When The Body Says No......

I just finished reading this amazing book "When The Body Says No" by Dr. Gabor Mate-it's about the relationship between stress and disease.
At times, it's difficult to read this book, especially when the various stresses of the various case studies become all too familiar.
But it's a fascinating book about the new study of psychoneuroimmunology-yep that's a big word-also known as PNI.
PNI is the study of the connection between the mind and the body and the role of our environment.
Before you throw up your hands and say-oh yeah-another new agey thing-let me assure you-this is very much NOT a new agey thing. Dr Mate is a family practitioner, and worked with biologists, cancer researchers, psychotherapists, oncologists and many other health practitioners in gathering his data to present this insightful book.
As I said before, it's a tough read, but the last chapter entitled "The Seven A's of Healing" provides a "plan" for healing and the prevention of disease.
When I talked to my oncologist many months ago about the level of stress I was feeling, he sort of shrugged it off as to yes-everyone has stress. That really angered me-and I told him so. Unfortunately, he had no suggestions for me, but he did listen a little more.
Fortunately, I found this book through my dear friend and fellow MacDowell Colony fellow-Billy Newman-a great guitarist and composer. Billy called me many times a week-for many weeks-after my return from the hospital-just to let me talk about what I was experiencing-which was incredibly helpful to me.
I've also had many wonderful conversations with fellow cancer patients, who have experienced the same "mind issues" that I have-which was very reassuring because of course, the doctors want you to think that you're the only one having these issues-and-these issues are not very important.
After you read this book-you're gonna see just how VERY important they are.