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Alumnae experts discuss the mind-body connection
 To diagnose health problems, doctors rely on tests that yield concrete information about what’s happening inside a patient’s body. Radiological scans of the abdomen and pelvis show the presence of gallstones; blood tests indicate elevated cholesterol levels. But in some cases, as Dr. Michelle Gerwin Carlson ’80, a hand surgeon, has discovered, people suffer pain and health problems without any discernable physical reason.
“Sometimes people will come in with hand problems and I can’t find an anatomic cause,” Dr. Carlson said. “I have to remember that there’s a mind attached to that body, and the mind plays a role in what a person’s pain may be.”
This connection between the mind and body — how the brain can affect a person’s experience, and conversely, how outside experience can affect the brain — sparked a spirited discussion Tuesday night among five experts in physical and mental health, four of whom are Chapin alumnae. As panelist Annie Ramniceanu ’78, a mental health counselor, phrased it, “It’s a neverending feedback loop, the mind and the body.”
Panelists offered intriguing examples of how this mind-body link has surfaced in their practice or research. Dr. Carlson pointed out that people feel pain relief when they get nitrous oxide treatments during medical procedures, though nitrous oxide has no analgesic or pain-relieving properties of its own; it simply changes people’s perceptions of pain and lessens their fears, for a similar effect. Endocrinologist and researcher Dr. Michelle Palmieri Warren ’57 spoke about how a physical factor — the changes in hormonal levels after menopause — triggers significant brain and mood changes in some women. And Dr. John Sarno, a renowned back-pain specialist, attributes some of his patients’ back troubles to purely psychological factors. “What I see are people having real, physical symptoms because of what the brain is doing,” he said.
An audience of about 150 alumnae, parents and guests asked intelligent questions of the panelists, who were led by moderator Darcy Kelley ’66, a neurobiologist and Columbia University professor. One of the most intriguing questions, posed by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh ’86, had to do with people’s readiness, as patients, to come to terms with the fact that their physical symptoms may be caused by, or connected with, issues of the mind.
Dr. Sarno replied that “most people, easily 85 percent of the population, are not open to the possibility that their minds, their brains, are actually producing their symptoms.” Yet when they can accept this fact, he said, “a lot of people can get better just by learning what’s going on. I find that remarkable.” Ms. Ramniceanu echoed this sentiment: “Even in the most severe cases,” she said, “there is hope. The spirit, the mind and the body are very resilient.”
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