Can you think yourself healthy?

Forget popping pills, it's time to discover your mind's power to heal you, writes Kellie Gillespie-Wright

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It's that time of year, when everyone's battling a bug, recovering from one, or stocking up on vitamins to try to dodge the next round. It's all too easy to focus on the negative, feel a little down and think 'I'm bound to get ill.' But stop. Could the very act of worrying about it actually increase your likelihood of becoming unwell? What about the reverse- can your thoughts and emotions help you fight illness and recover? Or even help your immune system to protect you in the first place?

It might sound fanciful, but there is more to the idea than you might think, says Dr Monty Lyman, an expert in immunopsychiatry and author of The Immune Mind (Torva, £22).

"The last decade has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of how the brain and the immune system communicate,' he says. "Study by study, it is becoming abundantly clear that the brain communicates with the immune system through many different channels, and these signals go in both directions - from body to brain and brain to body.'

In other words, your emotions, thoughts, and even stress levels are in constant communication with your immune system. Dr Lyman describes this as more than just a connection; it's a dynamic partnership.

Your mind and your immune system are not simply linked but can be viewed as part of the same system,' he explains, referring to this as the 'defence system'.

This means the intricate network of cells and proteins that protect your body from disease and make up your immune system doesn't act in isolation. Instead, it works in tandem with your feelings and emotions. Dr Lyman further explains that this is a tripartite union of the mind, the immune system, and the microbiome - the collection of trillions of bacteria living in your gut. 'Each point of this triangle has a bidirectional relationship with the other two. A shock to one element reverberates around the whole system.'