Word: melanoma
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...interesting things researchers at the UCLA medical center have discovered is that the environment of medical treatment can actually be enhanced if seriously ill patients can be kept free of depression. In a project involving 75 malignant-melanoma patients, it was learned that a direct connection exists between the mental state of the patient and the ability of the immune system to do its job. In a condition of emotional devastation, immune function is impaired. Conversely, liberation from depression and panic is frequently accompanied by an increase in the body's interleukins, vital substances in the immune system that help...
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...