The Balance Within

This book is useful for students, scientists, and those who are otherwise interested in integrative medicine. Sternberg augments her explanation of the stress-immune connection with interesting and relevant research studies. I found it useful as a student studying neuroscience and as an individual trying to understand and manage stress in my life.

I am a writer who is currently at work on a book on my living through colon cancer. I was diagnosed at age 47 with Duke's C-3 colon cancer. Because of the early onset of my disease, I was three years too young to be considered for routine colon cancer screening, which doctors are supposed to offer to patients when they reach age 50. I was lucky. Even with one year of chemotherapy (due to minor lymph node involvement) medical textbooks and doctors said my chances of surviving five years (a five year colon cancer survivor is considered "cured") were about 35 percent. Now, seven years later, I can say that Esther Sternberg's work validates some key elements of the survival strategy I developed for myself that links health and wellness and emotions. Sternberg flies in the face of conventional medical wisdom by providing proof that stress can make you sick. She provides evidence that the immune system can be trained, citing the work of Bob Ader and Nick Cohen. And she offers evidence that nerve chemicals or hormones can affect immune-cell function in a physiological way.This is ironic considering that when you ask a psychiatrist or even a psychopharmachologist how the latest generation of SSRI anti-depression/anti-anxiety drugs (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa etc.) work, the answer is that they are not exactly sure.The medical establishment in the US tends to hive off the debate about health and emotions (the mind-body connection) to the area of alternative medicine. New age healing and some of the Eastern approaches tend to overlook the scientific connection. Sternberg taps history and science to frame the issue and if it were simpled down to the level of a mass market audience her book would be a best seller.

Brilliant scientific exploration of the mind-body connection expressed in compelling, animated realism. I enjoyed this delightful learning experience. Dr. Sternberg not only demonstrates outstanding knowledge and expertise in the field of psychoneuroimmonology, but she does so through the eyes of a sensitive, caring human being. A true inspiration to read many times over. Especially recommended for anyone who is looking for a way to enhance their health and well-being....

Dr. Esther Sternberg from the outset tells us that she wrote this book "out of a question" that "seemed ostracized from the rest of the scientific community." Clearly, it seems that the information in "The Body Within" is a daring challenge to present new brain-immune connection information to the lay public, and is determined to not let it stagnate only among the doctoral elite. I found all 11 chapters fascinating and richly detailed, gloriously free of slanted opinions and filled with highly intelligent questions. All 250 pages inform, with its interesting anecdotes and illustrations, and my gratitude goes out to Dr. Sternberg for ensuring that some of us, even though we do not have a "Ph.D" attached to our name, are nonetheless able to grasp concepts as the workings of the brain, the immune system and the role of various hormones and neurotransmitters. As a result, in Highliner: The Nature, Philosophy and Science of Automobile Driving, I learned much about neurochemistry and neuroscience from Dr. Sternberg who helped me make irrefutable connections between foods, moods, hormones and neurotransmitters. This means that everything that is taken into the body, or not taken into the body (e.g., starvation diets, which are extremely dangerous), affects how people drive or just behave in general. So there is a definite link between drivers education and neuroscience, although not readily apparent to the layperson. "The Balance Within" is solidly founded in irrefutable facts "collected from rigorously performed experiments." It is a real treat to read about such things as Chapter 5, "It's a Two-Way Street: The Immune System Talks to the Brain and the Brain Talks Back" and Chapters 6 and 7, "When the Brain-Immune Communication Breaks Down" and "Can Stress Make you Sick?" I could easily spoil the conclusions of this book, which I dare not out of pure respect for Dr. Sternberg, especially when she so adeptly investigates such ideas as "Can Believing Make You Well?" Gradually the walls between the public and the scientific community are crumbling down, allowing us to make up our own minds and deciding what is right for our own bodies. This book is groundbreaking, indispensable and should not be out of your hands for another second. You may encounter resistance at first, as the author put it, "Whenever a new field comes into being, it comes up against the older dogmas. So the resistance that we felt was real and steeped in traditions going as far back as Galileo, Copernicus, and beyond...Whenever one tries to change prevailing opinion, resistance is inevitable..." Esther, I want to party with you, sister. A little less I talk, a little more I listen.

I'm an academic bioscientist but not trained in the immune system. I have always been interested in the brain-immune connection (for personal as well as professional reasons), and I have always appreciated getting the history of a scientific field's evolution -- something that we find less and less time to discuss in the college classroom, much to the detriment of the next generation of scientists. I am a huge fan of this book and this year I am incorporating it into my university courses and seminars. I've recommended it highly to colleagues who also find it valuable. It's fun to read and contains fascinating historical notes about medical science in general. Sternberg discusses how the work of many people contributed bits and pieces to an important emerging story. It gave me what felt like an eyewitness perspective on the birth of neuroimmunology, as well as a fountain of information about the brain-immune connection. It is a must-read for anyone wondering how science comes up with "breakthroughs", as well as anyone interested in the topic. Thank you, Dr. Sternberg and colleagues in the field.