There’s an interesting piece of research published recently studying the effect of living conditions on cancer. Jonah Lehrer has written about it here. It’s a study conducted on mice, not humans, but the results were pretty dramatic.
In short, the paper demonstrates that mice living in an enriched environments – those spaces filled with toys, running wheels and social interactions – are less likely to get tumors, and better able to fight off the tumors if they appear.
Having injected all the mice with melanoma cells, all the mice raised in the standard cages developed the cancer, but 17% of the ones in the better cages showed no cancer, and those which did had tumours 75% smaller than the other mice. These are hugely different outcomes. The researchers highlight a hormonal pathway in mice which could explain the connection between living conditions and tumour production. Jonah concludes –
It strikes me that we need a new metaphor for the interactions of the brain and body. They aren’t simply connected via some pipes and tubes. They are emulsified together, so hopelessly intertwined that everything that happens in one affects the other. Holism is the rule.
Hear, hear, yet again, Jonah Lehrer!
Heroes Not Zombies 
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