Girlfriends are good for women's health – Dr. David Spiegel on Mind-Body Interactions

Hi again

My Godmother in Canada has just sent me an e-circular that's been making the rounds all over the web. It inspired me to go on a trawl to find out more and this is what has come up:

Psychoneuroimmunology – Mind-Body Interactions

lecture on the mind-body connection, i.e. relationship between stress and disease

Stanford Mini-Medical School, March 16, 2010

Introduced by Philip A. Pizzo,
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Dean, Stanford School of Medicine

Guest speaker:

Dr. David Spiegel
Willson Professor & Associate Chair
Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Medical Director, Center for Integrative Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine

Mind and Body in Medicine

Pizzo: "Dr Spiegel is one of the world experts" on how the mind influences the outcome of disease or health, a pioneering leader at Stanford Medical School, has spent years on exploring Mind-Body Interactions.

Possible further reading: Herbert Spiegel and David Spiegel: Trance & Treatment

And here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlFaIxTv1_w&feature=related


I would strongly recommend you take the time to watch the whole lecture. Among many other inspiring things, Dr. Spiegel says regarding the natural response to knowing that you're dying is that we're sad, or frightened or angry rather than depressed.

If you can't watch the whole video, here's a key message that the e-circular from my Godmother has highlighted. I've not been able to trace back the original author but I would like to thank her for this inspiring message:

Among other things, [Dr. Spiegel said] that "one of the best things that a man can do for his health is to be married to a woman, whereas for a woman, one of the best things she can do for her health is to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends."

At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality "girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.

Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very good for our health. [Dr. Spiegel] said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged-not true. In fact, [Dr. Spiegel] said that "failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking"!

So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. 

[…] Let's toast our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health.

*****