- Manuela Martinez and her colleagues were intrigued. Why
was it that women who had suffered domestic violence seemed more prone
to outbreaks of cold sores?
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- On the surface there appeared to be no connection between
the physical and emotional abuse they suffered and the herpes infection
that broke out on their lips. To try to find a link, they carried out a
detailed profile of the saliva of a group of 74 survivors of abuse and
compared it to a similar analysis of other women. They found that the abused
women had far fewer immune-system compounds able to neutralise the virus.
Their levels of antibodies to the virus were also lower. "Our findings
confirm that the stress associated with partner violence could impair health
by increasing the likelihood of viral reactivation and reducing the ability
to suppress virus proliferation,'' says Dr Martinez, of the department
of psychology at Valencia university.
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- The findings are part of a new and increasing body of
evidence showing that the mind, personality and outlook can influence the
development and progress of disease. New research, some of it being reported
at an international conference on psychosomatic medicine this month, shows
that the mind can have an effect on many conditions, from arthritis to
cancer and heart disease.
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- Although Western medicine is still largely based on the
paradigm that the mind and body are separate from one another, there is
increasing evidence to the contrary. Such a mind-body connection has been
hinted at down the centuries, but most of the evidence until now has been
anecdotal or inconclusive. But a revival in interest in the mind-body link
has triggered a wave of new research. Doctors in Holland who investigated
heart disease treatments in almost 1,000 people found that patients with
so-called type-D personalities - negative types who have difficulty communicating
their emotions - were four times as likely to have heart problems. The
same findings have now emerged from at least two other studies.
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- At Ohio State University, scientists have established
that there is a mind-body connection in wound-healing. Their studies found
that animals' skin wounds healed twice as quickly when they had social
contact with other animals. "Stress delays wound-healing, and social
contact helps counteract this delay," says Dr Courtney DeVries, who
led the study.
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- And psychologists at Eastern Michigan University studied
the outcome of bone-marrow transplants and found increased rates of survival
among patients who were more defiant, better adjusted, and less depressed.
"This first large-scale study provides evidence that psychosocial
variables can affect survival,'' say the researchers.
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- The links don't stop there. Doctors in the UK and Germany
looked at 1,300 elderly men and women over 10 years, and found a connection
between personality and cancer deaths. "The results justify belief
that certain types of cancer may be related to specific stress and personality
factors," say the researchers. A Japanese study based on more than
30,000 people concluded that personality may affect mortality rates among
cancer and cardiovascular disease sufferes. A second study found that skin
cancer patients who had group therapy had higher levels of immune-enhancing
cells. And in Los Angeles, scientists at the Digestive Diseases Research
Center believe that the mind can even bring about chronic heartburn. "The
presence of a severe, sustained life stress during the previous six months
significantly increased heartburn symptoms during the following four months.
As with other chronic conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, heartburn
severity appears to be responsive to major life events," they say.
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- A large number of studies have shown that people who
are depressed suffer greater levels of disease and illness, but research
is increasingly showing that happiness and positive attitudes can have
the opposite effect. Scientists in Finland carried out personality tests
on 500 older people and then studied them for a decade. Fifty four per
cent of the positive thinkers were still alive ten years laters, compared
to 39 per cent of the others. Those with a negative slant on life were
also six times more likely to be in institutional care at the end of the
survey.
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- At Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, researchers
looked at the effect of humour on heart disease, and found that happy people
were healthier. Not only were they less likely to get heart disease, they
were also less prone to high blood pressure: "The results suggest
that the propensity to laugh may contribute to cardio-protection,"
say the researchers. The mind-body link has also triggered new treatments.
At Stanford University, one team found that metastatic breast cancer patients
who were in a support group that used self-hypnosis as well as other mind-body
techniques lived some 18 months longer than a control group.
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- With so much research now suggesting powerful mind-body
links, the hunt is on for the mechanisms involved. How can abstract thoughts
and feelings affect the body and influence the development and progress
of diseases and conditions that are so diverse? Prime candidates for bridging
the gap between mind and body include neurotransmitters, the nervous system,
hormones and the immune system.
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- Stress is heavily implicated, with several studies showing
that stressed people have lower levels of natural killer cells and are
more vulnerable to disease. One study found that students taking exams
had depressed immune systems, while others have shown links between high
stress events such as divorce and redundancy and the onset of disease.
People with a large number of friends and who also have pets have greater
immune-system activity.
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- Stress is known to trigger physical reactions, especially
in the flight-or-fight response to stimulus. But although it's known that
stress can have an effect on the immune system, it is still not known how
it can lead to a specific disease. Researchers in the relatively new area
of psychoneuroimmunology, the study of how the mind and body interact in
health and disease, are dedicated to discovering that mechanism.
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- One theory is that there is a direct communication system
between the immune system, which orchestrates the body's defences, and
the nervous system, which passes information between the body and the brain.
Some experts believe that nerve endings in the thymus, spleen and bone
marrow are evidence of communication.
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- But others maintain that the effects of the mind on disease
are still unproven, and that any apparent effects can have different explanations.
Are people with a large number of friends likely to live longer because
of some unknown socialising effect, or because the friends are more likely
to help them through illness? There are concerns too that mind-body explanations
may have an adverse effect on patients with serious diseases, who may feel
that they are in some way to blame.
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- "It is important to underline the hypothetical nature
of these relationships," says Dr Vincent Jadoulle of the UniversitÈ
Catholique de Louvain. "Psychosomatic explanations risk being used
to fill in knowledge gaps, and to give the illusion that we can avoid or
control a disease. They especially risk making the patients feel guilty
for their cancer or its development."
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- ©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=608643
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