Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

Obsessed with Reality
explain the fall in death rate before the harvest moon. The largest
effect is for people with cardiovascular disease, which is known to
be influenced by stress. Cancer showed a smaller effect. On more
detailed study, it turned out that the fluctuations in death rate
occurred exclusively among women 75 years old or older. The
Harvest Moon Festival is presided over by the oldest women in
the households. They were able to stave off death for a week or
two to perform their ceremonial responsibilities. A similar effect
is found among Jewish men in the weeks centred on Passover - a
ceremony in which older men play a leading role - and likewise,
worldwide for birthdays, graduation ceremonies and the like.
In a more controversial study, Stanford University psychiatrists
divided eighty-six women with metastatic breast cancer into two
groups - one in which they were encouraged to examine their
fears of dying and to take charge of their lives, and the other given
no special psychiatric support. To the surprise of the researchers,
not only did the support group experience less pain, but they also
lived, on average, eighteen months longer.
The leader of the Stanford study, David Spiegel, speculates that
the cause may be Cortisol and other 'stress hormones' which
impair the body's protective immune system. Severely depressed
people, students during exam periods, and the bereaved all have
reduced white blood cell counts. Good emotional support may not
have much effect on advanced forms of cancer, but it may work to
reduce the chances of secondary infections in a person already
much weakened by the disease or its treatment.
In his nearly forgotten 1903 book, Christian Science, Mark
Twain wrote
The power which a man's imagination has over his body to
heal it or make it sick is a force which none of us is born
without. The first man had it, the last one will possess it.
Occasionally, some of the pain and anxiety or other symptoms of
more serious diseases can be relieved by faith-healers - however,
without arresting the progress of the disease. But this is no small
benefit. Faith and prayer may be able to relieve some symptoms
of disease and their treatment, ease the suffering of the afflicted
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