Chapter 11 - Immune Function Enhancement

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the evidence that a variety of personal beliefs and practices, including social activity, expression of emotion, relaxation habits, physical exercise, and nutritional choices, have beneficial effects on immune function. Beliefs are complex mental phenomena that serve as guiding principles in the process of human life. Hypnosis is fundamentally a process rooted in the willingness of one individual to participate with another in a relationship marked by the belief in the power of suggestion delivered by a qualified source. There is abundant evidence that suggestion under hypnosis can alter basic aspects of experience such as the sensation of pain. Analgesia induced via hypnosis has been repeatedly demonstrated. Under placebo effect approach, the belief by both the afflicted person and the healer that some potion or ritual has the power to cure could bring about such an outcome. The nocebo effect refers to the observation that expectation of sickness or even death may promote such an outcome—in effect that the power of belief operates also in negative outcomes. The importance of social engagement or more generally social interaction has been abundantly documented by epidemiological studies that demonstrate that those who have more social contact are more likely to retain health and live longer.