The Role of the Brain in Physical Disease

Excerpt

That the brain can exert profound effects on the body is by no means a new idea. The Bible contains an early description (Acts 5) of stress-induced sudden cardiac death: on being severely chastised by Peter for holding back part of a gift intended to support the early church, both Ananias and his wife Sapphira "fell down and gave up the ghost." In modern times such anecdotal reports have been supplemented by more systematic research, including, for example, laboratory studies documenting decreased myocardial perfusion during acute mental stress¹ and epidemiologic studies making the case that mental states are involved in the long-term development of coronary heart disease.²

There is still skepticism, however, that mental states— and, hence, the brain—play an important role in physical illness, with some in positions of authority consigning such a notion to the realm of "folklore."³ This skepticism stems in part from the