Per this discussion on health, here are some excerpts from an interesting article a friend forwarded to me.
This is not meant to be advice, but, personally, I feel a peaceful mind leads to a healthy body, and a great life, so I just thought I’d pass some of these thoughts along. (Agree getting that D3 running at the beach doesn’t hurt either.)
CALM YOUR MIND–HEAL YOUR BODY
Mark Hyman, MD
“WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR HEALTH, there is one factor that is more important than almost any other…
If it is missing from your life, it causes or worsens 95 percent of all illness. It has been associated with dramatic reductions in disease and increased longevity.
And it is more important than cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, or any other risk factor in determining whether you will live a long and healthy life. But it doesn’t come in a pill, and it can’t be found in a hospital or in your doctor’s office.
What is this critical factor that determines so much about how healthy or how sick you are?
It may seem simplistic, but aside from eating breakfast, the biggest predictor of longevity is psychological resiliency–-and being able to roll with the punches that life throws at us.
We’ve known about this in medicine for a long time. I was recently browsing through my library and found an old book that I read in college called Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer, written by a friend and leader in the field of mind/body medicine, Kenneth Pelletier. He is a clinical professor of medicine at the medical schools of the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Arizona.
His book was published in 1977. I wish I could say that a lot has changed since that book was published. Sure, we have filled in the gaps and learned more about the mechanisms through which the body affects the mind and the mind affects the body, but the basic truths remain the same.
There is a dramatic and powerful connection between your mind and body, and between your body and your mind. In fact, it really should not be called a connection because it is just ONE bidirectional system.
Unfortunately, few doctors accept or understand this fundamental reality about biology. So, in most doctors’ offices, you aren’t going to learn about the connection between your body and brain.
According to Hans Selye, MD, the man who coined the word “stress” and first mapped out its biological effects, “The modern physician should know as much about emotions and thoughts as about disease symptoms and drugs. This approach would appear to hold more promise of cure than anything medicine has given us to date.” Selye’s words are as true today as they were on the day he wrote them.
We are seeing an epidemic of stress-related disorders in our society, including depression, anxiety, autism, attention deficit disorder, memory disorders, and dementia, and these disorders are making the pharmaceutical industry highly profitable.
You see, Americans live on caffeine and Prozac. We use substances to manage our moods. In fact, the four top-selling items in grocery stores are all drugs that we use to manage our mood and energy: caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and nicotine.
But how do we really deal with the root of this problem? You use the MOST powerful pharmacy in the world — which is right between your ears.”
