Mind-Body Health

Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology poses a range of challenges: on one hand, to people who look for truth in the advances of scientific knowledge, and on the other, to those who seek that same clarity through their own lived experience. This science looks at ways of treating the mind and body as a single unit, in which it is possible to stimulate human biochemistry or pharmacology and to influence the immune system and the response mechanisms we use to cope with illness, which can help improve quality of life and support the recovery process. Over time, research in this area has shaped a more integrative kind of scientific thinking, one that takes into account the dialectic of the phenomena being studied and the web of relationships between them. All the disciplines involved have had to find common ground on which to build a new view of health and illness and, in essence, of human existence. The result is an interdisciplinary approach that highlights the systemic interaction between mental processes, the central nervous system, the immune system and the endocrine system, bringing together specialties such as psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, physiology, pharmacology and molecular biology.

Many factors play a part in the relationship between body and mind; it is not the product of a small set of organs and functions. Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology offers a horizon for moving from illness toward a state of greater harmony. We understand illness as a state of imbalance. Emotional states such as excessive worry or distress, combined with negative thoughts, can push a person into excessive stress that, over time, can weaken the body's defenses and leave it more vulnerable to viruses and bacteria.

At Healthy Solutions for Children and Families, a priority of our approach is understanding health as something whole, where the different factors and people involved are an essential part of recovery.