[sidebar]God, yoga, prayer, gardening or your pet, she says an interview in Science & Theology News, can all trigger physiological processes that de-stress you. In other words, it’s not what you believe, but that you believe in something, that positively affects your immune system and helps you get and stay well. Sternberg says that she came to recognize the importance of beliefs when she and her mother discussed them as her mother was dying. The issue arose again when she developed arthritis following her mother’s death. “I’ve certainly seen in the last decade a huge shift,” she said, “a sea change, where all these kinds of notions—first that stress makes you sick and more recently that believing could make you well—are accepted now that there is a biology to it.” More from Prevention: How Energy Medicine Can Heal Your Grief
