When the Body Says No
Subtitle: Understanding the Stress-disease Connection
By: Gabor Maté
Publisher: J. Wiley
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Hoboken, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 306
Subjects: Medicine, Psychosomatic -- Popular works; Stress (Psychology) -- Popular works; Psychoneuroendocrinology -- Popular works
Genres: Popular works
Description: "Can a person literally die of loneliness? Is there a connection between inhibited emotion and Alzheimer's disease? Is there a "cancer personality"? Questions such as these are emerging as scientific findings throw new light on the controversy that surrounds the mind-body connection in illness and health. Modern research is confirming the age-old wisdom that emotions profoundly affect our physiology. Repressed emotions frequently bring on stress -- which, in turn, can lead to disease. Provocative and beautifully written, When the Body Says No provides fresh information regarding these and other important issues concerning the effects of stress on health. In lucid, easy-to-follow language, Dr. Gabor Mate summarizes the latest scientific findings about the role that stress and individual emotional makeup play in an array of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, cancer, and ALS, among others. Emotions like anger share with our immune system the role of defending our boundaries. When we repress emotions, we may also suppress our immune defenses. In some people, these defenses may go awry, destroying the body rather than protecting it. Dr. Mate explores the reason why, despite a rapidly accumulating body of evidence about the mind-body unity, most physicians continue to treat physical symptoms rather than persons -- and why we must understand the mind-body link in order to take an active role in our overall health. When the Body Says No promotes learning and healing. It offers the kind of transformative insight that promotes physical and emotional self-awareness -- the lack of which, Dr. Mate asserts, is at the root of much of the stress that chronically debilitates health and prepares the ground for disease. Book jacket."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index
Table of contents: title: The Bermuda triangle; title: The little girl too good to be true; title: Stress and emotional competence; title: Buried alive; title: Never good enough; title: You are part of this too, Mom; title: Stress, hormones, repression, and cancer; title: - Something good comes out of this; title: Is there a "cancer personality"?; title: The 55 per cent solution; title: It's all in her head; title: I shall die first from the top; title: Self or non-self : the immune system confused; title: A fine balance : the biology of relationships; title: The biology of loss; title: The dance of generations; title: The biology of belief; title: The power of negative thinking; title: The seven A's of healing