Using the Mind to Heal the Body

Using the Mind to Heal the Body

Using the Mind to Heal the Body

NEWSWEEK's Geoffrey Cowley joined us to discuss new views of the mind-body connection in a Live Talk on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004 at noon ET.

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Newsweek

That thoughts and feelings can affect our health is hardly news. But the relationship between emotion and physical well-being is turning out to be more significant than most of us could have imagined. Viewed through the lens of 21st-century science, anxiety, alienation and hopelessness are not just feelings. Neither are love, serenity and optimism. All are physiological states that may affect our health just as clearly as obesity or physical fitness. And the brain, as the source of such states, offers a potential gateway to countless other tissues and organs--from the heart and blood vessels to the digestive tract and the immune system. The challenge is to map the pathways linking mental conditions to medical ones, and learn how to travel them at will. Placebos are just the beginning. Mounting evidence suggests that any number of soothing emotional experiences can improve our physical health. Using our minds, can we teach ourselves to be healthier? NEWSWEEK's Geoffrey Cowley, the senior editor behind this week's Health for Life cover package, discussed new views of the mind-body connection in a Live Talk on Wednesday, Sept. 22, at noon ET. Read the transcript below.


Geoffrey Cowley has led NEWSWEEK's medical coverage since 1990, working both as a writer and an editor to produce groundbreaking articles on topics ranging from brain science to global health. In news stories, cover articles and special reports, Cowley has chronicled countless trends in medicine and public health, from the advent of Prozac and the sequencing of the genome to the failures of profit-driven health care and the boom in complementary and alternative medicine. He was among the first American journalists to recognize the promise of evolutionary psychology, the significance of chronic fatigue syndrome and the hazards of the sleep medication Halcion. By reporting in 1992 that the drug's approval was based on tainted data, he triggered an FDA inquiry that lasted several years and brought changes in the agency's drug-approval process. In recent years, Cowley's work has helped NEWSWEEK win several nominations for the National Magazine Award, the most prestigious prize in U.S. magazine journalism. His contributions include a 2002 special report on integrative medicine, a 1998 cover story on the science of memory and 1997 cover stories on heart disease and childhood asthma. Cowley joined NEWSWEEK as a general editor in March 1988. He was promoted to senior writer in August 1988 and to senior editor in August 1997. He came to NEWSWEEK from The Sciences, where he had been a senior editor since 1985.



Geoffrey Cowley: Hi, Thanks for logging on. This is Geoff Cowley, ready to talk about the new science of mind-body medicine.

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Silver Spring, MD: Can we regenerate our cells using our minds?

Geoffrey Cowley: I don't think we can will our cells to do anything supernatural. But to the extent that our cells are capable of repairing or regenerating themselves, I suspect we can improve their odds of success.

Researchers discovered back in the 1970s that the immune system could be taught to suppress itself in response to a stimulus. The researchers gave mice saccharine along with an anticancer drug that suppresses immune function. Once the animals' bodies associated the saccharine with the drug, the researchers tried administering saccharine without any medication. The saccharine still drove down their immune function.

If our expectations can suppress our immune cells, then states of mind should be able to boost them as well. Researchers at the University of Miami have shown that stress-management training can quell immune-suppressing stress hormones in HIV-positive men. And at UCLA, scientists have found that HIV-positive men with optimistic outlooks have more robust immune responses. None of this is to say that you can mental states can overcome HIV. It's still a progressive illness that, left untreated, is fatal. But these studies, and others like them, suggest that states of mind may affect the rate of progression.



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Houston, TX: Is it possible to lower one's blood pressure without medication?

Geoffrey Cowley: Definitely. Exercise and nutrition can have a big impact on blood pressure. Relaxation techniques can help too. But if you suffer from hypertension, don't leave it untreated in the hope that you can think yourself healthy. Talk to your doctor about how best to combine medication, lifestyle and stress reduction to keep yourself safe.

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San Francisco, CA: Why is this such a suprise to people, especially since the Chinese have known about this for 2000 years?

Geoffrey Cowley: I think that what we're seeing right now is not just a return to ancient ways but a synthesis and integration of ancient wisdom with modern science.

Most pre-scientific people share a sense that states of mind are connected to states of health. With the discovery of germs and the advancement of medical science in 19th and 20th centires, Western physicians lost sight of the connection.

It's now clear that neither perspective is complete without the other. It's exciting to me to see the two traditions being integrated into a larger, more humane vision of health that has room both for meditation and for life-saving high-tech procedures.

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Uniontown, PA: Is it possible that the mind body connection works the other way as well: that people who believe they are sick or will get sick can make themselves measurably phyically ill?

Geoffrey Cowley: I don't think there's any question about it. Many of the stories in this week's issue describe how mental states can harm the body as well as heal it.

The placebo effect can prompt amazing recoveries in people who expect to get better, but studies have shown that it can also cause real illness in people who expect to get sick. In one experiment, researchers rubbed a harmless substance on the arms of people allergic to lacquer leaves. When told that the harmless substance was a lacquer leaf, many developed severe rashes.

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Gilbert, AZ: Can stress make you infertile?

Geoffrey Cowley: Be sure to read the article by Dr. Alice Domar of Harvard in this week's issue ("A New Fertility Factor"). "No one has proved that feelings of distress actually cause infertility," Domar writes, "but there are good reasons to think so. Women with a history of depression are twice as likely to suffer from the problem, and research has shown that distressed women are less responsive to treatment."

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American Fork, UT: Do those who are less stressed have lower rates of cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses?

Geoffrey Cowley: What the studies show is that people who are /more/ stressed -- because of depression or anger or social isolation -- are at higher risk of those conditions. But it stands to reason that better stress control should help protect against those diseases.

In Dr. Dean Ornish's program for reversing heart disease, patients use relaxation and group support as well diet and exercise, and they achieve remarkable results. No one knows how large a role the mental and emotional exercises play, but Ornish considers it indispensable.

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Springdale, UT: I have been told by a colleage that she believes the study of the brain is not the domain of psychology, it should be left up to medical doctors. What do you think?

Geoffrey Cowley: I think it's critical that we bridge that chasm. Psychology doesn't make sense without a basis in brain science -- and brain science is a sterile endeavor unless you view the brain as an organ with built-in psychological functions. I think it's exciting to see the perspectives of medicine and psychology merging.

Be sure to read Steven Pinker's essay ("How to Think About the Mind") in this week's issue. It sheds good light on this question.

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Denton, TX: If I think my empty pocket is full of money, will it happen?

Geoffrey Cowley: Try it and let me know.

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Los Angeles, CA: What are the three most useful discoveries about the brain for people to apply in their everyday life?

Geoffrey Cowley:
1. Emotions are physiological states with consequences for our health.

2. Emotional distress (anger, alienation, hopelessness, fear) can make you sick.

3. Most of us can improve or protect our health by nurturing relationships with other people and learning how to relax and manage stress.

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Ajo, AZ: Is our brain separate from our mind? Are they two different things or the same?

Geoffrey Cowley: A good closing question. Neuroscience has taught us that what feels like a separate "mind" is in fact the activity of the brain. Once you accept that fact, the "mind-body connection" becomes less mysterious. It's not a matter of one realm affecting another through supernatural means. Emotions are physical phenomena, and physical health is an emotional phenomenon. Both are part of the same system.

Thanks for tuning in today. Here's wishing you peace and good health.


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