Can Only Focusing on Physical Health Make You Sick?

Abstract

Agnes, a geriatric nurse who worked at a nursing home in northern Virginia, was someonewho knew all the elders on her floor well. One of the elders had to swallow his pills one at a time, and this was a daily frustration for him because he was not a morning person. Agnes knew this about Mr. Z. She also knew he liked silly humor, so once a week or so she would don a red clown nose before bringing his 10 a.m. medications. When Agnes entered Mr. Z’s room with her red clownnoseon, hebegan laughing. In abrightened mood, he continued to chuckle as he swallowed his medications. Onecould say thatAgneswascreative in theway that she approached nursing. By thinking ofMr. Z’s holistic well-being, she was not only ensuring that he took his medicine, but also lifting his spirits. Both of her actions were important; one helped Mr. Z’s physical health, and the other helped his emotional health. This approach of treating the mind and the body is the basis of the field of psychoendoneuroimmunology, or PENI. As its name implies, PENI involves the interaction of multiple body systems: the brain or limbic system, the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system. These systems are interdependent, meaning that the function of one system affects the function of another, either positively or negatively.Maintaining a person’s physical health alone is not enough to support his or herwell-being. People can be physically healthy and yet have poor well-being if their emotional health is poor. In his 1979 book Anatomy of an Illness, Norman Cousins described the role of a positive attitude, faith, humor, and laughter as complementary “treatments” for illness and keys to promoting good health and well-being. Along with traditional medicines, he used laughter to deal with his own physical pain, saying that “tenminutes of a genuine belly laugh had an anesthetic effect that would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep.” His story effectively illustrates the connection