Intro to Mind Body Medicine

Healthnotes - Science has confirmed that emotional fluctuations and emotional status directly influence health. Mind/body medicine focuses on the connection between one's opinion of one's health and the physical realities.

Mind/body medicine is embodied by the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), which links emotions with chemical processes taking place throughout the body.

Mind/body medicine takes a holistic view of the healing process, believing that because each person is unique, it follows that treatment for an individual should also be unique.

Placing emphasis on the body's ability to regulate and heal itself as well as on the importance of the practitioner/patient relationship, mind/body medicine ensures the patient is an active partner rather than a passive recipient in all stages of treatment. Given the individual emphasis of mind/body medicine, treatments can encompass a wide range of modalities, including imagery, biofeedback, yoga, and hypnotherapy.

Comments

December 12, 2007 - 1:10am — drkreisberg

Subtle language

The weakness in this article is the language such as "Mind/body medicine focuses on the connection between one's opinion of one's health and the physical realities." The word "opinion' has connotations that give the impression that mind-body medicine is all mental. Let's look at NCCAM (National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) "Mind-body medicine focuses on the interactions among the brain, mind, body, and behavior, and on the powerful ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and behavioral factors can directly affect health. It regards as fundamental an approach that respects and enhances each person's capacity for self-knowledge and self-care, and it emphasizes techniques that are grounded in this approach." So mind-body medicine is an approach to medicine that respects the patients understanding of healing in order to create a positive health outcome. Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is a field of study that continues to uncover the connections between physical immune responses and psychological factors as well as immunological factors. Mind-body medicine uses PNI as the evidence from which to base the Mind-body interventions. In this regard, 'embodied' as the post says, is a rather soft word for the relationship between mind-body medicine and PNI. Finally, the paragraph that suggest Mind-body medicine believes anything is poorly crafted. Mind-body medicine doesn't believe anything, practitioners and patients believe things. Most Mind-body medicine practices such as the work of Jim Gordon, Dean Ornish and Jon Cabot-Zinn are not generally practices unique to individuals but rather fairly rigid/ set programs that allow particpants to learn about their own individual health issues and healing capacities. These treatment plans are far from unique and generally are the same for all particpants. I hope that helps! Joel Kreisberg, DC, MA Adjunct Professor John F. Kennedy University Masters Program in Holistic Health Education http://www.jfku.edu/programs/programs/holistic_health

May 16, 2007 - 9:04pm — PaulineD

Basic Principle

This article is a basic quick explanation for those who are uneducated in alternative thinking. This article should target the audience of the many people who go through life frustrated with their health problems yet don't think beyond going to their primary conventional doctor. However, most people who have taken the time to check out this website are already aware of how important integrated complementary practices are.

April 12, 2007 - 5:18pm — Tom

I like mind/body

I am currently working with a mind/body practitioner to help fix some chronic tendonitis in my shoulder - I have tried a lot of different things and I think this is actually working. My allopathic physician gave me a cortisone shot and sent me on my way (it didn't help at all). Tom

April 3, 2007 - 3:10pm — David

superficial treatment

This is a superficial article on Mind Body medicine by Healthnotes which doesn't add any real understanding of a vast and important area of integrative health.

Naturalpath