IS ANXIETY SCARING YOU TO DEATH? One of the biggest medical complaints plaguing Americans today is anxiety. Even if you don t have a diagnosis, chances are you re living in some degree of overwhelm. While anxiety can trigger fear of death or illness, it doesn t necessarily indicate an underlying medical problem. However, over time anxiety and stress triggers the same chemistry that s been shown to cause every major disease most Americans are dying from: heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer. A hundred years ago it was thought that anxiety and fear was just in your head, and had no affect on the body. However, we ve now learned through decades of medical science that brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) directly impact your immune system, your digestive system, and even your reproductive system. That means that simply the fear of illness can actually make you sick. The reverse is also true. Organic disease in your body can trigger hormonal changes that makes you feel anxious. For example, a disturbance in your gut can trigger anxiety, although the underlying problem has nothing to do with your head. Since 95% of your serotonin is generated in the lining of your gut, something seemingly unrelated like a food intolerance, can trigger a hormonal imbalance that makes you feel anxious, long after you ve eaten that bowl of pasta. With all of this complexity in the human system, how are we to address this pervasive problem that affects so many? One way is by using the MindBody connection. Research has shown that not only can we change the way we feel emotionally by changing our thoughts, but that changing our thoughts can also change our health. In fact, the quality of the
thoughts you have creates changes in your brain, changes in your breathing, changes in your heart rate, and even changes in your DNA. What if there is an organic cause for the illness or anxiety? Would it be possible to use the mind to change this chronic problem and reverse the underlying illness? Ellen Langer has extensively studied the powerful impact of the mind on the body. In her #1 New York Times bestselling book, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility, she profiles multiple clinical studies demonstrating that changing our perspective creates changes not only in mindset, but also in physical and chemical tests. After just a week in a setting reflecting a time when they were younger, elderly participants showed dramatic positive changes in their health. Height, weight, posture, hearing, vision, even intelligence improved. They were more flexible, had greater agility and showed improved athletic performance. Wherever you put the mind, the body will follow, Langer has said. It is not our physical state that limits us, she explains it is our mindset. Over the past decades, there have been a multitude of studies reflecting the power of the mind on the body. We ve seen that severe debilitating illnesses which have proven to be impossible to cure such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD,) fibromyalgia (a chronic syndrome of pain, depression and low energy seen mostly in women,) and chronic fatigue syndrome all can reverse using MindBody techniques. As Dr. Lissa Rankin details in her #1 New York Times bestselling book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, we have seen countless spontaneous cures of diseases like thyroid disorder, infertility, autoimmune illness, and cancer that couldn t be explained using conventional
understanding alone. When we add in the understanding of the interaction between the mind and body, we can explain these phenomena easily. As a physician, I ve experienced this personally. During medical school I suffered a chronic illness doctors told me would be life-long and require medications. I was devastated and felt powerless. However, I had learned about the power of the mind to heal the body. I just hadn t been trained in how to use it to reverse the hormonal imbalance, low energy, pain, and weight gain I was experiencing. I decided not to believe the doctors, and tried something new. I addressed the illness from the inside out. I applied what I d learned in MindBody Medicine and in just 10 days, the entire illness was reversed. I quickly shed the excess weight, ended the pain pattern and migraine headaches, and no longer had recurrent viral illnesses. Was it a medical miracle? Some doctors might say so. However, because I understood the science behind how it happened, I made this the new foundation for my practice of medicine. I ve now helped hundreds of thousands of people reverse anxiety, depression, pain, and a myriad of chronic illnesses without medications. When I founded the American Institute of Mind Body Medicine, it was to teach physicians about this research that is so germane to the practice of clinical medicine. I just couldn t imagine discounting the powerful forces of the MindBody connection when I evaluate or treat a patient. I know too much that goes beyond the conventional thinking we re taught in medical school. It didn t make sense to leave this important piece out. Soon, this understanding will be integrated into mainstream practice. People are living in chronic overwhelm and anxiety. We re in too much pain. We ve got too much illness.
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