Healthy Habits

I think reading is a good activity to keep your mind working...I'll have to read up on that.

I discovered a book at the library not long ago, called Who Gets Sick: How Beliefs, Moods, and Thoughts Affect Your Health, by Blair Justine.

The title says a lot. In days past, about 20 years ago, most doctors believed that moods and beliefs had nothing to do with the physical process of disease. In fact, in 1990, a doctor set out to prove that mental and emotional states had nothing to do with the outcome of cancer. So he invited 86 women who were beyond treatment, in the final stage of breast cancer to participate in a study. He provided one hour per week of "psychotherapy," which included instruction on self-hypnosis, to 43 of the women. The other 43 were considered the control group, and received no psychotherapy. After TEN years, 3 of the women were still living. They all belonged to the group with psychotherapy. And the others in that group had survived twice as long as the control group. So now there have been numerous studies exploring the relationship between mental and emotional states, and even personality characteristics and disease.

The article named above says that close personal relationships are correlated with health. And that Positive Outlook has a strong effect on healing. It says that hypnosis and imagery, which are used for relaxation, help strengthen the immune system and counteract the cortico-steroids which are produced by stress.

It contains a quote by D. Burns:

You can't help growing older, but you can help growing old.

Interesting article, which supports the others I have been reading about staying healthy into old age. I hesitate to use that term, it is very subjective. Some are old at 50, some are young at 80. We are living longer, so we have to find ways to maximize the experience, by optimizing our health. And there are some very simple habits we can cultivate to do this. Stay tuned to this channel for continuing updates in the rejuvenation frontier.