They meet in the art room over lunch, sitting around a large table with a candle in the center. Each woman reads a dream, gives it a title, identifies the primary feeling that it evokes and discusses it with others. While no research has been done to demonstrate health benefits of dreamwork, Lyons cites a Stanford study that demonstrated immune system benefits to women with metastatic cancer participating in a cancer support group. When Lyons began her support group, she recalls that many of the women's dreams featured images of running away from snakes, bears and other terrors. The women report few images of illness, or even medical settings, in their dreams.
Some members also keep dream journals and write poetry.
The blood thinner warfarin recently was found to help ward off cancer in people treated for blood clots. The same week, three studies suggested that popular cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins may somehow reduce the risk of broken bones. A drug approved for one use is found, by accident or design, to have other intriguing effects. It's distracting to health consumers already teetering on the risk-benefit balance beam. Not yet, experts agree.