Drug Medical Information

FORTY-SOMETHING FOREVER: A LONGEVITY PRIMER - MORE NATURAL RESOURCES: FEED YOUR SOUL

The latest research assures us our thoughts and emotions have a huge impact on our health. Although the field of psychneuroimmunology is still in its infancy, there is good evidence we can literally 'worry' ourselves sick, or become self-healers by practicing mind-power medicine.
Here's what science knows now about 'mood medicine':
• Exercise your mind.
Mental workouts are as important as muscle-boosting exercises, say researchers who have found that actors, lawyers, public speakers and others who remain healthy and vital into their nineties do so by keeping their wits about them and their memories intact. Assume your brain will atrophy if you don't use it. Stay mentally fit by reading, memorizing, studying and playing mind-stretching games: bridge, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit are a few that come easily to mind.
• Positive thinking pays off.
People who see themselves and the world through rose-colored glasses are healthier than those who are more realistic. Great expectations boost the immune system. Fear of the future raises the blood pressure, invites invasion by opportunistic infections, encourages the growth ofunwanted cells, leads to muscular degeneration and cardiovascular failure.
• A 'hurting' heart hurts you.
Harsh feelings are physically destructive as well as emotionally painful. Carrying a grudge, feelings of hostility, anger, disgust, and contempt for others appears to have lethal consequences. Angry people who have walled themselves off from loved ones -despite the reason - have more heart attacks and more blockage of the coronary arteries than those who can forgive and forget.
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