Stressors caused by relationship troubles, conflict at work, financial worries or any other causes of emotional upset that is responsible for anxiety, depression, and stress, left unresolved, can cause a cascade of chemical and hormonal changes in the body that can result in diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, immune system diseases and cancer. Examples in everyday clinical practice is an ulcer of the stomach which on deeper analysis are caused by underlying life stresses. Medication on its own won’t work. The cause of chronic headache and migraine in patients may be due to mental strain and will not be resolved by using medication. For the same reason unprocessed and unresolved fears may lead to recurrent panic attacks which manifest as heart palpitations, chest pain, sweating, dizziness and shortness of breath.
In recent scientific publications on heart diseases, it was reported that chronic stress, depression, and loneliness has been linked to causing 50% more heart incidents, and not only incidents, but 40% more of these people actually died from such an event if compared to people without the mind stressors. Based on these findings, the American Heart Association issued a statement indicating that “it is clearly time that we recognise that we should strive to treat not only the disease, but the patient and the person as a whole”, meaning that mind health is as important as physical health. Depression, anxiety, and distress can diminish the body’s natural capacity to heal. Treating only the physical condition does not incur healing without also resolving stressors of the mind.
When talking about the ‘whole person’, any human being should be seen as an integrated living system with the physical body that performs all the physical and physiological functions; the brain that is the centre of the intellect and the faculty of reason, analysis, and judgment but also the ‘control panel’ for everything that happens within the body; and the mind which comprises emotions, memories, feelings, likes, and dislikes. The concept of homeostasis as the general principle of balance, or equilibrium or harmony of life stems from the ancient Greek philosophers. This homeostasis is often disturbed by what is known as stressors. Stress is also an ancient word meaning ‘to strangle’. The implications are that homeostasis can be disturbed by stressors impacting on our daily lives with the result that it can manifest as illnesses as already mentioned.
Taking responsibility to maintain a healthy mind can determine on how well and healthy you are. Studies have shown that higher levels of optimism in people were associated with a 35% less risk for developing heart disease and a 14% decreased of risk of death for any reason. On the contrary, pessimistic people may have double the risk for heart attacks and dying of it when compared to those with high levels of optimism. It may be that the mechanism at work here is the fact that optimism is associated with healthier lifestyle behaviours which includes more physical activity, not smoking, better diets, healthier relationships, and better sleep quality. Optimistic people have 50%-70% greater odds of living to 85 years of age and beyond.
If that is true, then a healthy mind should also be able to turn disease around and effect cure! This is sometimes referred to the mind-body connection and implies that the mind and the body are interconnected and interdependent. What has emerged are a school of thought often referred to as “mind-body medicine” which uses the power of thoughts and emotions to influence physical health.
Hippocrates, the famous a Greek doctor born in 460year BC, at that time already claimed, that “the natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.” Does this ‘natural healing force’ exist? There is enough scientific evidence to prove that to attain healing and cure a body, mind-psyche approach is required. Focusing on the physical manifestations of diseases like cancer, is not enough. This is a profound statement and actually reminds us to also consider our mind wellness and not just the physical manifestation of a disease like high blood pressure, diabetes or even cancer.
For the healing process, over and above the normal medical treatment for a specific disease, one must get to the root cause of stress and understand its origin and mechanism. On this journey to healing your doctor will act as guide in this process and may refer you to other professionals for deep analysis, hypnosis, meditation, yoga, cognitive-behavioural therapies or spirituality experts.
Dr. Martin de Villiers is the Medical Director at Medwell SA – The Home Health Care Specialists.
For more information visit www.medwell.co.za
