In last week's blog, I reviewed UltraWellness Key #6 how important energy is for life and for UltraWellness.

You learned why we lose it and how to make it.

But in this final week of our journey, I'd like to talk about an equally important factor in health - UltraWellness Key #7.

It's one that causes or worsens some 95 percent of all illnesses.

And it's something that, once you get it under control, is more important than cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, and any other risk factor in determining whether you will live a long and healthy life.

What is this crucial factor?

It is your attitude, social network, community, and spiritual beliefs.

In fact, one of the biggest predictors of longevity is psychological resiliency -- being able to roll with the punches life throws at you.

**Remember, for more detail on exactly how you can solve "mental problems" without drugs or therapy you can access an in-depth video as well the entire video course on all 7 of the keys to UltraWellness at no charge by going to the website below:

==> http://www.ultrawellness.com/p?i=49

This concept isn't new.

Recently, I was browsing through my old books and found one that I read in college called "Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer."

It was written by Kenneth Pelletier, a friend of mine who is a leader in the field of mind/body medicine. He is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Arizona. 

It was published in 1977, but its basic truths remain the same.

The book states that there is a dramatic and powerful connection between the mind and body and vice versa.

But it really should not be called a connection because it is just ONE bidirectional system.

Hans Selye, MD, the man who coined the word stress and first mapped out its biological effects, said:

"The modern physician should know as much about emotions and thoughts as about disease symptoms and drugs. This approach would appear to hold more promise of cure than anything medicine has given us to date."

It's true.

==> The most powerful pharmacy in the world is right between your ears!

Here's an example.

One of my long-term patients came to see my after his wife died.  He had suddenly developed heart failure.  His heart just wouldn't pump. 

What had caused this?

Well, his heart was flooded with grief molecules -- hormones like adrenalin, noradrenalin, cortisol, and more.   

This is an actual phenomenon.

In fact, the New England Journal of Medicine recently published a study about how grief or emotional trauma can cause heart failure -- literally, a broken heart!

So rather than give my patient drugs for "heart failure" as I was taught, I suggested he receive healing touch, a form of energy, and emotional healing. 

The result?

He recovered dramatically.  Touch, not medication, healed his heart.

If you find this surprising or just plain weird or to hocus-pocus, you're not alone.

Americans just aren't used to viewing things this way.

We all learned how to read and write in school. But most of us never learned how to use our minds to help us with the most important survival skills -- staying happy and healthy.

Other cultures are very different. 

Herbert Benson, MD of Harvard Medical School has demonstrated the amazing power of trained meditators from Tibet to control their physiology.

These meditators can actually slow their metabolism, change their heart rate and brain waves, and raise or lower their body temperature.

Dr. Benson even documented on film an ancient practice called tumo, the generating of internal heat, performed by initiated Tibetan monks. 

They are wrapped in icy cold sheets and must dry them from their internal heat.  It is speculated that they do this by actively burning something called brown fat.  

Amazingly, these monks can sit naked on a snowy mountaintop all night and not freeze, keeping themselves warm with their internal heat.

That's something most of us don't have any consciousness of, or control over. 

Yet imagine if you could turn on fat burning and lose weight -- with your mind!

That is ultimately the power of your mind and beliefs. 

Unfortunately, most of us are not trained to address the stressful psychic loads that are the burden of the 21st century.  

And they are killing us.

Just consider these facts:

* 95 percent of all illness is caused or worsened by stress.

* Low socioeconomic status is associated with poorer health outcomes and risk of death from all causes. This not related to poorer health habits, but to feelings of powerlessness and loss of control.

* Internalized racism and stress are associated with high amounts of belly fat.

* Stress hormones damage the hippocampus -- the memory center in the brain that causes memory loss and dementia.

* In a study of people who volunteered to have cold viruses injected into their noses, only people with a high level of perceived stress got colds.

* Women with metastatic breast cancer may survive twice as long if they are part of a support group.

* Belonging to a group -- a religious group, a bowling club, a quilting group, for example -- reduces risk of death from all causes and increases longevity regardless of other health habits.

* In a study of doctors, those who scored high on hostility questionnaires had a higher risk of heart attacks than those who smoked, were overweight, had high blood pressure or didn't exercise.

But life is stressful, right?

What can you really do about it?

The answer is, a lot.

==> You can change your beliefs and attitudes and their effects on your mind and your body. 

You may need to learn a few new skills -- essential survival skills that you probably never learned in school or from your family.

But the fact is, you cannot thrive without them!

And that's not all.

Your mind and brain function is also influenced by what happens in your body. 

By addressing all the keys to UltraWellness, so-called "mental problems" can often be cured -- without changing your beliefs.

(For a much more detailed and in-depth look at how I've helped my patients and how you can help solve "mental problems" without drugs or therapy and the other 6 keys to UltraWellness, please go to http://www.ultrawellness.com/p?i=49 -- remember, the course is available right now.)

You see, the effects of beliefs and attitudes are so important, but the effects of your nutritional status, environmental inputs, and problems in your core body systems on your mental state and brain function -- such as your hormones, immune system, gut, detox system, and energy system -- are just as important and mostly IGNORED by medicine.

I think this is so critical that it's the subject of one of my upcoming books (due in March 2008).

Let me share just one story here.

A man I saw recently was completely stressed out and anxious, had heart palpitations, and drank 4 martinis a night just to calm down. 

He also had severe muscle cramps and eye twitches.

These are obvious signs of magnesium deficiency.  Stress, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar all deplete magnesium.  He was in a vicious cycle. 

What he needed wasn't Valium or Prozac.

Instead, I addressed why he was magnesium-deficient (due to toxins, yeast, stress, alcohol, caffeine).

Then we fixed those problems by helping him detoxify, treating his yeast, cutting out alcohol and caffeine, and giving him enough of the relaxation mineral, magnesium, to calm his nervous system. 

That, in combination with tools for calming the mind and the body, will help him reset his nervous system.

This approach takes advantage of both the body/mind effect and the mind/body effect. 

So what can you do for yourself?

==>  Here's my 10-step plan:

1) Find the biological causes of problems in the mind by working on all the keys to UltraWellness I have outlined in the last 7 blogs. 

Your problem could be mercury toxicity, magnesium or B12 deficiency, a toxic gut chemical, or a gluten allergy that is changing your brain.  So by changing your body, you can change your mind!

2) Learn how to actively relax. 

To engage the powerful forces of the mind on the body you must DO something. You can't just sit there and watch television or drink a beer.

3) Try learning new skills.

These include meditation, deep breathing, yoga, biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, taking a hot bath, making love, getting a massage, watching a sunset, and walking in the woods or on the beach.

4) Exercise.

It's a powerful way to burn off stress chemicals and heal the mind. It has been proven to be better than or equal to Prozac for treating depression. So just do it!

5) Clean up your diet.

Eliminate mind-robbing molecules like caffeine, alcohol, and refined sugars. Eat regular meals to avoid the short-term stress of starvation on your body. 

6) Take a multivitamin and nutrients to help balance the stress response.

These include vitamin C, the B-complex vitamins such as B6 and B5 (pantothenic acid), zinc, and most importantly, magnesium, the relaxation mineral.

7) Use adaptogenic herbs.

These can help you adapt and be balanced in response to stress and include ginseng, Rhodiola rosea, Siberian ginseng, cordyceps, and ashwaganda.

8) Take a hot bath or a sauna to help your body deeply relax and turn on the relaxation response.

9) Examine your beliefs, attitudes, and responses to common situations and consider reframing your point of view to reduce stress.

10) Consciously build your network of friends, family, and community.  They are your most powerful allies in achieving long-term health.

Give this advice a try and see how a healthier mind affects your body -- and how a healthier body affects your mind!

==>  Now we have come to the end of my introductory blogs about the revolutionary changes happening in medicine today. 

I have introduced you to a set of new ideas and concepts that have the power to transform your health personally and to transform healthcare as a whole. 

It is no small job personally or for our society, but it is essential to stem the impending tsunami of ill health and economic burden facing us, our children, and our children's children.

The solution is UltraWellness.

This is a fundamental change in our world view about health -- a view that helps us get to the core of illness, to learn self-care, to take control and empower ourselves to transform our own health, and to transform our "sick care" system to a healthcare system.

I hope you've learned a lot during these weeks, but most importantly, are healthier for it.

And I hope that you'll share the knowledge that you've learned here with others.

Just by making small changes in the way we live, we can all move together toward UltraWellness.

Remember, as Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

Now I'd like to hear from you...

How do stress and other emotions seem to affect your physical health?

How has your physical health affected your mental health?

Have you tried any steps in my 10-part plan? How have they worked for you?

Do you have any other suggestions for improving the mind-body/body-mind connection?

Please click on the Add a Comment button below to share your thoughts.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, M.D.

PS - If you've enjoyed and found helpful the last 8 weeks worth of information on UltraWellness but would like to know more, I've develop a complimentary, in-depth course on UltraWellness, which you can sign up for by going to the website below now:

==>  http://www.ultrawellness.com/p?i=49