Mind/Body Health

This exciting new book details the latest scientific proof that attitudes and emotions do indeed affect physical health and can play a major role in the treatment and prevention of disease. Drawing on landmark studies conducted by distinguished researchers, this book presents a solid foundation of evidence that negative emotions such as worry, anxiety, depression, hostility, and anger can increase susceptibility to disease - and that positive emotions such as optimism, humor, and a fighting spirit can protect health and increase longevity. Unique features: presents scientific data with clarity and simplicity that shows the undeniable connection between the mind and body; demonstrates the body's physical responses to perception of ourselves and our circumstances; covers how social support, friendship, and strong, stable relationships protect our health; discusses how different personalities are either prone to, or able to resist, disease; and explains the scientifically proven changes in heart rate, hormones, and body chemistry that accompany various attitudes and emotions. An important work for anyone involved in health or behavioral sciences, this book explores findings in the dramatic new field of psychoneuroimmunology, and demonstrates through the most recent technical advances how attitudes and emotions affect immunity.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.