By Staff Writer - April, 19th 2014

The basic concept of psychoneuroimmunology is the concept that the mind and body are inseparable. It follows that stress affects the body's ability to resist disease. The brain influences all sorts of physiological processes once thought not to be centrally regulated. There are effects of psychological factors on many diseases including rheumatoid arthritis,diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and inflammatory bowel disease.

By Dr. Kelly Brogan

Psychoneuroimmunology. This is what I aim to practice. Medical terms of this length command our respect for the interconnectedness of different subspecialties, for the futile segmentation and compartmentalization of the body into different organ systems.

As discussed in this previous article I wrote for Dr. Mercola, deconstructing the serotonin model of depression, psychiatry is in a crisis. It can no longer stand on its own, throwing more and more medications at its perceived target.

It seems, therefore, fitting that psychiatry would follow the investigative path of other lifestyle-triggered chronic diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity, and heart disease. There already exists a bidirectional relationship between all of the major chronic diseases and psychiatric diagnoses (patients who struggle with chronic diseases are more likely to be depressed and vice versa).

The role of inflammation, across these disease states, is better elucidated each day. Let's deconstruct what is known as it applies to …

Make sure to read the rest of the article at Articles.Mercola.

Source