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?
Your attitude, your social networks, your community, and your spiritual beliefs.
Put another way, the health of your mind and spirit and your sense of connection to your community has an immense impact on the health of your body. In fact, aside from eating breakfast, the biggest predictor of longevity is psychological resiliency — 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 or how to use that connection to help you heal.
However, in this blog I am going to give you the tools to do that. I am going to explain how the body and mind are intimately connected and give you 10 tips you can use to calm your mind and heal your body.
Calming your mind is the last of the 7 Keys to UltraWellness; today you are going to learn how you can relax your way to vibrant health and optimal weight.
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.
An Epidemic of Stress-Related Disorders
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!
A little later, I will tell you how to use your brain to fix your health problems. First, I want to share a story that illustrates the power the mind has to harm or to heal.
The Power of the Mind-Body Connection
Tom, a long-term patient of mine, came to see me after his wife died. He suddenly developed heart failure. His heart just wouldn’t pump. It was flooded with grief molecules, hormones like adrenalin, noradrenalin, and cortisol.
His case is far from being the only documented case in which grief caused cardiovascular problems. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a study about how grief or emotional trauma can cause heart failure — literally a broken heart.
Rather than giving Tom drugs for “heart failure” as I was taught in medical school, I suggested he get healing touch, a form of energy and emotional healing. Sounds a bit out there, huh? Well, he followed my advice and dramatically recovered. Touch, not medication, healed his heart.
I think we can all learn a lesson from Tom and other cases like his.
95 percent of all illness is caused or worsened by stress.
In school, we all learned how to read and write, but we never learned how to use our minds to help us with the most important survival skills of all: staying happy and healthy!
Other cultures differ in their training. Herbert Benson, MD, of Harvard Medical School, has demonstrated the amazing power that trained Tibetan meditators use to control their physiology by slowing their metabolism, changing their heart rates and brain waves, and raising or lowering their body temperature.
He even documented on film an ancient practice called tumo, the generating of internal heat, performed by initiated Tibetan monks. The monks are wrapped in icy cold sheets and must use their internal heat to dry them, possibly by actively burning something called brown fat. As a result, they can sit naked on a snowy mountaintop all night and not freeze, keeping warm with their internal heat.
That’s something most of us don’t have any consciousness of, or control over. Imagine if you could turn on fat burning and lose weight with your mind!
That is how powerful our mind and our beliefs can be.
But in the West we aren’t even taught how to cope with the day-to-day frustrations of life. We live under constant chronic stress and we are not trained to address this stressful psychic load that is the burden of the 21st century.
This is unfortunate, because stress is killing us.
Just consider these facts:
- 95 percent of all illness is caused or worsened by stress. Low socioeconomic status is associated with poorer health outcomes and higher risk of death from all causes. This is not because of poor health habits, but because of feelings of powerlessness and loss of control. Internalized racism and stress are associated with high amounts of belly fat.
- Stress hormones damage the hippocampus — the memory center in the brain — causing memory loss and dementia.
- In a study of people who volunteered to have cold viruses injected into their noses, only people with a high level of perceived stress got colds. Women with metastatic breast cancer survived twice as long if they were part of a support group.
- Belonging to a group — a religious group, a bowling club, a quilting group — reduces risk of death from all causes and increases longevity, despite health habits.
- In a study of doctors, those who scored high on hostility questionnaires had a higher risk of heart attacks than those who smoked, were overweight, had high blood pressure, or didn’t exercise.
So, if you don’t think the mind has the power to influence your body, think again.
The good news is that you can change your beliefs and attitudes and their effects on your mind and your body. You may need to learn a few new skills, like stress reduction techniques, but it can be done.
However, our beliefs and attitudes aren’t the only things that matter. Our mind and brain function is also influenced by what happens in our bodies. By addressing the 7 Keys to UltraWellness, “mental” problems can often be cured — without changing our beliefs.
The effects of beliefs and attitudes are important. There can be no question of that. But the effects of imbalances in our core body systems on our mental state and brain function are just as important and are mostly IGNORED by traditional medicine.
The systems in your body that affect mood and brain function include hormones, immune system, gut, detox system, energy system, nutritional status, and other environmental inputs.
For example, I saw a man who was completely stressed out and anxious. He had palpitations and drank four martinis a night just to calm down. He also had severe muscle cramps and eye twitches.
These are obvious signs of magnesium deficiency. But stress, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar all deplete magnesium. He was trapped in a vicious cycle.
What he needed wasn’t Valium or Prozac, but rather to address why he was magnesium-deficient and then fix it through detoxification, treating his yeast overgrowth, cutting out alcohol and caffeine, and supplementing with the relaxation mineral, magnesium, to calm his nervous system.
That, in combination with other tools for calming the mind and the body, will help him reset his nervous system. By using these tools together, he’ll be taking advantage of both the body-mind effect and the mind-body effect, thereby optimizing his treatment.
You can do the same thing. By employing the following techniques, you can leverage the power of your brain and body to calm your mind and bring healing.
10 Tips for Calming Your Mind
Here is what we know about how to influence the mind-body and the body-mind system. Consider these essential survival skills. You cannot thrive without them!
- Address the Underlying Causes of Stress — Find the biological causes of problems with the mind by working on the 7 Keys to UltraWellness. Mercury toxicity or a magnesium or vitamin B12 deficiency or a toxic gut chemical or a gluten allergy could be changing your brain. So, by changing your body, you can change your mind!
- Relax — Learn how to ACTIVELY relax. To engage the powerful forces of the mind on the body, you must DO something — you can’t just sit there watching television or drinking beer.
- Learn New Skills — Try learning new skills such as meditation, deep breathing, yoga, biofeedback, and progressive muscle relaxation or take a hot bath, make love, get a massage, watch a sunset, or walk in the woods or on the beach.
- Move Your Body — Exercise is a powerful, well-studied way to burn off stress chemicals and heal the mind, so just do it! It has been proven to be better than or equal to Prozac for treating depression.
- Optimize Your Nutrition — Clean up your diet from mind-robbing molecules like caffeine, alcohol, and refined sugars and eat regularly to avoid the short-term stress of starvation on your body.
- Supplement — Take a multivitamin and nutrients to help balance the stress response, such as vitamin C; the B-complex vitamins, including B6 and B5 or pantothenic acid; zinc; and most important, magnesium, the relaxation mineral.
- Try Herbs — Use adaptogenic herbs (herbs that help you adapt and balance your response to stress) such as ginseng, Rhodiola rosea, Siberian ginseng, cordyceps, and ashwagandha.
- Use Heat Therapy — Take a hot bath or a sauna to help your body deeply relax and turn on the relaxation response.
- Change Your Beliefs — Examine your beliefs, attitudes, and responses to common situations and consider reframing your point of view to reduce stress.
- Find a Community — Consciously build your network of friends, family, and community. They are your most powerful allies in achieving long-term health.
In the 7 Keys to Ultrawellness, which this post was originally part of, I introduced you to a set of new ideas and concepts that have the power to transform your health personally and to transform health care as a whole. It is no small job in either case, but it is essential to stem the impending tsunami of ill health and economic burden facing us, our children, and our children’s children.
The solution is a fundamental change in our worldview about health — a view that helps us get to the core of illness, learn self-care, take control, and empower ourselves to transform our own health and turn our “sick care” system into a health care system.
Each of us can contribute and make small changes that will have a big effect as we move toward vibrant health and vitality as individuals, and as a society.
Take control of your health today using the techniques I have outlined in this series of blogs, and you will become part of a growing movement that is working toward fundamentally changing the way we understand the body and practice medicine in this country.
Now I’d like to hear from you…
What examples of the mind-body and body-mind effect have you experienced?
What do you do to relax and calm down?
What changes in your health do you notice when you’re relaxed?
Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment below.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
I am suffering from acid reflux, I would like to see Dr. Hyman to do all the test on me to find out why high dose of acid blocker that I use does not work on me.
I have seen numerous GI DRS. I would like to have Dr. Hyman’s phone number to make appointment to see him.
I live in Long Island NY and my cell # 516-698-0469
I appreciat your respond
If you would like information on becoming a patient at The UltraWellness Center please see “How to Become a Patient” at http://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com. That site is designed to give prospective patients a comprehensive source of information about The UltraWellness Center. You may also feel free to call The UltraWellness Center at (413) 637 9991.
Regardless of becoming a patient at The UltraWellness Center, it sounds like you need to consult with a doctor. Please seek medical attention for the issues that you outlined in your message.
Wishing You the Best of Health!
I have found that once I truly understood how powerful this Body-Mind connection is and also began to distinguish between good (true) thoughts & bad (false) thoughts … my mind is able to heal my body much more efficiently.
I also had to learn that sometimes it is the exact opposite. Sometimes the body can actually heal the mind. Some parts of our minds which are based in fear, will actually make us feel sick in certain areas of our body. By realizing that these illnesses are merely tricks of the mind, I feel that once we are able to overcome these feelings … it is actually our bodies which are healing the sick parts of our mind.
My greatest way of relaxing and calming myself down is by 1st … and most important to me … recognizing that I am stressed or unrelaxed. Once I have admitted this to myself I can then begin searching for the root cause of this stress or unrelaxed feeling. After pinpointing this source I am then able to face it down by focusing on it while simultaneously engaging in an activity or hobby which I know that I truly enjoy and brings me happiness.
I also never lock myself down to any one type of thinking and always try to keep all parts of my brain balanced. That being said … how I keep my brain balanced is a whole other set of fun tricks which I have learned through research, trial and error. Also … slowing everything in my life down a little, but never stopping has helped tremendously!
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to talk about some of the things that have been helping my life and stability lately. Always try to focus on what truly makes you happy … those feeling which are based in happiness are the ones which will save us.
I think what you are doing is wonderful and true. You are honestly the ONLY Doctor I have ever seen actually telling people the truth. I wonder … is this because most doctors are unaware of the truth … or because they are just afraid to tell it?
Thank you again for your time and healing words! Wishing you the absolute best and keep up the good work!
Sincerely,
Matthew John Caputo
re #3, playing a musical instrument is both a great “brain workout” and a wonderful way to relax. Playing music is my meditation.
I work in the very busy supplement department of a Natural Foods store. About a year ago, my doctor insisted I have my vitamin D levels tested. I was having worse-than-usual adrenal/stress issues, and he told me that he had recently determined that his patients with stress disorders improved when he treated their vitamin D deficiency, along with prescribing B vitamins and magnesium.
Before this, I had been doing Calm magnesium for almost a decade, and an excellent quality B vitamin complex for years as well, with sublingual B12. I felt somewhat better, but the problems never went away.
My D was low-normal, and I immediately started taking 12,000 iu a day for 10 days, followed by 3 months of 10,000 iu a day. I brought it up to a blood level of 90, which I understand is the high end of normal.
I couldn’t believe what a HUGE difference changing/correcting my vitamin D levels did for my stress response!!! Now I don’t need extra magnesium or B vitamins, instead, I keep my D levels around 90, take a good quality multi, and eat magnesium rich foods.
I finally talked my husband into taking vitamin D too. After 14 years of getting numerous colds through the winter, (he shares phones and computers with 84 other people!) this year he got zero. The interesting thing is that he only has to keep his levels at around 50. If I let mine go that low I not only get the stress symptoms back – twitch in eye, heart palpitations, erratic blood pressure, etc – but I also have an increase in my “fibromyalgia.” Clearly there is a difference between the two of us.
The main thing I wanted to share is that I have passed this info on to many of our customers, and almost every one of them comes back to thank me! My dr says that he thinks the D must be important for the metabolism of B vitamins and magnesium, but he is just an old guy and as he puts it, not up on the latest research. We learn together.
Anyone with a link to info about the connection between vitamin D and stress/b vitamins/magnesium – please post it!
I had ME for several years and it gave me the opportunity to observe myself very carefully.I know when I am not handling issues that upset me emotionally as I feel my body tighten and almost like a snap feeling will sometimes happen before I get sick,its kind of feels as if my self can’t take the stress of whatever anymore and I feel as if I am a rubberband that just goes “snap”.
I have learnt through a process called Mickel Therapy ,how to make sure I look after myself in such a way that I remain symptom free,with the occaisional slip up,and when I do I have learnt how to help myself back to health,thank you.
I want to shine the light on one point of this article on: “Few doctors accept or understand this fundamental reality of biology.”
I sadly made myself sound crazy half-way dropping the f-bomb on this girl who tells me with pride there’s nothing they could do for her injured body and organs the other day in college. I told her and basically the class doctors should also have knowledge about herbal remedies… as “I would think a doctor should know about medicines or fundamentals of medicine such as herbs.”
That one line in this article is also important. It shows and asks just the questions I asked that day: “What books are doctors learning from and what considers them a doctor exactly?” It seems as though all they do is have the knowledge to diagnose, look in a book, and prescribe medication. At least for me, my scolioses wasn’t that bad and I got a nice brochure that showed brief things I can do for myself. Soon or later, I need to fix my stomach inflammation or have it diagnosed. I know that is contradicting but still. : I would hope doctors don’t give a happy lollipop after diagnosing an organ disease and I would wish they knew exactly even the tadbits from getting sun, to general types of stretching I want to focus on, to foods, drinks, etc… the more “specifics” a doctor can sum up quickly so that it is understandable and ecouraging to the patient “like a miracle,” the better.
I still can’t wait to get up and hang on a tree branch to stretch my stomach so this inflammation lessens. I MUST have LOTS of heavy metals and I eat gluten someway or another. Thank you, America. I did no think “freedom” meant “freedom to screw you over or be careless about the people’s diets.”
Wonderful article! I will share with my facebook and twitter followers. I have in the past 6 months made a change in my diet. I am eating more raw fruits and vegetables and consuming more protein. I also started yoga last summer which is a great stress reliever! I also hike and listen to music while I am hiking. I try to keep a positive attitude every day and not dwell on the negative.
This is a very important article and really reflects what I teach in Wellness Presentations. The Body, Mind and Spirit connections is so important in total wellness. Juice plus is a Whole Food Nutritional product that fills the gap of what we don’t get from our food and I have found that this has helped my body heal from the cellular level. Along with the Nutritional healing, the mind, and spirit connection I feel 10 years younger then I did.
Check out Maine-lyjuiceplus as it is widely researched throughout the world.
Dear Mark
I am a hypnotherapist and agree wholeheartedly with your article. Learn how to deal with stress in an effective way and many many illnesses will disappear.
Dr. Hyman is hitting the nail on the head. We need more physicians and medical schools to start training doctors to understand a more holistic approach to health beginning with nutrition and mind control.
Years ago I read a book called The Sylva method which started me on an amazing journey to understanding our personal role in our health and well being. Most of us are born healthy but through our accumulative poor habits over time we create poor health. I have found an amazing health and life shift when I discovered how to love everyone unconditionally. That has become an important message to get out to the world. My book “Soul Purpose, Awaken Your Perfect Self” takes the reader through the steps of accomplishing this life changing mindset.
I had great relief from using a guided imagery CD when I was very ill with Lyme Disease. I also exercised even though I did not feel well, took daily doses of very high quality vitamins, took ashwaganda, and tried to keep positive. In the end I did not get better after a year until I did all of these things regularly for three months, and then I finally started feeling better. I also did yoga.
Extremely good article. I use Dr.s mostly for diagnosis, than do my own research for healing. All Dr.s do is prescribe drugs to treat symptoms not the real cause. They need education in nutrition, herbs, and other natural methods of healing.
Over the last few years I have come to realize how much of how we feel relates to our beliefs. I have been exploring my beliefs with guidance from The Option Institute, in Sheffield, MA and the writings/teachings of its founders, Barry and Samahria Kaufman. For some reason, The Option Insistitute does not advertise, they seem to rely on word of mouth.
Whenever I go there for a class, read one of the books, or listen to a CD, I always feel better (happier). One of the basic teachings is to let go of judgments, of oneself and others. Judgments are “this is bad, this is wrong.” Judgments make us feel bad, whether we’re turning it on ourself or directing it outwardly. Plus, they serve no useful purpose. We can not want something without judging it. For example, we can prefer chocolate without dissing vanilla.
We can do so much with our minds, but I’ve also come to believe that controlling your thoughts, changing your beliefs to support wellness, becomes more difficult if you don’t also do the things Dr Hyman prescribes…looking at nutrition and toxins. The nutritional support supports good-feeling thoughts. I’m in the midst of doing both….and trying not to judge myself along the way!
Thank you for the opportunity to speak…
I was wondering if you have any further information on the tibetin monks ability to control their body tempature. Any kind of learn how to books or articles?
Hello Sharon, thank you for your interest in Dr. Hyman’s website and for your comment. We do not have any recommendations for further reading but will post your comment and someone may have one for you!
Wishing you the Best of Health!
Stress management through practice of tai chi, chi gong breathing and talking to a good friend. The main thing is to focus on helping others to be happy then you will be happy. People who do this are known to have lower stress levelsAll these and the great recommendations above make complete sense.
Sunday, 9/25/11 -As I was hiking yesterday, my ankle started hurting, tendons/ligaments on the inside and under my foot. I thought, uh-oh… can’t have this as there is another hour down the mountain on some rocky terrain. So, as I say so often, use your thoughts to heal your body, I kept saying over and over my ankle is good, feels good, etc. Not too much change until I said, “my ankle is healing” and I kept imagining it getting stronger, sort of like on Star Trek when the doc would wave his hands over the person’s body and they would heal. Well, within seconds, I felt it going away. And in less than a minute the pain was gone completely. I thought, WOW!!!! A little later it started coming back just a bit and I did it all over again, and then it was gone. Hasn’t returned. I do believe our thoughts can heal our bodies. Practice. Practice. Practice. And BELIEVE it is possible. I do. I believe I was able to do this because of taking the time to sit in stillness, my way of meditating, calming the mind, practicing calming the mind when in a stressful situation, changing my thoughts when stressed to be positive, calm, feeling a sense of connecting to my inner self, the “energy” within that is separate from the physical dense matter, to the “energy” around us all, and most important is believing that it is all possible. The belief is the key. The practice of it all is what makes it easier and easier to do. I don’t know how successful I would be if it were something much more serious or debilitating, but as I practice this for the little things, I think it will strengthen the ability in the event of something bigger in the future… but then again, I will continue to imagine health, wellness, happiness, etc., so that no “bigger” event will ever occur. I consider my body to be a very important vessel in which to carry my soul. I thought of that while on the hike. How I am a soul having a phyical experience, as it is said. I kept bringing my thoughts back to the beauty of the moment, surrounded by nature, how incredible it is that such things have occurred – mountains, trees, streams, rocks, but then again, just brought my thoughts back to the moment to enjoy it all and nothing else. Was great when I could do that and not focus on later in the afternoon, or tomorrow, or relationships, or work, which I admit kept popping up in my mind. But every time I gently brought my thoughts back to the present moment, I felt a sense of peace and calm come over me. All stress disappeared for moments at a time. Just like anything in life, the more you do something, the more automatic it becomes as it gets “wired” into the brain activity. I am so thankful for my practice of this. I love life, I love myself, I love my world. And I appreciate the ability to get my viewpoints, my ways out to anyone who reads or listens so that parts of it may help someone else find their own happiness if it works for them, as others have done for me.
I LOVE this article! These are things I have noticed in myself already – I hate getting the flue because I KNOW I make it worse with my mind – I get scared and worry and stress about it and it gets much worse. (Ive only had a flue a small handful of times in the past 10-15 years, its awful!)
Dr. Hymen asked what we do to relax and calm down, and what effect this has:
I am a self-employed single parent, I work from home, which means I am ALWAYS at work. I find when I start spinning out from stress and worry, which creates a sort of tunnel vision effect in my life (narrow point of view, fixated on limited solutions, eating convenience food and not making eye contact when speaking with my children because i am caught up in my head),
the best solutions for me are:
-to consciously start to move a little more slowly while I continue to work- walk in a relaxed manner, to slow down my hands and all of my movements a little.
- to smile and make eye-contact when I speak to my kids (and all people)- (and not talk too fast)
- It helps my stress a lot if I can decide to take the time to make a nice fragrant healthy home made meal for our dinner. (and to eat 3 meals per day and drink water!)
- If my stress level (& life) is wildly out of control I consciously choose to do nice things for others, treating everyone gently and with greater respect. (all others, including the briefest contact.) This makes ME feel much better.
- a big one for me is “pretending” everything is good. By pretending i mean actually FEELING it in my BODY, not just telling my mind.
“everything is ok – how does my body feel now? oh yes, thats it.” and try to remember this feeling in my body all day.
Im far from perfect – I still have coffee and a little drink sometimes – but I’ve also experienced these things not only mask the stress problem very temporarily but notch the underlying causes of my stress a little higher every time I use them.
Thank you for the work you do Dr Hyman,
I am so happy you reach so many people with the voice of sanity – and are an MD as well. Thank you, thank you,
JM
Well, I concurr with this site. I suffer from ptsd and I know that it can be managed with meditation and heat activation. Those are my two best ways to treat it. However, without the right energy in the house, one cannot find peace anywhere. Therefore I must research sites like these to learn the balance of mind and body.
As a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Advanced Practice Nurse I can tell you so many stories of how when you relieve the stress, releases trapped emotions, and reframe life’s events … you will experience health returning.
As a holistic anxiety coach/motivational speaker/self-help writer for young women struggling with anxiety, I could not agree more with just about everything you said in this post! The focus of my business is how to heal the mind by making diet and lifestyle changes that alter what your body (and your mind by extension) take in. This is how I single-handedly healed my own severe and chronic anxiety disorder which I had for over a decade of my childhood and young adulthood. I wish when I was going through my healing process that I had this kind of information streamlined for me. However, I am so grateful to have found it now so that I can learn and share it with the people in my life and the clients I work with. Thank you, Dr. Hyman!