Walk with the Doc – Chapter 4

The complexities of modern society have led to stress becoming a major factor in disease causation. The mind (psyche) and body (soma) are inextricably linked. As a result, stress has become a major factor in the rise of so-called psychosomatic diseases. Many major diseases have a psychosomatic component – obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and even cancer. Stress and immunity are inversely related. As stress goes up, so does susceptibility to disease. There is a modicum of truth in the expressions, “You’ll worry yourself sick” and “You’ll work yourself to death.” If fact, in Japan there is the term karoshi, which means suicide from overwork. These adverse effects of stress can be reduced substantially simply by walking, which reduces the levels of adrenalin and cortisol, the hormones responsible for those effects.