Extraordinary example of the mind's influence on well-being

A friend writes: "If you ever needed an example of the mind's influence on disease, please see the figure at the bottom of page 3 here: Impact of exposure to war stress on exacerbations of MS. Wow."

The article is about relapses of multiple sclerosis during the Hamas war in Israel in 2006. The caption reads "Number of relapses per month. Eighteen relapses occurred during the 33 days of the war compared with one to six relapses in comparable time periods over the 12 months preceding the war. There was no increase in relapse rates during the 3 months that followed the war compared with the same period of the previous year."

Brings to mind a couple of thoughts:

1. It strongly reminds me that during my own illness, I put a high priority on the power of my state of mind. At all times, even when all the information was not encouraging, instead of pondering all that for no benefit, I asked myself (and often said in my online journal), "What could be said that would make a difference?"
               Note: as those who read my journal know, I wasn't in denial – I'm talking about where I chose to focus my consciousness.
   
   
2. It reminds me, in a new way, of the sixties poster that said "War is bad for children and other living things."