Connecting body and mind, healing and rebirth
The humid, oppressive heat of Mumbai's monsoon lingered in the waiting area of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Dr. Amit Patel, a nationally renowned cardiologist, fretted over his medical records. His patient, Raju, a 42-year-old business executive, had been admitted for the third time with unexplained chest pain, yet all tests showed a perfectly healthy heart.
"Doc, I'm definitely having a heart attack," Raju said, clutching his chest. "This pain is so real."
Dr. Patel sighed and wrote a referral in the medical record: "I'd like you to see someone."
Half an hour later, at the institute's newly built "Mind-Body Medicine Center," the foundation's Indian director, Priya, was presenting their work to Kadir, who was visiting. A large chart hung on the wall, clearly demonstrating the deep connection between emotions and health:
Correlation between long-term anxiety and irritable bowel syndrome: 72%
Comorbidity of depressive symptoms and chronic pain: 68%
Correlation between childhood trauma and autoimmune diseases in adulthood: 3.4 times
When medical examinations cannot find any organic lesions, perhaps we should examine the patient's life.
Kadir's visit is to promote the foundation's deep collaboration with leading medical institutions around the world. Over the past six months, they have established the first "Joint Mind-Body Medicine Clinics" at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and now the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
"We're so used to dividing patients into different organ systems," Dr. Patel admitted at the forum. "But the human body is a whole. When patients come back for repeated visits with no diagnoses, we begin to realize that perhaps the problem isn't with the organs, but with the way the people who own those organs live."
Priya shared a case study: a young woman with severe eczema who hadn't responded to traditional dermatology treatment for three years. After being referred to a psychosomatic clinic, doctors discovered that her symptoms were exacerbated when she reported to someone in a position of authority. Through a combination of psychological counseling and biofeedback therapy, her symptoms improved by 80% after six weeks.
“Her skin became a channel for her unspoken anxieties,” Priya explains. “Once we helped her find better ways to express her emotions, her skin no longer had to ‘speak for her.’”
However, implementing this holistic medical model is not easy. During Kadir's visit to Johns Hopkins, a senior surgeon directly questioned him, "Are we turning all of us into psychiatrists? Our profession is to treat illnesses, not to provide counseling."
The turning point came with a "mind-body connection monitoring system" developed by Cheng Han's team. The smart device worn by patients can track physiological indicators such as heart rate variability and galvanic skin response in real time, and analyze them simultaneously with their mood diary.
"Look at this data," Cheng Han said, showing a patient's chart during a presentation. "Every time he received a call from his mother, his heart rate variability dropped dramatically, and his eczema worsened the next day. This objective data allows both doctors and patients to clearly see the connection between emotions and symptoms."
Data makes invisible emotions visible and subjective feelings measurable.
Meanwhile, Neela's work in Bali offers insights into cultural perspectives, as local traditional healer Ketutu creatively integrates ancient breathing therapies with modern medicine.
"In our culture, illness is a sign of imbalance between the body and mind," Kotuth said. "Modern medicine excels at addressing the 'effects,' while traditional wisdom excels at understanding the 'cause.' Only by combining the two can true healing be achieved."
Based on these cross-cultural insights, the foundation developed an "integrative medicine" training program. This program does not train doctors to be psychologists, but rather helps them:
Recognizing Mind-Body Signals: Learn to recognize physical symptoms that may have psychological causes
Effective Referral: Knowing When and How to Refer Patients to Mental Health Professionals
Basic intervention: Master simple emotion assessment and stress management skills
In a pilot program in Mumbai, changes are beginning to emerge. Dr. Patel has gradually adapted his consultations. He now spends an extra five minutes asking about stress, sleep quality, and important relationships.
“Those five minutes are often worth more than expensive tests,” he shared during the case discussion. “I began to understand why some patients don’t respond well to standard treatments—because we’re not treating the underlying cause of their illness.”
The most encouraging results came from Raju's case. Through a combined psychosomatic approach, doctors discovered that his chest pains always occurred just before reporting performance results to headquarters. Further investigation revealed a deep-seated fear of repeating his father's fate—his father, in a similar position, had suffered a heart attack and died due to the pressure of achieving results.
"I've been waiting for my father's fate to happen to me," Raju said during therapy. "That waiting itself has become another kind of stress."
Through cognitive behavioral therapy combined with relaxation training, Raju learned to identify and manage his anxiety. Six months later, his chest pains completely disappeared, and his work productivity actually improved.
"I finally understand," he said at his final visit, "that recovery isn't just about eliminating symptoms; it's about regaining a sense of control over your life."
At the quarterly summary meeting, Kader shared data from three pilot hospitals: patients participating in mind-body integration therapy saw their medical expenses reduced by an average of 35%, their re-visit rate dropped by 42%, and their satisfaction with treatment outcomes almost doubled.
"Behind these numbers are real life changes," Kadir said emotionally. "We've seen people with diabetes learn to cope with stress in healthy ways instead of overeating, people with high blood pressure reduce their medication dependency by improving their relationships, and people with chronic pain rediscovering their joy in life."
Li Xiaoyu concluded during the video call: "We've always said that mental health is important, but now we have an even stronger reason: mental health is health itself. Investing in mental health prevents disease, improves quality of life, and even saves medical resources."
When Qadir left Mumbai, the monsoon hadn't yet ended, but his heart was as clear as the sky after the rain. At the hospital entrance, he ran into Raju, who was about to be discharged. The two smiled at each other, needing no further words.
On the return flight, Kadir wrote in his project notes:
The future of medicine lies not in more specialized specializations, but in a more holistic view. When we finally learn to listen to the emotions our bodies tell us, healing will naturally occur.
He knows this paradigm shift in medicine has only just begun. But every doctor who begins to understand the mind-body connection, every patient who regains health through emotional well-being, is driving this transformation forward. In this age of fragmentation and specialization, perhaps what we most need is to rediscover a holistic approach to life.
The mind is the internal environment of the body. To heal the body, we must start by soothing the mind.
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