Macquarie Institute Australia - Science

Macquarie Institute Australia - Article Library

Article: Mind Over Medicine

by Paula Goodyer

It has long been suspected that your head could help your health. Now the scientists agree

Phew. In a Sydney clinic, a 30-year-old woman has just heard the good news - surgery has successfully wiped out the abnormal cells that a Pap test detected in her cervix. And there's some not-so-good news, too. The wart virus that causes these potentially cancerous cells doesn't bow out so easily. It stays in the body for good, potentially generating more dodgy cells later on. But the real point of this story is what the doctor recommends to help keep the virus quiet - not drugs, but yoga. Stress, he explains, is one of the factors that inflames the virus, and yoga can ease stress.

Not so long ago the idea that something going on in your head could seriously affect your bowels or your bones had about as much medical credibility as crystal therapy.

But mind-body medicine is now a respected area of research, with growing evidence to suggest that the way we think has a real impact on health: children in burns units who treat their injuries as no big deal and don't dwell too deeply on the implications of their burns recover faster than others; a study of people with melanoma at the University of Sydney and Sydney melanoma unit found that the optimists who thought their treatment would cure them or give them an extra year of life lived twice as long as those who believed they only had a few months to live; and when Canadian researchers trialled a new drug to help boost dopamine production in Parkinson's patients, the brains of those given a placebo released as much dopamine as those given the new drug.

One reason doctors take the effects of our thoughts on health more seriously is that science now has the technology to demystify stress and explain its impact on the body in medical terms. One effect is a rush of the hormone cortisol, which can suppress the immune system, sabotaging your ability to fight infection. It helps explain why a cold sore erupts on your lip the day before a job interview, or why you develop flu when you're frazzled. One risk factor for thinning bones (and therefore osteoporosis) is prolonged use of medication containing cortisone, which has a similar effect to cortisol. Research from Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology also suggests that long-term stress may increase the risk of bowel cancer.

"Short bursts of stress aren't a big problem," explains Dr Vicki Kotsirilos, a Melbourne GP and member of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association http://www.aima.net.au. "It's the physiological toll caused by chronic stress that does so much harm." She adds that diabetes - now so common in industrialised countries it's almost an epidemic - happens when your body can no longer control your blood sugar levels properly, and one effect of stress, says Kotsirilos, is to destabilise blood sugar.

As health practitioners learn more about the mind's role in causing illness, they're also acknowledging its part in the healing process. Around 80 per cent of GPs are now referring patients to alternative therapies, such as hypnotherapy and meditation. At the Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick, Sydney, a program to see if meditation can improve attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) is looking good. Of 16 children with ADHD, four are now off their medication.

At the Pain Management Centre at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, patients with back problems and arthritis are using a form of Buddhist meditation to manage their chronic pain. When clinical psychologist Lynne Bousfield first introduced the technique 10 years ago, she admits she was so wary of being labelled New Age, she called it "relaxation" instead. It works, she explains, not by banishing pain, but by making people more aware that their thinking exacerbates the experience of pain.

"Fear, anxiety and depression make pain worse," she explains. "But meditation helps people learn to cope better, and often deal with pain without drugs."

What we really want to hear, of course, is that we can think cancer away. But although some research suggests optimism can increase survival (and that depression can shorten it), many experts say - regretfully - that the evidence is still inconsistent. So why did the optimistic melanoma patients in the University of Sydney's study survive longer? Professor Stewart Dunn of the Royal North Shore Hospital's department of psychological medicine wishes he knew.

"One possible explanation is that because patients feel better, they look after aspects of their life that promote health," he says. "They might exercise, follow a healthier diet, or have extra treatments, for instance. Or is it because something else intervenes and impacts on their immune system? At this stage we just don't know. Although a lot of studies show a link between stress and immunity and disease outcome, with cancer the link isn't so clear."

"As for the idea that bottling up your feelings makes you cancer-prone, the research isn't convincing," says Sarah Edelman of the health psychology unit at the University of Technology, Sydney.

"It was a theory in the 1980s when research suggested there was a 'cancer personality', but studies since then have been inconsistent," Edelman says. Without more solid evidence, she thinks it's dangerous ground - people may blame their disease on themselves or someone else, and end up feeling worse.

"But although it's hard to be conclusive about the role of the mind in developing or surviving cancer, the evidence is much stronger for heart disease," she adds.

"There's very clear evidence that depression can contribute to heart disease," Edelman says. "It may not rate as highly as smoking and obesity, but it's up there as a major risk factor, and there's strong evidence that anger and hostility are risk factors, too."

The message from all this is that when it comes to staying healthy, cleaning up your head is almost as important as cleaning out your arteries. It's not that we haven't been urged to de-stress and think positive before - what's new is there's a strong scientific basis for doing it.

Five ways to think yourself healthy

* Write off your anger "Vent your feelings on paper," suggests Professor Avni Sali of the Graduate School of Integrative Medicine at Swinburne University. "But throw the paper away as soon as you've written it."

* Put your mind into neutral "The list of health benefits chalked up to meditation is impressive, but it doesn't grab everyone," says Dr Vicki Kotsirilos. Good alternatives are Tai Chi, Qigong, yoga, walking or jogging.

* Tune in to ab Fab or Ali G Laughter releases endorphins (the body's natural pain-killers) and may boost your immune system, too.

* If you're depressed, get help Depression is a major factor in poor health. Meditating when you recover from depression can prevent a relapse.

* Make more friends Loneliness ups the risk of mental illness, heart disease, high blood pressure and arthritis.

The power of love

* Dr Vicki Kotsirilos recalls a female patient who complained of fatigue, joint pain and digestion problems. She was in a bad relationship and unhappy. "Blood tests showed a list of things that were out of kilter, including her liver function, immunity and thyroid gland. I prescribed thyroid medication and a multivitamin. She improved a bit at first, but two months later there was quite a sudden improvement. There was only one thing that had changed in her life: she'd fallen in love."

Can faith heal?

* Churchgoers have healthier blood pressure readings and half the risk of dying from coronary heart disease than non-churchgoers. Research has found many positive links between religion and good health, but the connection is not clear. Perhaps churchgoers live more sober lives, or it may be because they have more social support. Another theory is that prayer calms the mind in a similar way to meditation.