The Immune Power Personality: 2seven Traits You Can Develop to Stay Healthier

Dreher (Your Defense Against Cancer), a proponent of the body-mind connection, suggests that adopting traits that are characteristic of healthy people can lead to improved health. He believes the pivotal psychological factor in illness is not stress itself but how we cope with stress. Drawing on research by psychologists and physicians who have explored mind-body relationships, Dreher offers seven key factors that appear to encourage an improved immune system and better health: the ACE Factor (the ability to attend, connect and express); the capacity to confide; hardiness; assertiveness; the power of love; helping others and self-complexity (having many interests). Dreher cites his own freedom from expected colds and flu resulting from his incorporating these traits into his own lifestyle. Although the mind-body connection still draws much skeptical response, readers may be inclined to experiment to see if a change in attitudes will make them feel better and strengthen their own resistance to disease. (Apr.)