The Main Reason People Get Sick: Disease Starts in the Heart | Bestseller Why People Get Sick

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill suffered a stroke in his later years and his death coincided with the anniversary of his father's death Is this a coincidence? But it is said that his father was a great influence on him Three of the first five presidents of the United States died on July 4 which is Independence Day Why is it that some people are more likely to be sick at certain times? In 1945 a study was done on the timing of illnesses A doctor studied 87 patients He found that 75 of them had experienced the same event before the onset of the disease that is the loss of a relative Subsequently a large-scale study of 95,647 people also yielded similar results The results of the study showed that people had the highest rates of the disease after a bereavement compared to other factors Welcome to our book sharing session The book we are sharing is “Why People Get Sick” The author is Darian Liddell As the saying goes all illnesses start from the heart This book tells us that physical and mental health are inseparable The main causes of most diseases are mental and psychological Why are the mind and psychology the main causes of physical health? First of all we need to re-conceptualize illness Re-conceptualizing Disease Why do people get sick? Researchers in modern medicine are trying to explain a disease using a single-factor model For example when a person has an infection in his body Then the doctor determines what the pathogen is and then administers a targeted treatment However the study found that this is often not the case in real life For example we all know that the common cold is usually caused by a rhinovirus A team of researchers has been studying rhinoviruses for a long time They found that not all people get colds when they come into contact with the virus Moreover even for the same person the probability of infection is different at different times and in different states Finally, they concluded that rhinovirus itself is not enough to cause disease “Emotional distress carries a greater risk of infection Difficult life events can also increase the likelihood of actual infection This is particularly true for chronic problems such as unemployment or interpersonal difficulties” We will find that even a small cold can be related to psychological factors For example we all know that Helicobacter pylori is directly related to the development of gastric ulcers But the strange thing is 1/3 to 2/3 of the world's population carries Helicobacter pylori Only some of these people will develop ulcers while many others will probably be fine for the rest of their lives What are the factors that cause gastric ulcers? Besides Helicobacter pylori mental stress is one of the major causes Therefore this brings us to think about what causes the disease Through these cases we can see that diseases are often caused by psychological reasons There is another question What do the symptoms in a person's body mean? For example, headaches stomachaches, tinnitus what do these symptoms mean? Symptoms amount to a message of pain which can originate from our body or from our mind For example, stomach pain gastroenteritis can cause stomach pain However stomach ache can also occur when a person is stressed or under great pressure How can knowing this help us? This is very important If we don't figure out the source of the symptoms but immediately use drugs to curb the symptoms it is possible that a small problem will become a big problem Third question: What is the meaning of illness? Disease is educational Some of the people who have succeeded in fighting cancer have invariably made some significant change These changes may be in character in lifestyle or even in outlook on life and values For example there are some people who used to look at everything in an unfavorable way and have a narrow mind After getting sick they become peaceful and open-minded It can be said that they are all wise people Because they realized the truth behind their illnesses They made changes that were beneficial to their health and even to their lives In fact illness is part of our life It is just like the ups and downs we go through Everyone gets sick but don't let it go to waste We must realize the truth behind the illness make some changes in our lives and even make it an enhancement of our own lives Diseases are physical and mental As the saying goes illness is born in the mind As the name suggests it is a physical disease caused by mental and psychological factors In the book, the author says “No disease is caused entirely by psychological factors and very few diseases are completely unaffected by psychological factors There is a potential link between physical and mental health Often, when people get sick some tend to attribute it to an infection or a problem with an organ in the body However the truth is that illness may not be the result of a single organ or germ but rather a signal from the body How the mind affects the body let's look at some of the factors that contribute to mental and psychological conditions and problems that can affect one's physical health The first factor is stress In the 1920s there was a young doctor named Hans Scheyer One day he suddenly realized a problem that is although all the hospitalized patients had different diseases they all showed the same kind of attitude that is depression So he began to think about whether there could be a common physiological reaction behind depression So he started an animal experiment The experiment as brutal as it sounds was to find ways to make these little animals have unpleasant experiences such as through electric shocks toxins, and high temperatures After a while he realized that the animals had a common physical change What were these changes? First the adrenal cortex increased in size The adrenal cortex is where the stress hormone cortisol is secreted which means that their stress levels increase over time If a person's cortisol level increases then his energy will be utilized by his muscles quickly In this way when we are in danger we can quickly prepare for fight or flight However this is also a time when people are under high levels of stress Obviously one cannot remain in this state for a long time Secondly, the thymus spleen and lymph nodes have shrunk These are the core immune organs of the body and shrinking means a decrease in immunity Scheuer has named these changes General Adaptation Syndrome He believes that such changes occur when people face stressful problems How does Scheie explain General Adaptation Syndrome? When a person faces stress the first thing that happens is that the body produces an alert response to the stimulus the cortisol hormone mentioned above The increase in cortisol hormone mentioned above which prepares the person for fight or flight is the body's way of protecting itself However if the stressful stimulus lasts too long the body will become exhausted after a period of resistance If the pressure persists this mechanism which was originally designed to protect survival will exhaust the body's energy and lead to physical weakness and may even lead to death This is the mechanism by which stress causes damage to the human body What are the common sources of stress in our lives? There are three types While the first two types may be very familiar to us the third type is often overlooked The first is acute stress For example the sudden loss of a job a sudden change in marriage or the death of a loved one are common sources of stress in life The second is cumulative stress For example if you have a bad relationship with your boss at work and you work very hard every day this is a kind of chronic cumulative stress This is a form of chronic cumulative stress that can negatively affect our bodies over a long period of time The third source of stress that many people overlook is called emptiness What is emptiness? Feeling lonely is a type of emptiness Some studies even say that loneliness is more harmful than smoking This is because humans are animals that live in groups For our ancestors when a person leaves the group it means that it is difficult to survive Therefore when a person feels lonely his body will produce a lot of stress reactions In the long run it will cause great harm to the body In fact too much leisure can also produce a feeling of emptiness For human beings too much pressure is not good and too little pressure is not good As we all know there is a period when people are susceptible to health problems and that is when they have just retired This is because suddenly the normal pressure of work is gone and it is very relaxing Therefore many elderly people will have various health problems at this stage Therefore keeping stress levels moderate and manageable is an important factor in maintaining good health So how do you manage the right amount of stress? Stress comes from the uncontrollable things in life that we cannot handle There are two ways to make stress manageable The first is to subtract from life This is actually a kind of wisdom Often we are overstressed because we have too much to do and we can't handle it So by subtracting in moderation we can make stress moderate and more manageable Take the story of Steve Jobs When he returned to the helm of Apple he realized that the company was on the verge of collapse Because it had too many product lines but none of the products were explosive At that point he started to cut back He planned to make only two types of products each type of product is divided into a normal version and an advanced version A total of four products and then take those products to the extreme In this way he can reduce the pressure and focus more on getting things done Second make stress as predictable as possible One study found that during World War II people living in the suburbs of London had a higher incidence of stomach ulcers than those living in the city The reason? It wasn't because they were eating unhealthy food It was because the bombing in the suburbs was so random so unregulated that the people living there were on edge not knowing when their heads were going to explode You never know when a bomb is going to fall on your head So when a person is exposed to unpredictable stress it is often very harmful to the body The second factor that causes disease is called the timing of disease We can also call it the timing of the disease Most doctors have found that certain diseases are more common at certain times of the day For example every Monday morning is the time when heart disease is at its peak Why is that? First of all people's metabolism is very strong in the morning which makes it easy for the heart to get insufficient blood Second Monday is the beginning of the week people's working condition is more nervous Another example is the former British Prime Minister Winston CHURCHILL whom we mentioned at the beginning He died on the anniversary of his father's death This is because his father was a great influence on him Three of the first five presidents of the United States died on the 4th of July which is the Independence Day of the United States It is Independence Day At certain times of the year some people are more likely to get sick Sometimes we see in TV dramas that some elderly people feel sick at heart when they hear the news that their loved ones have left This phenomenon is not a mere interpretation but is supported by research Studies have proven that after the loss of a loved one the risk of a number of diseases increases These include diabetes ulcerative colitis and skin diseases Why is this? Because when a person suffers sudden pain the function of the immune system decreases In particular the immunity level of lymphocytes decreases and the activity of other immune cells also decreases Therefore when a person's immune system is out of balance health problems will occur In addition to the death of a loved one the anniversary of the death of a loved one is also a time when some diseases occur in people An example is given in the book A 45-year-old woman had no history of heart disease However, one day at 5:00 in the morning she suddenly developed severe heart pain She was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with heart disease Later the doctor found out that her husband had also suffered from heart disease six years ago Six years ago her husband also died in her arms at 5 am from a sudden heart attack We can see that these two cases are not just coincidental but somehow related There was also an elderly woman who came to the hospital with an acute attack of lung disease When the doctors took her medical history they found that She had been hospitalized three times in the past three years and each time she was hospitalized on the same day the day her husband died Therefore the death of a relative and the anniversary of the death of a relative are times of high incidence of some diseases The reason is that the memory system which is responsible for storing recording, and remembering remains in a highly active state throughout a person's life Sometimes you think you've forgotten something but your subconscious mind is still holding on to it As a result some of the information in our memories may manifest in a somatic symptom at certain times The third factor that contributes to illness is language Language is a double-edged sword Good language can have a good effect on us but bad language can also have a bad effect on us Good language can have a good effect on us and bad language can have a negative effect on us Everyone has experienced this: When you hear bad language you get angry and your body reacts with a rapid heartbeat increased blood pressure and a flushed face One of my interns was signing preoperative notes with a patient's family and because he was inexperienced at the time He told the patient's family Your father may have a malignant tumor in his brain Unexpectedly the patient's family fainted in front of him right after he spoke From this we can see that speech has a great effect on a person's body Language affects one's thinking which in turn causes emotions Emotions affect our nervous system and cause our body to react The best example is hypnosis The most typical example of this is hypnosis because language causes psychological suggestion There was a study on contact dermatitis conducted by a team of Japanese researchers They recruited 13 subjects all of whom were particularly prone to allergies ie hypersensitive First they touched the subjects' arms with a harmless leaf and told them that the leaf was allergenic Then they touched the other arm of the subject with a truly sensitizing leaf and told them that the leaf was harmless The results were surprising All 13 subjects had allergic reactions on their skin when exposed to the harmless leaf while only two had allergic reactions when exposed to the actual sensitizing leaf What does this mean? Language really does affect a person's thinking which leads to a corresponding physical reaction Through these cases we can understand that language can shape our experience of reality and this experience can last for many years So what should we do in our lives? First of all we must use good language especially with our loved ones such as our children Instead of being sarcastic we should praise them with good words and they will be better for it We also need to stay away from people who often hurt us with their words This way we will not only feel good but also have good health The fourth factor that causes disease is belief Have you ever heard of the placebo effect? For example here is a glass of plain water but the doctor tells the patient that this is the most advanced medicine ever developed After the patient drinks it the uncomfortable symptoms really go away This is the placebo effect Why is this so? Because it brings a powerful force to people which is psychological suggestion The placebo effect illustrates the point that everyone's mind can become very strong As long as the mind becomes strong the body will be able to resist diseases What does this tell us? The most important thing is not to label yourself as sick Some older people like to call themselves sick A little headache, a little fever a little discomfort and they feel that it is not a serious illness Unbeknownst to them this kind of psychological implication can sometimes lead to physical unhealthiness The fifth factor that causes illness is called conversion disorder What is a conversion disorder? It means that when a person's psychological problems cannot be solved they are transformed into some physical symptoms that manifest themselves For example, a soldier gets hives At the same time the hives had a distinctive shape a pattern of long horizontal stripes like the marks of a whip Doctors later discovered that he had been whipped as a child for looking out the window of the girls' dormitory This time the hives returned because he visited a favorite nurse and was reprimanded by a military officer Then, within an hour he developed the symptoms Another example is a little girl with ulcerative colitis This is an autoimmune disease that usually causes severe abdominal pain and diarrhea When did she develop it? When she was separated from her father So some of the bad feelings come out as physical symptoms Conversion disorder shows that the same disease or symptom means different things to different patients And even for the same patient a disease or symptom can mean different things at different times Of course we cannot simply determine that a symptom is a conversion disorder We have to leave the diagnosis to the professional doctors in the regular hospital The sixth factor that causes illness is interpersonal relationships In the book the author mentioned a concept called regurgitation syndrome It comes from researchers' observations of children The study found that some babies would show a special behavior when their mothers left them that is they would spit out what they had eaten and then eat it again just like regurgitation He is mimicking his mother's breastfeeding behavior This mimicry helps him not to suffer psychologically In many cases of ruminant syndrome there is a sudden separation from the mother or a break in breastfeeding In some cases after a loved one has left the person will wear their clothes or mimic their behavior with their belongings This can be a defense mechanism They imitate these behaviors to make themselves feel as if their loved one is still with them Imitation is an important mechanism of human interaction and we should not underestimate the impact of interpersonal relationships on health Especially in parenting education we must not neglect the companionship of our children It plays a more important role in a child's development than we can imagine A doctor once studied an orphanage The orphanage was well equipped but there was not much interaction with the children He later studied another orphanage Although the second orphanage was not well equipped the children grew up in it However the percentage of children growing up there was higher than in the first orphanage both physically and mentally After observing he noticed that in the second orphanage many local women came every day to take care of the children themselves They interacted with the children The percentage of children who grew up mentally and physically healthy was higher among those who had adequate interaction with adults than among those who lacked such interaction Not only do some factors contribute to mental and psychological conditions and problems but emotions also affect some organs and systems in the body The impact of emotions on health and immunity Emotional problems can lead to heart disease The organ most easily affected by negative emotions is the heart Everyone has experienced the feeling that their heart beats faster and their blood pressure rises when they are angry which is the heart's response to emotion This is the heart's response to emotion because our heart is controlled by the plant nerves When a person is angry, angry the blood supply to the heart will increase making the heart beat faster Nowadays the incidence of heart disease is very high In the United States about one in five people dies of heart disease There used to be a heart clinic in San Francisco that had a lot of patients The owner of the clinic noticed that the chairs in the waiting room were breaking down very quickly and it didn't take long for the chairs to break down He couldn't find a reason for it Until one day a design decorator came to the clinic The decorator saw the worn chairs and asked "What's wrong with the patients? " This statement inspired the doctors here to look into this type of patient These patients are often very anxious impatient people who sit in their chairs all the time while waiting to be seen Our advice to people who are chronically anxious is to learn to slow down How do we do that? We suggest meditation or breathing exercises On the one hand it can organize your thoughts and reduce distractions On the other hand it is good for your physical and mental health There are two common emotions that have a great impact on our heart health one is fear and the other is anger As we all know the main cause of sudden death is heart disease and the two main causes of this kind of heart disease are One is severe arrhythmia the other is acute myocardial infarction caused by atherosclerosis Both of these diseases are related to our bad emotions So we should be careful of fear and anger Another factor that affects heart health is social relationships A study found that there is a small town in the United States with only 1600 residents However the mortality rate of heart attack among the residents of the town was half that of other general towns in the United States Oddly enough their diet was not very healthy and they also liked to smoke So what makes their heart health better? It turns out that they have very good social relationships In this small town people have good relationships and it's a good support system So good social relationships including relationships with coworkers relationships with family and so on are all helpful for our heart health The second body system that is easily affected by emotions is the immune system The immune system is very important without its protection a person may not be able to survive for even a few days For example AIDS patients usually die because the AIDS virus attacks the immune cells in the body Eventually the immune system almost fails As a result a person is susceptible to a wide range of diseases that can be life-threatening In the past people thought of the body's immune cells as an army They believed that this army was independent of the human nervous system because it would always automatically protect the body For example if you have a small wound in your body you don't need to be aware of it for immune cells gather around the wound to defend against germs However more and more research is showing that human immune cells are regulated by the psychological and neurological systems For example some people are allergic to pollen Allergies are usually the result of a malfunction in the immune system It has been found that some people with pollen allergies can get worse without even touching the pollen just by looking at pictures of it The reason for this is that these pseudo stimuli affect the human mind which in turn affects the nervous system and causes changes in the body's internal environment Therefore the immune system is affected by psychological factors In addition the immune system is also affected by social relationships Do you know what we rely on to compensate for jet lag? We rely mainly on sunlight because sunlight ha a regulatory effect on our biological clock However some studies have found that when a person arrives in an area with jet lag if he or she engages in some social activities such as talking to others the jet lag will be reversed more quickly Therefore human interactions will affect a person's biorhythm which is related to the person's immunity In addition when people have a marriage breakup separation of relatives and other changes such as chronic arthritis type 1 diabetes and other diseases symptoms will be aggravated This is because these social relationships affect the immune system Depression is a major factor in cancer Next we will talk about the relationship between cancer and psychological state Have you ever heard of a term called cancer personality? What does it mean? It means that more and more studies have found that Although depression is not the main cause of cancer it is an important factor in promoting the development of cancer There are two major emotional factors associated with cancer One is a bad factor called depression and the other is a good factor called motivation Let's talk about depression first People who have been depressed for a long time have a significant decrease in the activity of their immune cells especially the natural killer cells These cells are the body's main weapons for eliminating cancer cells so people who are chronically depressed have a weakened immune system The opposite of depression is a state called morale Full of fighting spirit positive and optimistic attitude is very helpful for cancer recovery There is a cancer patient from the disease to the present has passed many years at that time many of his patients have died and he is one of the few people who won the battle against cancer He said that the reason he was able to overcome this disease is because from the first day of his illness in addition to insisting on regular treatment he never gave up on himself and his fighting spirit never disappeared What is fighting spirit? Fighting spirit is a kind of optimism a spirit of never giving up So whether it is our career or our health we should stay optimistic and never give up on ourselves This is very important because it allows you to face life with a good attitude which in turn promotes good health Emphasize mental health There is a common psychological treatment called cognitive behavioral therapy It involves changing people's cognition so that they can change their behavior and develop good habits over time Medical research shows that 76% of all diseases come from a person's own emotions More importantly it gives us a way of thinking about illness and reminds us pay attention to the influence of mental and psychological factors on illness As the author of the book says We have to understand that although there are few diseases in the world that are caused entirely by psychological factors there are also few diseases in the world that are not influenced by psychological factors Why do people get sick? This is the end of the book We have analyzed the complexity of the causes of a person's illness and we have talked about the factors that can affect a person's physical health through mental and psychological factors including stress, emotions language beliefs, and state of mind In fact all of these considerations and research studies are aimed at enabling us to have a healthier body and a happier life If you find today's article helpful don't forget to share it with your family and friends See you in the next issue