In November 2003, the British newspaper The Guardian announced the results of a government report indicating that nearly 25% of the adult population of France are taking either a tranquilizer, antidepressant, anti-psychotic, or other mood-altering prescription drug. In persons over age 70, 40% are taking these drugs, as are 4% of all French children under age nine.[2]

Stress is the mental and physiological reaction to perceived demands of daily life that exceed one’s ability to cope or respond to the situation(s) in a reasonable manner. The symptoms of stress include anxiety, depression, insomnia and fatigue, and may lead to physical ailments ranging from the minor to the catastrophic.

Just as the body can exert powerful influences on the mind, it is well established that the converse is also true—the human mind can exert powerful effects on the body. It is known that negative psychological states such as depression and anxiety can lower the body’s immune function, opening the door to various types of illness and disease. For example, depression has been linked to dramatic reductions in immune function, including the reduction of white blood cell activity and lowered antibody responses.[3]

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In one dramatic study, [4] a team of researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway monitored a group of more than 60,000 Norwegians from 1995 to 1997. Those participants who had the highest levels of self-reported anxiety in 1995 were 25% more likely to develop premalignancies —abnormal cells that can turn cancerous. Witnessing studies such as this, immune system researchers have commented that it is almost as though the immune system itself is expressing grief. Medical researchers are now able to measure the direct effects of stress on the cardiovascular, immune, endocrine, muscular, genitourinary, and gastrointestinal systems, and on mental health. Some scientists believe that perhaps 70-80% of all age-related diseases are the result of high stress levels that do not resolve quickly.