The concept of and controversy surrounding the effect of emotions and stress on health are not new; the relationship between physical and psychosocial well-being has existed throughout history and across cultures. More than 4,000 years ago, Chinese physicians noted that physical illness often followed episodes of frustration. Egyptian physicians of the same period prescribed good cheer and an optimistic attitude as ways to avoid poor health. Half a millennium before the birth of Christ, Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine, cautioned physicians that curing a patient required a knowldge of the "whole of things," of mind as well as body. That philosophy persisted for hundreds of years. I none of the best-known examples, the Greek physician Galen observed during the second century .D. that melancholic women were much more prone to breast cancer than women who were cheerful.
In 600 A.D. in In India, a well-ragarded complilation of texts called the Astangahradaya Sustrasthana demonstrated a strong relationship between mental state and disease. The texts counseled phyicians to "reject" patients who were "violent, afflicted with great grief, or full of fear." FUther it gave a poor prognonis to patients who were afflicted by intensely negative emotions. The texts warned that emotions such as hatred, violence, grief and ingratitude are stronger than the body's capability for a healthy balance, and those patients who could not abandon their negative emotions create new diseases as fast as the physician can heal an old one.
-Information found from Mind/Body Health THe Effects of Attitudes, Emotions, and Relationships by Keith J. Karren
Funny that thousands of years of experience and research and yet people still wonder why they get sick from chronic stress, anger, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe body-mind connection is intimate and cannot be separated. We need to learn to relax and forgive. Let go of the negative emotions and live well!