Question of the year: What is possible? Mind Over Medicine. Dr. Lisa Ranking, MD. Last episode we talked about the placebo effect, the nocebo effect, and love (particularly self-love) as the key factor in the placebo effect.

·        Ch 4: The Whole Health Cairn

o   Factors to health are not just diet and exercise. It includes relationships, creativity, meaning/purpose, spirituality, healthy sexuality, healthy relationship with money, healing environment…all helps healthy mental/emotional life and lifestyle choices. 

o   Stressors that decrease health: loneliness, unhappy relationships, work stress, financial stress, anxiety, depression, which all can stem from trauma. 

o   Four important emotional experiences for health: Love, Gratitude, Pleasure, and Service. 

o   *The body is the physical manifestation of the sum of your life experiences. 

·        Ch 5: Loneliness Poisons the Body

o   Study of Rosetto, PA where the heart attack rate was ½ the national average and the death rate was 30-35% less too! Concluded that a supportive, tight-knit community was a better predictor of heart health than cholesterol levels or tobacco use. [Versus – Every man for himself/ survival of the fittest]. Safe, accepting, and loving environments all the parasympathetic response to engage. 

o   Another study concluded: Social ties and life expectancy are inextricably linked. Friendships may be more health-inducing than having a spouse. 

o   “When it comes to your health, you are better off single than in a bad relationship.” (medicine or poison)

o   Another study: religious attendance had a protective effect on life expectancy. Mormons have been shown to experience 24% less cancer than the general population. Spiritual connection is a common factor linking radical remission according to Dr. Kelly Turner.

o   Health sexual lives increase life expectancy, lower risk of heart disease and stroke, get less breast cancer, bolster immune systems, sleep better, appear more youthful, get relief from chronic pain, fewer migraines, less depression, and enjoy improved quality of life. If fear drives your sexual experiences, it triggers the stress response. 

o   Feeling lonely can affect your body worse than stress. 10-30% of people feel deeply lonely. John Cacioppo says it is all about altering your attitude toward others versus spending more time with others. Alone versus feeling lonely.

o   Chronic disease and fear-based relationships (aggression, hate, withdrawal of love)

·        Ch 6: Death by Overwork

o   Japan, “karoshi” means “death by overwork”

o   1/3 of America has a work obsession. “Golden Handcuffs.” The British have an average of 26 vacation days, 37 for French, to America’s 14 days per year. 137 countries mandate PTO, but not the US. 

o   Symptoms to look for: backaches, headaches, eye strain, insomnia, fatigue, dizziness, appetite disturbances, and GI distress.  These can lead to overproduction of cortisol -> infection/cancer

o   Doing work you love may save your life. Callings decrease burnout. Creativity increases health. 

·        Ch 7: Happiness is Preventative Medicine 

o   Happiness and Health are inextricably linked. Optimism and Pessimism can be learned. One study suggested that life circumstances only account for 10% of our happiness. 

o   Sometimes we parade busyness as a badge. 

o   Happiness as “the overall appreciation of one’s life-as-a-whole

o   The difference between optimism and pessimism lies in how permanent, pervasive, and personal they perceive good and bad events to be. Optimists 45% less likely to die in the same timeframe as pessimists and 77