Herbert Benson - Relaxation Revolution: The Science and Genetics of Mind Body Healing

Enhancing Your Personal Health
Through the Science and Genetics
of Mind Body Healing

Herbert Benson, MD
William Proctor, JD

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This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its authors. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the authors and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health, or any other kind of personal professional services in the book. The reader should consult his or her medical, health, or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it.

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Copyright 2010 by Herbert Benson, MD, and Inkslingers, Inc.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009050720

ISBN 978-1-4391-4865-5
ISBN 978-1-4391-8240-6 (ebook)

To Marilyn and Pam,
who, together, have rewarded us with nearly 90 years of
married support, inspiration, and wisdom

We want to express our gratitude to several individuals for their intellectual acuity, publishing expertise, and hard work, all of whom have made the publication of this book possible:

Vicky Bijur, our literary agent.

Beth Wareham and Whitney Frick, our editors.

Susan Moldow, our publisher.

Stuart Woodward, a consultant who graciously volunteered his time and skill to assist us in the preliminary editing process.

For his commitment to mind body medicine, his encouragement, and his financial support, we thank John W. Henry.

The funding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been instrumental in making possible the recent research on the relaxation response.

Also, we are grateful to the countless scientific colleagues at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Mind/Body Medical Institute, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Harvard Medical School, and other scientific and academic institutions that have helped make this book possible. A particularly helpful resource for the description of symptoms and treatments of common health conditions has been the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide (New York: Free Press, 1999, 2005), with Anthony L. Komaroff as editor in chief.

Herbert Benson, MD, Boston, Massachusetts
William Proctor, JD, Vero Beach, Florida

Part I
The Science of Mind Body Healing

Part II
Designing Your Personal Mind Body Treatment Plan

Part III
The Possibilities of Mind Body Medicine

A mind body revolution is under way in the medical world. This revolution is regularly punctuated by research breakthroughs, including our most recent findings that mind body strategies can actually switch off or switch on gene activity or gene expression associated with disease.

My professional life over the past four decades has been devoted largely to furthering our understanding of the science and the exciting treatment possibilities of these mind body phenomena. For me, it all began back in the early 1970s with my identification of the relaxation response, the term that I coined to describe the physiologic reaction that is the exact opposite of the stress (fight-or-flight) response. The fight-or-flight response is a reaction that prepares the body to act upon fears and physical challenges through the secretion of such stress hormones as adrenaline and noradrenline.

Since that foundational moment, much of my researchalong with that of colleagues I have worked with at the Harvard Medical School, its affiliated hospitals, and other research centershas focused on understanding the relaxation response phenomenon. Among other things, we have established the first effective therapy to counteract the harmful and pervasive effects of stress. We have also explored how the relaxation response relates to other mind body phenomena, such as the placebo effect, a mechanism that may produce healing through belief and expectation.

In fact, we believe that mind body science has now reached a stage where it should be accepted as the third major treatment and prevention option, standing as an equal alongside drugs and surgery in the clinical medical pantheon. Hence, it seemed quite appropriate to call this book the Relaxation Revolution. But like most true revolutions, this one has taken on a life of its own.

In the beginning, I never anticipated that the physiologic effects we were seeing with the relaxation responseincluding reduced metabolism, blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory ratewould be accompanied by molecular changes, such as an increase in exhaled nitric oxide. I had no idea that experts in fMRI technology would find a calming and opening of the brain to healing possibilities. I didnt foresee that scientific and treatment links would be established with other mind body phenomena, such as the therapeutic power of expectation and belief. Most recently, I was as surprised as many of my scientist colleagues when we found that the relaxation response can actually alter gene activitythe way that genes express themselves and thus influence the body. Although the genes themselves are not changed through this process, the genetic activity that we have discovered will almost certainly have profound implications for your personal health and our medical practice.

Furthermore, this revolution reaches beyond the treatment of disease to the prevention of disease. In particular, mind body medicine has significant implications in the vast, burgeoning field of stress management; according to a growing body of research, stress has a huge impact in causing or exacerbating many diseases. The potential is enormous for preventing such stress-related conditions as insomnia, lower-back pain, hot flashes, premenstrual syndrome, and various types of tension and migraine headaches.

Finally, there is the potential for a revolution in reducing the cost of medical care. Increasingly, medical studies are showing that employing mind body treatments and prevention strategies could save billions of the dollars now being spent on medications and surgeries.