He made
her melancholy, sad, and heavy; and so she died; had she being light like you
of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit, she might ha' been a grandma ere she
died; and so may you, for a light heart lives long.
Love's
labour's lost - William Shakespeare.
Ancient wisdom never lies. Four
thousand years ago in India ,
it had been stated in the Mahabharata (the longest epic in the world):
"There are two classes of diseases—bodily
and mental. Each arises from the other, and neither can exist without the
other. Thus mental disorders arise from physical ones, and likewise physical
disorders arise from mental ones."
In more recent times, Sir William
Osler, often considered the father of modern medicine, was said to have
observed that in order to predict the out come of pulmonary tuberculosis, it
was as important to know what was going on inside a man's head as what was
going on in his chest.
DID YOU KNOW?
If
you are a pessimist in early adulthood, you are more likely to have poor health
in middle and late adulthood
That
it is never too late to change…change in your behavior could alter your health
status
You
are more likely to live longer if you have supportive friends and family
Nausea
and pain can be controlled and lessened by the use of creative visualization
exercises
The placebo effect has been long
known to medical science—this is a cure effected by sugar pills, which the
patient believes to be medicine. Faith healing is yet another demonstration of
how mere belief can influence the body to heal. Now there is scientific proof
available to back all this and the new discipline of psychoneuroimmunology
shows how this happens. Psychoneuroimmunology turns the searchlight on to the
common belief that our personalities and emotions influence our health. How
does what you think and feel (psyche) influence the brain and nervous system
(neuro), which in turn tempers the body's disease fighting system (immuno)? In other
words, to what extent can depression, anxiety, psychological distress, social
support, or an optimistic outlook change our ability to resist disease? Can we
alter immunity and hence susceptibility to disease through psychological
intervention?
Immunologists, neurobiologists,
endocrinologists, and psychologists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
Maryland , Bethesda , a premier
medical research facility in the USA , are actively involved in
unraveling the mysterious connection between the mind and disease. According to
Dr G.Chrousos, an endocrinologist at NIH: "It has not been shown
scientifically but mental states can influence the body's resistance to
disease."
Though researchers have known for
over a decade that the brain can shape the immune response, it is only recently
that they have come close to explaining the 'how' more fully.
It was once considered that the
body's network of immune defenses was a system unto itself. Research over the
past few years has shown that this is not so. The immune system is connected,
both physically and chemically, with the nervous and endocrine systems.
Neurons, or nerve cells of the spleen and the lymph nodes.
The communication between the
brain and the immune system is two-way. The brain apparently registers the
stress and then activates the release of certain chemicals that carry the
information to the immune system, which in turn signals back to the brain to
cause the body to react.
At the Third International
Congress of the International Society for Neuroimmunomodulation, held in
November 1996, Dr Esther Sternberg, a rheumatologist, observed: "We are
making important advances in understanding the infrastructure of how these
systems communicate and how breaking the communications can result in
disease."
Your body's immune system
consists of specialized cells that protect it from disease. The function of the
immune system is the identification and destruction of foreign cells such as
microorganisms. Your immune system is able to ward off an attack by bacteria,
viruses, fungi and parasites. Disease occurs when this defense breaks down.
Research shows that the immune
system is affected by stress and other psychological conditions. Whether you
are happy or sad determines your susceptibility to infectious diseases,
allergies, cancers, and autoimmune disorders such as lupus and rheumatoid
arthritis, in which the immune cells themselves attack the normal tissue of the
body.
When a person has been stressed
for some time, there will be changes in his behavior, his central nervous
system, and in the balance of hormones in the body. All three are interrelated
and influence body cells that provide protection from disease-the immune
system. It is as if the fortifications have been damaged. The result is that
the person runs the risk of disease.
Evidence from disparate sources
suggests that stress affects the ability of the immune system to defend the
body. Invasion of the body by a disease-causing agent is not sufficient cause
for. Disease occurs when the person's defenses are compromised or unable to
recognize the foreign material. For example, one study published in 1991 in The
New England Journal of Medicine validated the common belief that we are more
likely to catch a cold when under stress.
Simply being in the presence of
someone who has a bad cold is not enough reason to get one, the probability
that you will catch it when exams are round the corner is much higher! Disruptive daily events and chronic family stressors
have now been clearly associated with greater susceptibility to upper
respiratory infections.
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