Mind-Body Unity: The Immune System as a Relational Bridge
Modern healthcare often treats mind and body as if they are separate, isolated entities. Yet, science increasingly shows that this separation is artificial. The immune system, far from being a mere biological defense mechanism, serves as a ‘relational bridge’ between the body and the mind, responding to psychological, emotional, and biological signals. In his recent Read the full article…
Lisa for Pandemic Preparedness
The blogs “Mind on Infections“ and “Why Subconceptual Influences on Infections Matter Most“ explore how stress and deeper mental processes affect the body’s ability to fight infections. The present blog ties these insights together to explain how preparing for the next viral pandemic should go beyond the physical and include deeper mental layers. By integrating Read the full article…
Why Subconceptual Influences on Infections Matter Most
Present-day research evidence is clear: emotional distress and psychosocial influences significantly impact our health. However, a deeper layer of influence remains largely underexplored by mainstream research. This deeper dimension involves subconceptual mental processes—those that operate below conscious awareness but can profoundly shape how we respond to infections. Lisa can unlock this deeper understanding, offering practical Read the full article…
Mind on Infections
New research is making the connection between psychological stress and infectious diseases clearer. This blog explores key data on how the mind affects the body’s ability to fight infections. Scientific evidence now shows that chronic stress, negative emotions, and psychosocial factors can weaken the immune system, increasing susceptibility to infections and influencing disease progression. I Read the full article…
Mind on Cancer
This is still not a straightforward or easy-to-digest correlation for many people, including many colleague-physicians. Meanwhile, in research, a lot has happened over the last decennia. No longer a question of ‘belief,’ things have turned scientific. Using Lisa will enable us to go further in theory, turn this into practice, and let millions of people Read the full article…
Inflammatory Stress
Over the last few decades, research has demonstrated the significant impact of psychosocial stress on inflammation, with substantial consequences for health and healing. This stress is linked to 75%-90% of human diseases, including atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and depression. [1 and its extensive bibliography] But what causes external circumstances to be perceived as negative Read the full article…
Does Mother’s Mind Immunomodulate the Unborn Child?
The immune system is initially and perhaps most significantly shaped in the womb, influenced by the mother’s mental state, though the extent and consequences are still under research. Emerging research suggests that maternal stress and emotions can have a significant impact on fetal development. Often overlooked, these early influences may shape a person’s physical and Read the full article…
Mental Support and the Immune System
In a recent review, psychosocial interventions were associated with positive changes over time. This review was a comprehensive meta-analysis of 56 unique randomized clinical trials involving 4060 participants. [1] Immune improvements (14% increase in beneficial functions and 18% decrease in harmful functions) persisted for at least six months post-treatment. This is noteworthy, especially when compared Read the full article…
Mind and Immunology
The belief that the mind and immune system operate independently is now outdated. They are closely interconnected. Of course, there is also the nervous system, the hormonal system, etc. All are complementary within one framework. This blog focuses on the mind and the immune system, bringing in the others as needed. The following contains medicalese. Read the full article…
The Mind in Auto-Immune Disorders
As in many areas of psycho-somatics, the mind is not generally recognized as of crucial importance in auto-immune disorders. Therefore, it may surprise you that extensive scientific evidence highlights the significant influence of the psyche (mind) on the soma (body) in various Auto-Immune Disorders (AIDs). [*] Roaming around in PubMed (a comprehensive medical infobase). The Read the full article…
Acute upon Chronic Stress
With a particular emphasis on the immune/inflammatory system — both kinds of stress together (modulated by many factors) can be significantly more damaging than their sum. This is, at present, a logical intuition, worthy of further scientific investigation. There is much vagueness to get through. Vaguenesses Of course, ‘stress’ is a vague – although pretty Read the full article…
The Mind in PNIE
Over the years, the role of the mind in Psycho-Neuro-Immuno-Endocrinology (PNIE) has become increasingly apparent. This trend is bound to continue, and Lisa is bound to play a significant role in this evolution. PNIE shows the intricate connections between different systems in the human being as a whole. Regarding the mind (psyche), one can go Read the full article…
Can Stress Cause MS?
MS = Multiple Sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder that specifically affects the brain and spinal cord. Its symptoms and prognosis are pretty diverse, making causal research challenging but not impossible. According to the National MS Society, almost one million people are living with MS in the United States. Most are diagnosed between the ages of 20 Read the full article…
Is Gluten Sensitivity an Expectation Effect?
Many people avoid gluten in their diet because they see them as the cause for gastrointestinal and other symptoms and unwellness. Although this field receives a lot of media attention, there has been little science about mental causality up till now. Gluten (named after ‘glue’) is what makes dough elastic and bread chewy. It also Read the full article…
The Case of Cancer of the Prostate
The influence of the mind on cancer needs to be treated cautiously. In both directions, one should avoid wrong impressions stemming from personal/cultural biases rather than science. Also, one should respect the present-day state of scientific knowledge. Will the yet unknown be filled by the ‘bodyless mind’ or the ‘mindless body’? See also: Psychological impact Read the full article…
Tuberculosis and the Mind
Suspected since millennia, nowadays backed up with scientific data, the influence of the mind on tuberculosis is a fine example of the complexity, as well as the importance to take this seriously into account in many domains. Pertinently Despite modern treatments, tuberculosis is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and – at Read the full article…
Psychological impact on infections
In a prospective study with a hundred subjects, it was concluded that stressful events in life four times more frequently preceded than followed throat infections that had or had not been caused by streptococci [Meyer et al., 1962]. A large number of control-variables (under which sex, family size, history of allergies) showed no correlation with Read the full article…
Multiple Sclerosis
Since the first description of MS in 1877, psychological stress has been suggested as a trigger for exacerbations [Charcot, 1877]. Until recently, the clinical evidence for a causal relationship was weak. A systematic meta-analysis from 2004 of 14 prospective studies found a significant relationship between the occurrence of stressful life events and a higher risk Read the full article…
The mind and chronic inflammation
Recent research has revealed that certain social, environmental and lifestyle factors, including psychological stress, can promote systemic chronic inflammation that can, in turn, lead to diseases that represent the leading causes of disability and mortality worldwide, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, cancer, chronic kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and neurodegenerative and autoimmune disorders Read the full article…
Psychological impact on asthma
Asthma is among the most prevalent chronic diseases; in children, it now leads the chronic disease statistics. In the United States, it affects an estimated 10.6 million (14.5%) children [U.S. Department of Health, 2014]. There are an estimated 300 million asthmatics worldwide [Masoli et al., 2004]. Stress and infections have long been independently associated with Read the full article…
Rheumatic arthritis is a psychosomatic disease
Psychosocial factors are essential for the process and the treatment of rheumatic arthritis. Significant events in life lessen the symptoms, whereas a negative state of mind and small irritating events intensify the symptoms [Potter et al., 1997]. Psychological variables influencing the pathology are, among other things: pain, religious belief, expectation pattern, functional handicap [Young, 1992]. Read the full article…
Psychological impact on cancer
M.A. Visintainer et al. conducted a study with rats. After implantation of a tumor, some were administered electric shocks and some were not. Of the former, some could escape the shocks and some could not [Visintainer et al., 1982]. Afterward, they checked the number of rats that rejected the tumor (and thus were cured). The Read the full article…