• 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.
• Hippocrates cautioned physicians that curing a patient required a knowledge of the “whole of things,” of mind as well as body.
• The Greek physician, Galen, observed during the second century A.D. that melancholic women were much more prone to breast cancer than women who were cheerful.
• In 600 A.D. in India, a well-regarded compilation of texts demonstrated a strong relationship between the mental state and disease. The texts warned that the emotions such as hatred, violence, grief, and ingratitude are stronger than the body’s capability for healthy balance, and those patients who could not abandon their negative emotions create new diseases as fast as a physician can heal an old one.
• Descartes hypothesized that there were two separate substances in the world: matter, which behaved according to physical laws, and spirit, which was dimensionless and immaterial. They body was material, and the mind spiritual. Research supported Descartes' theory.
The mind and body connection is so real. I notice that when I'm sick, I'm depressed because I'm sick, or when I'm depressed, I usually feel sick! I'd like to learn more about the mind body connection, and how to feel good all the time!
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