The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions

by Sternberg, Esther M.

• ISBN13: 9780716734796
• ISBN10: 0716734796
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-01
• Publisher: W H Freeman & Co

Summary

Since ancient times humans have felt intuitively that emotions and health are linked, and recently there has been much popular speculation about this notion. But until now, without compelling evidence, it has been impossible to say for sure that such a connection really exists and especially how it works.

Now, that evidence has been discovered.

A thrilling scientific detective story, The Balance Within tells how researchers finally uncovered the elusive mind-body connection and what it means for our health. In this beautifully written book, Dr. Esther Sternberg, whose discoveries were pivotal in helping to solve this mystery, provides first hand accounts of the breakthrough experiments that revealed the physical mechanisms -- the nerves, cells, and hormones -- used by the brain and immune system to communicate with each other. She describes just how stress can make us more susceptible to all types of illnesses, and how the immune system can alter our moods. Finally, she explains how our understanding of these connections in scientific terms is helping to an

Author Biography

Esther M. Sternberg, M. D., is Director of the Molecular, Cellular, and Behavioral Integrative Neuroscience Program and Chief of the Section on Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health and National Institutes of Health.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Emotions and Disease: Molecules and Ancient Myths	1	(14)
Where Do Emotions Come From?	15	(24)
The Dirty Soup Beyond Our Skin: How the Immune System Defends Against the Outside World	39	(16)
Putting the Mind and Body Back Together Again	55	(24)
It's a Two-Way Street: The Immune System Talks to the Brain and the Brain Talks Back	79	(14)
When the Brain-Immune Communication Breaks Down	93	(16)
Can Stress Make You Sick?	109	(24)
Connecting to Others: Relationships and the Course of Disease	133	(26)
Can Believing Make You Well?	159	(22)
How the Immune System Changes Our Moods	181	(16)
Prometheus Unbound: What Does the Future Hold?	197	(16)
Bibliography	213	(20)
Index	233