Health: Can The Mind Help Cure Disease?

When Donald arrived for his first group-therapy session at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital, he was in a wheelchair, suffering from malignant melanoma and severely depressed. But after he spent six months sharing stories and good times with other cancer patients and learning relaxation techniques, his mood had improved considerably -- and so had his condition. As his attitude brightened, an important change took place inside his body: an increase in the activity of his "natural killer cells," a crucial link in the immune system. By year's end, though he still had cancer, Donald was able to dance a jig for...