Link Between Mental Attitude and Physical Illness

Link Between Mental Attitude and Physical Illness

Link Between Mental Attitude and Physical Illness

The link between mental attitude and physical illness isfinally being taken seriously by the medical establishment, and in the past decade a whole new field of studycalled psychoneuroimmunology, a combination of thefields of psychology and immunology, has emerged. During the 1980s, research conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health, New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital, andother major institutions has documented surprising newevidence that employment of the techniques used in this book to change a person's self-defeating state of mindstress-reducing relaxation therapies, moderate physical exercise, visualization, cognitive restructuring, meditation, positive affirmations, and confronting traumaticmemoriesactually enhances the body's immune system.The new studies confirm what many already believedthat people who think sick are more likely to be sickand that people who think well are more likely tobe well.

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The concept that emotions affect physical health hasbeen around in medical circles for a long time. In thesecond centurya.d.,a Greek physician noted that unhappy women were more prone to develop cancer thanhappy women, and a belief that psychic imbalance (thefour humors) caused disease was central to the practice ofmedicine in Europe until the rise of modern science in theseventeenth century. After that, however, the relationshipbetween emotions and physical health was given as muchcredence among medical practitioners as witch doctorsand faith healers. It is only in the last decade that we haveseen a surprising turnaround in their thinking. Hundredsof studies have now been done that show that a person'sstate of mind affects the immune system.

These days, protecting your immune system is asimportant as getting a polio vaccination was in the 1950s,for our bodies' natural line of defense is under attack frommany sourcesAIDS and other viruses that attack theimmune system such as Epstein-Barr, herpes, andChronic Fatigue Syndrome, plus cancer, environmental contaminants, and high levels of stress.

In order to understand how we can help our immunesystem, we need to take a look at how that system works.It is a marvel of complexity, much of it still a mystery. Ahealthy immune system operates much like a well-disciplined army. The first line of defense is at the skin level. Awound or lesion will be surrounded by swarms of phagocytes, white blood cells that eat the transgressing bacterial cells until the phagocytes die in the process,forming the yellow-white substance commonly known aspus around the wound.

The secondary line of defense are the lymphocytes,such as B-, T-, and natural killer cells. They roam thebloodstream searching for antigens, foreign substancessuch as bacteria, viruses, or toxins. The lymphocytes thenrelease antibodies, which destroy the invader.

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