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Mary Andrus
English 1010--Lynn Kilpatrick
Exploratory Essay
4/29/19

Why Do Physicians Treat the Mind and Body So Separately?

I have often wondered if there is a connection between the body and the mind and if the health of

the mind can affect the health of the body. I have heard and seen many claims that there is a

significant mind-body connection, but it has been my experience that physical health is almost

always taken more seriously and treated more frequently than mental health. If there is such a

connection between the body and the mind, why are they not often treated together? I have

decided to use these questions as the basis for my research because it applies to me personally. I

have recently become aware of how my mood and thoughts influence how well I feel physically

and how much energy I have. I’ve heard people say that one’s mental health can cause or cure

certain physical ailments and I am curious to know if that is true. The brain is the organ that

controls, affects, influences, protects, and runs the human body, so I would think that it stands to

reason that a person’s mental health will greatly influence the rest of his body. If the rest of the

body is so interconnected with the mind, why do physicians not treat the mind in as committed a

manner as they treat the rest of the body? I want to know why, how, and what we as a society are

doing, can do, and should do to promote better whole-person health for everybody, and how I

can apply that to my own life.


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What I knew about the mind-body connection before starting my research was mostly

limited to personal experience. I knew that personally and in my family there have been times

when physical health was obviously affected by mental health and that I feel less motivation to

take care of my body when I’m discouraged or depressed. Since my dad passed away my mom

has dealt with multiple physical difficulties, the only explanation for which is stress. My

grandfather has medical problems when he is rushed or in a stressful situation. I’d seen stories

online of people curing a physical ailment by resolving an emotional one. I didn’t know,

however, how much science there was to back up the concept of the mind-body connection. I

didn’t know how to determine whether a physical condition is being caused by a mental one, or

when to seek physical vs. mental/emotional treatment. I also didn’t know if anyone had already

done much research on this topic or if there was anywhere that was already taking a more

“full-person” approach to medicine.

The Search:

When I first began my search into the topic of the mind-body connection I didn’t really

know where to start. I didn’t know if there had been any research done on this topic or if it was

all just speculation and superstition, and I didn’t know if there was a better name for it than

“mind-body connection.” I began by going to Google and searching for “mind body connection

in medicine.” Over eighty million results surfaced. I figured that I had to start somewhere and I

wasn’t sure how to narrow my search. I started scanning the list of results and opened one in a

new tab: no good. It didn’t look reliable and it wasn’t easily citable, as I could find no author or

date listed for its publication. I closed the tab and continued perusing the results of my search.
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Not too far down the page I came across the title of another article: “Mind-body research moves

towards the mainstream.” I decided to try this one because the title had a scholarly, scientific

sound to it: long and factual with more descriptive and less catchy wording. I opened it in a new

tab. As soon as I saw the website the article was on, I knew I was on the right track. This website

was not flashy or eye-catching. In fact, in any other circumstance I would have ignored this

website because it lacked the look of a web designer: it was purely there for functionality. But

this was perfect for a scientific essay--someone who was looking for this kind of information

wouldn’t care about the font choice or color scheme. I began reading. The article was long and

detailed, riddled with sources and statistics. The writing was factual and sciency; I could tell that

Vicki Brower knew how to write a scientific essay and that her topic was well researched.

Brower’s article focuses on the increasing popularity of the connection between mind and

body in the medical world. Citing multiple scientific sources and studies conducted over the last

fifty or so years, Brower shows links between stress or depression and physical conditions such

as heart disease, AIDS, and even cancer. She asserts that treatment focusing on the mind and

body together used to be looked down upon or viewed from a skeptical frame of mind, but that in

recent years the government and private donors have put increasingly more funding towards

research about this topic, encouraging the general public to become more interested in the

mind-body connection. Brower concludes by stating that the growing popularity and acceptance

of the mind-body connection coupled with the increasing number of studies and centers

dedicated to research about it might help mind-body medicine escape its negative connotation

and its connection with alternative medicine.


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In all honesty this article was somewhat difficult for me to read. It felt removed and

impersonal due to its purely factual nature, and I wasn’t all that interested in analyzing data from

multiple studies. What I really wanted was to see the information that data provided presented in

an easy to read way. While this article did present some of that information, it was written in

such a way that I couldn’t fully comprehend or really appreciate it. What I did learn from this

study was that my observations were correct, both in the sense that there is some kind of

connection between the mind and the body, and that physicians often ignore it. In addition to

finding some validation for my assumptions, Brower’s paper introduced me to some new

information. I learned that science has found that stress contributes to physical conditions that

can lead to heart disease and diabetes, and that group therapy and stress-reduction practices can

lessen symptoms in people with more serious diseases such as breast cancer.

Near the beginning of Brower’s paper she states, “Although the understanding that

emotions affect physical health dates as far back as the second-century physician Galen and the

medieval physician and philosopher Moses Maimonides, modern medicine has largely continued

to treat the mind and body as two separate entities” (1). Reading this statement led me to wonder

even more why physicians and scientists seem to ignore something that seems so obvious and

has long been accepted as true. Later in her paper Brower quotes Oakley Ray, Professor

Emeritus of Psychology, Psychiatry and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee:

“According to the mind-body or biopsychosocial paradigm, which supercedes the older

biomedical model, there is no real division between mind and body because of networks of

communication that exist between the brain and neurological, endocrine and immune systems”

(2). While this sentence is full of scientific lingo, it is quite interesting to me. Here is a learned
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professor from a prestigious university stating clearly that the mind and body are connected. He

states that “networks of communication” between different systems in the body connect the

mind. I know that “neurological” has to do with the brain and that the immune system is what

fights off disease, and a quick Google search revealed that the “endocrine system” produces

hormones that affect the metabolism, development and sleep, among other things. Professor Ray

also says that there is a new model called the “biopsychosocial paradigm” that supports this. So

why is this kind of information not more widely accepted in the medical world? Or is it? One

fact that jumps out at me is that Professor Ray was a professor of psychology, psychiatry and

pharmacology, not of physiology. So perhaps the idea of the interconnectedness between mind

and body is accepted more among psychiatrists and less among medical doctors who focus on

treating the body. But most people only go to a psychiatrist if there is something obviously the

matter with their mind, not just for a check-up. So I am still of the opinion that physicians need

to become aware of the effect the mind has on the body. More than anything, Brower’s paper left

me with more questions.

I went to SLCC’s online library to continue my research. Under their research database

(EBSCO), and with filters applied that would only give me the full text of articles in

peer-reviewed journals, I searched for “mental health and body and mind.” Within the first few

results I found an article that mentioned something called Integral Medicine. I thought that

sounded promising, so I changed my search to “integral medicine.” I found multiple

articles--around five--that seemed promising. I emailed them to myself to look at later. A few

days later I went to my email and pulled up the articles I had saved. After reading the abstracts

from each one I decided that the first one (the one that named Integral Medicine) looked the most
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interesting. It was titled: ​Integral Healthcare: The Benefits and Challenges of Integrating

Complementary and Alternative Medicine with a Conventional Healthcare Practice. ​I chose this

article because not only did it seem to give a name to the kind of medicine that I thought made

sense, but it seemed to discuss the very topic of my question: changing conventional medicine to

include other forms of care, specifically mind-body care. I also knew that it should present valid

information because it was from a peer-reviewed journal and was written by a PhD candidate,

Christina Ross.

Ross begins her paper by explaining that Integral Medicine aims to treat the whole

being--physical, mental, and spiritual. She states that there is much division when it comes to

alternative medicine, and that much of the backlash stems both from misconceptions about

spirituality being the same as organized religion and a notable lack of scientifically qualified

research when it comes to the mind-body connection. The bulk of Ross’s paper explores what

she thinks is the ideal way to unite Integral Medicine with Western medicine, which is to train

medical professionals in multiple areas of health--conventional and alternative--and then let them

choose which area to specialize in. Ross states that if medical professionals specializing in

Western medicine are familiar with alternative medicine they will be better equipped to know

when and how to refer their patients to other doctors and treatments. She also says that if medical

teams include many kinds of medical professionals--physicians, psychiatrists, counselors,

etc.--all in one location and with equal insurance coverage, full-being healthcare will be more

available to the public. Ross states that many nurses and patients are becoming less satisfied with

Western medicine but remain distrustful of alternative medicine. She concludes by claiming that

instituting Integral Medicine as a common practice will help resolve this issue.
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I learned from this article that there has been a whole system devised for combining the

treatment of mind and body, called ​Integral Medicine.​ I also learned that one of the main reasons

people don’t get treatment for their minds as readily as their bodies is that physicians often don’t

know the best time and place to refer their patients to psychologists and psychiatrists or

therapists, and these aren’t often covered by insurance. One system Ross suggested for resolving

this is that of having medical teams consist of “physicians, social workers, spiritual counselors

and behavioral healthcare providers” (16) all in one location and with the same insurance

coverage. She also helped me understand that even if physicians aren’t trained in mental health

treatment to the extent that they can perform it themselves, if they know when and how to refer

their patients to others, the patient will receive better care.

When talking of the Integrative medical system, Ross states that “This structure may have

the added benefit of destigmatizing mental healthcare as patients come to see mental health

providers as part of the medical team” (16). I think this is interesting because it addresses another

issue in addition to the separation between mental and physical health: the stigma surrounding

mental health. It seems silly to me how often people assume that one is abnormal if they have

mental health issues, but getting a bruise, cut, cold or even broken bone is considered normal.

Shouldn’t it be just as normal to have mental “broken bones?” And yet people are often ashamed

to admit that they are going to a counselor or therapist. I appreciate Ross’s suggestion on how to

combat this. Not only is she suggesting that mental and physical healthcare will be more easily

accessed together, she is also implying that right now people see mental health professionals as

“other.” But if they become part of a stereotypical medical team and mental check-ups become

status quo, patients will begin to feel less ashamed of seeing counselors or psychologists.
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This article was focused mainly on outlining a specific system for ​how​ to use the Integral

Medicine system, rather than ​why​ we should or the reason people are choosing to adopt it. It was

rather like reading a manual. While informative and useful, I was now ready to read something

interesting and attention-grabbing--something I wouldn’t keep counting the pages to see how

close I was to the end. So for source three I decided to find a book. I wanted to find something

that was captivating and intriguing, a page turner not just written for doctors and scientists, but

something made for people like me. I wanted a book that explored the mind-body connection in

a less manual kind of way, and in a more personal, thought-driven and perhaps philosophical

kind of way. Because I didn’t have the time to spend searching a library in person, I went to the

Salt Lake Public Library’s website and did a search for just “mind-body.” I wanted to get a taste

of my options before I narrowed my search too much. I skimmed over the first page of results,

skipping over books that looked too loose--no science or real evidence, just superstition and

magic rocks. While I’m not opposed to homeopathics, meditation, and alternative medicine, I

know that many practitioners in these fields have very little science-based information. My

question surrounded how the connection between mind and body works and how, in the real

world, this connection can be utilized. I still needed something that would still be considered a

viable source in the medical and scientific world. And, I just wanted to enjoy reading it. One of

my strategies for finding the right book was to look for something with a well-designed cover. I

knew that other people are also more likely to actually pick up a book that looks professional,

suggesting that it was created with the help of skilled editors, cover designers, marketers, and a

trustworthy publisher. Partway down the first or second page I found a title with a cover that

caught my eye: ​Cure: a journey into the science of mind over body. I​ clicked on it. Firstly,
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though somewhat dated, the cover design looked professional: a good sign. The title also

intrigued me. It mentioned science, which meant that the content of the book should have some

sort of proveable basis, but it also described itself as a journey, leading me to think that it might

be organized in a more interesting format, perhaps as a narrative. So I put the book on hold at the

main public library with the intent to go there the next day and do some browsing while I picked

it up. I then got sick and was unable to go anywhere for a few days, so a family member picked

up the book for me and I read it at home.

When I first got Jo Marchant’s book I intended to simply scan over it due to my lack of

time, but I ended up reading much of it through. It was exactly what I had been looking for--data

and facts woven into a story--both captivating and useful. ​Marchant begins her introduction by

stating that she has always been a skeptic of homeopathy and alternative medicine, as their

practice is not grounded in science. She then goes on to tell the story of when she realized that

although homeopathy ​should ​not do any good according to science, it still often ​does​ work for

the people that use it, so there must be another reason for its success. This is when Marchant got

interested in the science of mind over body. For the first few chapters of her book she recounts

different stories, experiences, and interviews from people affected by and researching the

placebo effect. She writes of how she discovered that a person’s beliefs can change the

physiology of their body, and how scientists are finding that placebo treatments are often as or

more effective than “real” ones. She explains some of the science behind this and also talks

about the “nocebo effect”--where one’s body develops negative symptoms due to what the

person believes--the opposite of the placebo effect. She also lists the limitations of the mind

concerning the placebo effect--while it can eradicate symptoms, the mind can rarely cure the
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underlying cause. In the later chapters of her book Marchant continues the story of her journey in

the mind over body world and provides practical ways in which one can use his mind to heal

themself. Marchant concludes by encouraging the reader to harness the power of his mind, and

states that while alternative medicine itself likely has no benefit, the way it “pushes our buttons”

can.

I learned from this book that our minds have a powerful effect on our bodies, and not

only can that effect be positive, but it can also be negative. I learned that we are familiar with the

power of the mind in the form of the placebo effect, a phenomenon that has been studied time

and time again. I also learned that there are small practices that can be used to harness the power

of the mind in increasing the effectiveness of treatments and medications, such as visualizing

what a pill will do as you take it. Most of all, I learned that there are studies being conducted

concerning the connection of the mind and body, and that there is mounting evidence for the

usefulness of this connection.

In the conclusion of her book, Jo Marchant states that “Western medicine is (rightly)

underpinned by science and trial evidence, and to many policy-makers and funders, physical

interventions just ‘feel’ more scientific than mind-body approaches do” (251). I think this is an

interesting observation because the word “feel” applies directly to emotion--to the mind. The

people who “feel” that trial-based evidence is more effective are relying on their emotions--their

minds--to make their decisions. Marchant’s statement suggests that the adamant opposers to the

mind-body medical approach use the very thing they refuse to accept as the tool for making their

decisions. I find that to be an interesting paradox.


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Marchant’s book was much of what I was looking for. Now that I had found both fact

based and more personal sources I wanted to find something different. I wanted a source that was

some kind of a speech, video or documentary. So I went to YouTube. I used the same search

terms that I had used for finding my other sources: “mind-body connection,” “connection

between mental and physical health,” etc. I wanted to find a Ted talk or an interview of some

sort. But nothing seemed quite like what I was looking for. I found an interview that looked

promising, only to find that it had no scientific backing (as far as I could tell). I decided to add to

my search the word “documentary.” I finally found a trailer for a film called “The Connection.”

It was a documentary created by a reporter who had been diagnosed with a severe disease and

became interested in the power of the mind to heal the body. From the trailer I could tell that this

documentary was intended not so much for doctors, but for patients. I thought that it would be an

interesting perspective to observe, so I rented the movie on Amazon Prime.

In the hour and twenty minutes of this video it switches back and forth between

interviews with doctors and scientists and patients of diseases or conditions. This documentary

presents information on the placebo effect, the power of meditation, and the science of gene

expression. It contains testimonials from many people who have recovered from cancer,

infertility, autoimmune diseases, etc., partly or entirely through meditation and such practices.

The documentary also references some of the same people, concepts, and studies that were

mentioned in Jo Marchant’s book, ​Cure​.

I didn’t glean much new information from this documentary, but I did see multiple

examples of how the placebo effect and other tools of the mind have directly affected real

people. I did learn about gene expression, the idea that genes can influence how someone’s
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immune system responds or how they deal with stress, and that these genes can be passed on

from generation to generation, but they can also be “turned off” through the power of the mind.

One concept explored in Harvey’s documentary was the idea of the “relaxation

response,” the opposite of stress. It was stated in this film that every traditional culture of the

world has a history of the two parts of the relaxation response: meditation and repetition. Some

cultures have this in prayer, or chants, or meditation, but all of them involve some sort of

focused, relaxing practice that they repeat frequently. The documentary showed examples of this

from different religions and ancient cultures. I think that it is a testimony to the effectiveness of

keeping the mind healthy that so many cultures have, independent of each other, developed their

own ways of keeping the mind healthy.

The Melting Pot

While all four of my sources view the issue of the mind-body connection a bit differently,

one thing they all agree on is that the effect of the mind on the body, while anciently accepted,

has long been looked down upon. They also agree that in recent years there has been a surge of

interest in the topic, with an increasing number of studies concerning the mind-body connection,

and support for the concept growing rapidly. Vicki Brower especially addresses this concept by

giving multiple examples of recent scientific studies about the connection between the mind and

body. While Christina Ross focuses less on how the public views this concept, she does make the

point that the increased interest in alternative medicine might be driven partly by a dissatisfaction

with conventional medicine, both in patients and some medical personnel. Jo Marchant talks

about how some people are more willing to accept the tangible over the intangible, consequently
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feeling more confident in “proven” medical treatments, while others use their own positive

experiences with alternative medicine as their proof for its effectiveness. Shannon Harvey, in her

documentary, speaks of many different mind-body practices that are becoming more widely

accepted, such as yoga.

While Brower’s article is focused more on showing the statistics on how much popularity

the mind-body connection has gained, the other three sources each talk of different ways to

actually harness the power of this connection. Ross is focused more on the medical community,

encouraging doctors and medical teams to integrate alternative medicine and mental practices

into their clinics. She effectively lays out a specific system on how to do this, but with little

emphasis on the individual patient. Marchant and Harvey, on the other hand, focus more on

enabling the patient to take charge of his own care. Marchant’s book illustrates ways for any

individual to use the power of his mind to improve symptoms, mainly through the placebo effect,

on his own and in addition to conventional medical care. Harvey focuses much on meditation

and mindfulness practices, and talks less about combining mental with medical and more about

how the mind can actually heal the body.

Both Marchant and Harvey cited some of the same sources, including a study of patients

with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and studies by a Doctor Benedetti, but each came to different

conclusions. Harvey’s documentary takes a more “all natural” approach, suggesting that whole

diseases can be cured through the power of the mind, while Marchant states very clearly in her

book that alternative medicine and practices should not replace conventional medicine, but be

used to supplement it. Marchant mentions that in a study by Benedetti symptoms of altitude

sickness were reduced by a placebo, but the underlying cause, lack of oxygen, was still present.
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Harvey doesn’t mention things like this, and although her documentary includes much

science-based fact, her final suggestion to the viewer seems to involve little conventional

medicine.

I was surprised, in doing research on the mind-body connection, to find how many people

have already studied this. I was also interested in how different one person’s perspective can be

from another’s when they both have the same information. I now wonder what is the best way to

address mental health and its connection to physical health? Should we institute Integral

Healthcare? Or should we simply allow each patient to seek care in whatever way they desire?

How can we erase the stigma against alternative healthcare in a way that enables patients to get

whatever care they need without encouraging them to ignore the best parts of conventional

healthcare? Is there a way to make alternative medicine and mind-body practices more effective

and more available without forcing them on those who don’t believe in them? And is it ethical

for doctors to recommend alternative treatment to their patients if they don’t believe in the very

thing they are prescribing? I have learned so much from this research--from the effectiveness of

different practices, to the reason they work, to their limitations. I may leave this paper with more

questions than I started with, but I also have more information than before. I am glad that more

people are researching this subject, and I look forward to the day when much of this information

is common knowledge.
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WORKS CITED

Brower, Vicki. “Mind-body research moves towards the mainstream” ​EMBO​ ​reports​ vol. 7, no.
4, April 2006. pp. 358-61 doi: 10.1038/sj.embor.7400671. Accessed 14 March 2019.

Marchant, Jo. ​Cure: a journey into the science of mind over body.​ New York: Crown Publishers​,
2016.

Ross, Christina L. “Integral Healthcare: The Benefits and Challenges of Integrating


Complementary and Alternative Medicine with a Conventional Healthcare Practice.”
Integrative Medicine Insights,​ no. 4, Jan. 2009, pp. 13–20. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.4137/IMI.S2239. Accessed 28 March 2019.

The Connection. ​Directed by Shannon Harvey, performance by Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD, Herbert
Benson MD, Alice Domar PhD, Elemental Media, 2014. ​Amazon Prime​. URL
https://www.amazon.com/Connection-Jon-Kabat-Zinn-PhD/dp/B017M0RRE2/ref=sr_1_
2?keywords=the+connection&qid=1554997237&s=instant-video&sr=1-2​. Accessed 31
March, 2019.

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