The Healing Brain: Breakthrough Discoveries about How the Brain Keeps Us Healthy

Joining the reaction against Cartesian separation of mind and body and belief in ""magic bullets,'' Ornstein (The Amazing Brain, etc.), Stanford University professor of neurobiology, and Sobel, director of protective medicine at Kaiser-Permanente Health System, contend that the brain's primary function is not to think but to maintain and restore health to the body. The brain also activates the body's own immune system and alleviates pain using hypnosis or morphine-like analgesics. Medical intervention, they claim, is less vital to disease prevention than are nutrition, hygiene, environment, behavior and social stability. The brain alone is aware of and stimulated by all these factors, and using a combination of regulators like the hypothalamus and chemical and electrical impulses, it coordinates the body's inner functions and relates them to the external world. Above all, the authors maintain in this highly readable, informative book, social support and a consistent set of beliefs and positive attitudes help the brain adapt to or minimize negative effects of genetic traits on health. (June 1)