About this item
Recent scientific breakthroughsdemonstrating that mind body strategies can actually switch off or switch on gene activity associated with health and diseasehave triggered a mind body revolution in the medical world. In the 1970s, Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School ushered in a new era of understanding in the field of mind body medicine. Coining the term relaxation response, Dr. Benson identified the bodys physiologic reaction that is the exact opposite of the stress fight-or-flight response. In the four decades since that initial discovery, Benson and his colleagues have established the first effective therapy to counteract the harmful effects of stress. They have explored how the relaxation response, the power of expectation and belief, and other mind body phenomena can produce healing in your own body.
About the Author
Herbert Benson, M.D., is the Director Emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (BHI) , and Mind Body Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Benson is the author or co-author of more than 190 scientific publications and 12 books. More than five million copies of his books have been printed in many languages.
Dr. Benson is a pioneer in mind body medicine, one of the first Western physicians to bring spirituality and healing into medicine. In his 40 year career, he has defined the relaxation response and continues to lead teaching and research into its efficacy in counteracting the harmful effects of stress. The recipient of numerous national and international awards, Dr. Benson lectures widely about mind body medicine and the BHI's work. His expertise is frequently sought by national and international news media, and he appears in scores of newspapers, magazines, and television programs each year. Dr. Benson's research extends from the laboratory to the clinic to Asian field expeditions. His work serves as a bridge between medicine and religion, East and West, mind and body, and belief and science.
