Research done at King's College London showing that an effective way to treat serious stomach disorders like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease is through stress management backs up the theories of a prominent San Antonio physician who has studied and written a book on the concept of 'mind body medicine,' News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Dr. Venkat Srinivasan, who is a physician at San Antonio's Southwest General Hospital, says much can be accomplished to improve the status of the body by treating the mind.
"In fact, we may start about influencing the mind as an overall health promotion tool, and we could be improving the health outcomes of various organ systems," he said.
The researchers say relaxation and psychotherapy, which don't affect even treat the stomach at all, are just as effective in dealing with inflammatory bowel disease as analgesics and opioids, and without the potential addiction and side effects.
Dr. Srinivasan says doctors have for too long broken up the human body into specific segments, each with specific problems, while it is more effective to treat the body as a single organism.
"We have artificially divided them into diseases of the heart, diseases of the gut, diseases of the kidney," he said. "In fact, we have one human body."
Srinivasan says his research has examined the impact that stress and other mental and emotional factors have on our physical health, and find that the impact is startling.He says many of us realize that there is a connection between our minds and our bodies.
"We have all experienced 'a gut feeling'," he said. "We have butterflies in our stomach, and get a nauseating thought."
Dr. Srinivasan says if we could leverage our thoughts to treat diseases of our body, it could lead to a medical breakthrough. He says research like the study just released by the physicians in London is one step closer to realizing that goal.