesses which were deemed to be imaginary ailments and to have a psychological cause

Hypochondria in the 21st century

Diseases which could be seen with the eyes

Diseases which could be seen with microscopes

Diseases which could be seen with x-rays

Diseases which could be seen with cat scans

Diseases which could be seen with magnetic resonance imaging machines

Diseases which could be seen with other modern diagnostic equipment

Diseases which will be seen with yet to be developed 21st century diagnostic equipment

Hypochondria

Undetectable illnesses which were deemed to be imaginary ailments and to have a psychological cause

This chart is subject to copyright but may be reproduced for review purposes on condition that the source is acknowledged as The Posture Theory, with reference to this webpage.

The Posture Theory has been around for more than 20 years and has changed the way people think about many medical conditions. If you agree with The Posture Theory and think that it important for the general public to know about it, please ask everyone in your email address book to view this webpage.

Criticism of This Webpage

This website mostly focuses on the history of the term hypochondria, and how the definition, with examples, has evolved over the years. According to the site, the term hypochondria was coined by the ancient Greeks [Gk. Hypo = below, Gk. Chondros = cartilage (of the ribs)] because of their conclusion that the set of symptoms originated in the upper abdomen. They also believed that the psychological symptoms, which often accompanied the ailment, were the result of the illness. The site has a complete diagram of the regions of the human abdomen, which are the hypochondriac regions. The main thrust of the site is a theory called the Posture Theory, which proposes that poor posture strains the spine and compresses the chest and abdomen to cause a multitude of varied and alternating symptoms, thereby causing hypochondria. The makers of the website believe in the Posture Theory, and the site is used as an advertisement for a book called, The Posture Theory (11th ed.) by M.A. Banfield.

Although this website gives a historical view of hypochondria, it does not provide clinical information about the disorder. Unless persons with hypochondria believe that their disorder is caused by their posture, this site would be of little usefulness besides entertainment.

reference:http://www.coe.ohio-state.edu/dgranello/Classes/926.01/2003_websites/hypochondriasis_by_Lyndsey_White.htm

Response to the criticism

I wrote this webpage to be of use to patients or physicians or anyone else who Will find it useful, clinically, and in many other ways. I studied the history of the disorder because the modern definition of "imaginary illness" did not make any sense at all in relation to the actual meaning of the word and I wanted to find out why.

The site is clinically useful because any symptom which is not evident on medical tests is likely to be branded as imaginary or trivial, yet, in fact, the actual meaning of the word corresponds to DaCosta's syndrome which involves lower left and right sided chest pains, palpitations, suspiritory breathlessness, fatigue, and upper abdominal pain occurring in the absence of evidence of disease. If a doctor sees this set of symptoms he can differentiate them from other complaints and correctly diagnose them, and then check the patients physique which is typically thin, stooped, narrow and flat or sunken chested, and often with sideways curvature of the spine, and the patients face being dejected in response to his large range of undiagnosed or misdiagnosed symptoms which are not being effectively treated., If the physician sees this set of symptoms and physique in his clinic he can draw his own conclusion about cause and effect, or ignore them if he wishes. However the patient would be better advised to improve his posture and physique if possible to relieve the symptoms and prevent them from becoming entrenched and worse.

I wrote this theory on the basis of personal experience with the symptoms and the complete failure of most doctors to properly understand or treat them. Doctors are paid a fee for their advice, and have a responsibility to provide proper information to patients. It is not my fault if they ignore or fail to appreciate the value of what I have written and choose to refer to it as mere entertainment. M.B.

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