mind/body medicine
mind/body medicine
(1) Alternative Medicine, see there.(2) Behavioural medicine—An evolving field of healthcare based on the belief that a complex interplay of external and internal factors influence the mind, and therefore also a person’s response and recuperation from disease; these interactions are genetic, environmental, psychological and socioeconomic.
Integral to mind-body medicine is the belief that stress (which evokes the fight-or-flight response) will, if repeated over time, weaken the immune system, resistance to disease and healing capacity; to counter-act the stress response, mind-body medicine seeks to develop in an individual the capacity to reduce these adverse effects, teaching relaxation responses to reduce blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tone, oxygen consumption, perspiration and respiratory rate. The individual copes with stressants based on his or her personality type (A, B or C) or by changing lifestyle; methods for reducing stress include autogenic training, biofeedback training, breath therapy, hypnosis,meditation, mindfulness, progressive relaxation, and visualisation therapy or mental imagery.
Data suggest that mind-body medicine may ameliorate certain symptoms of AIDS, arthritis, common cold, diabetes, headaches, and infertility.
For some, the terms behavioural medicine and mind-body medicine are synonymous.