Warm, loving relationships, as well as isolation, can influence longevity and the will to live. The body is not a biological machine operating independently of the mind. Even Hippocrates proposed that health was a balance of mind and body in the proper environment. The mind has a powerful effect on our physical health by influencing our immune, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems. It can change the levels of such body substances as cortisol, adrenaline, and natural killer cells.
Happy people get sick less often.
Angry people have more health problems. Stress, anger, depression, and loneliness suppress the immune system, overexert the heart, raise blood pressure, enhance blood clotting, increase bone loss, harden the arteries, and increase cholesterol and abdominal fat. These factors can increase the incidence and severity of cancer, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and even the common cold. Western medicine, however, has underappreciated this mind-body relationship. Now that brain imaging can be used to observe the effect of the mind on the body, we will see the medical establishment embrace this concept as the basis of a legitimate form of therapy.