Now these courses are required in many schools. It is a generally accepted fact that a patient's mental state has a lot to do with his physical health. Prayer and churchgoing may well help. Another avenue is biofeedback training your mind to regulate bodily functions like heart rate and blood pressure. Migraine headaches, muscle spasms and the like can also be treated with biofeedback.
Stress reduction is another path.
Mind As Slayer, first published in 1977, explores the links between stress and diseases such as cancer and heart disease. In an article in the January Scientific American, Dr. Walter A. Brown, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University and Tufts University, suggests choosing a doctor with an optimistic outlook, in whom you have lots of confidence, and letting him prescribe for you.