AMY GOODMAN: Healthcare reform may be stalled in Congress, but we turn now to an issue that rarely comes up in discussions about improving our healthcare system. The relationship between emotional stress and disease, between mental an physical health, more broadly, is often considered controversial within medical orthodoxy. But my next guest argues not all aspects of illness can be reduced to facts verified by the strictest scientific techniques.

The Vancouver-based Dr. Gabor Maté argues too many doctors seem to have forgotten what was once a commonplace assumption, that emotions are deeply implicated in both the development of illness and in the restoration of health. Based on medical studies and his own experience with chronically ill patients at the Palliative Care Unit at Vancouver Hospital, where he was the medical coordinator for seven years, Dr. Gabor Maté makes the case there are important links between the mind and the immune system. He finds stress and individual emotional makeup play critical roles in an array of diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis and arthritis.

Dr. Maté is the bestselling author of four books in Canada, including When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection. His latest book is In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction. We spoke with him about that book a few weeks ago on Democracy Now!. Today we explore the costs of hidden stress, Dr. Gabor Maté joining us today from Vancouver, Canada. ...

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Dr. Gabor Maté: "When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection"