The Power of Love

4/10/2008

If I use the term “energy medicine”, I know you’re going to roll your eyes at me. Though the term sounds kind of “woo-woo”, it actually describes something very familiar. We all accept the idea of human energy fields—we talk about someone having positive or negative energy, or comment that a friend gives off a “good vibe.” And we’ve certainly all had the experience of picking up on someone else’s good or bad mood.

Psychologists Linda Russek Ph.D. and Gary Schwartz Ph.D. study the subtle effects that the energy of our human emotions has on those around us. I’ve been a fan of their research since I first met them at a conference put on by Dr. Andrew Weil’s Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. A few years later I had the honor of lecturing at the same American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)-sponsored conference on integrative pediatric medicine as Dr. Schwartz. I mention this to show that their research is not fringe or flaky medicine.

In 2004 Schwartz and Russek published a paper that followed up on the college students who had participated in a study on stress led by Russek’s father at Harvard 35 years before. His study looked at the connection between feelings of parental affection and levels of stress. Their own ground-breaking study looked at how parental love and caring—or the lack of it—affected physical health as well.

The results were absolutely fascinating. 87% of the subjects who had rated both mom and dad low in parental caring while they were graduate students had been diagnosed with at least one chronic disease by midlife. By contrast, only 25% of the group who rated mom and dad high in caring had been diagnosed with diseases such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, duodenal ulcer, and alcoholism 35 years later.

Schwartz and Russek’s conclusion? That a perceived lack of parental caring may have critical effects on biological and psychological health and disease throughout life. The presence or lack of social support has been shown again and again to be a strong indicator of health. Since parents are the most meaningful source of social support in early life, the conclusions of this study make perfect sense to me. It is clear and unequivocal proof that if a child does not feel loved in a variety of ways, there will be health impacts later in life.

As parents, we often feel bowed down with responsibility, and most of us worry at least occasionally that our parenting mistakes will somehow doom our children. I take hope from this study, hope that by making sure that our children know that we love and support them, my wife and I are starting them off on the road to good health. Our love for them can create a foundation of resilience that will help them weather stress, form good relationships, and make healthy choices for the rest of their lives.