The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marxist and is narrated by Brock Armstrong.

What's behind the mind-body connection?

We've probably all known it, or at least seen it, that bout of flu or other everyday

illness, with every imaginable and miserable symptom that seemingly comes out of nowhere and won't

release its grip for anything. It took root despite good eating and reasonable exercise,

and it won't seem to respond to any amount of care or remedy, conventional or complementary.

Maybe you get a slight reprieve, a few days of hope when it seems to lift, but then you're plunged mercilessly back into another ring of fluish hell. You feel like you'll never know

health or a decent night's sleep again. We can watch some strange, and at time, clear-sighted

thoughts go by when we're in the throes of this kind of persistent illness, either collapsed on the

couch for another prostrate but

restless hour, or driving ourselves ragged and miserable through the day to take care of duties

we simply can't let go of. What about all those nagging, worrying thoughts that have taken

up so much mental bandwidth lately? What about the late night stressing over child care, marital

discord, apparent's cognitive decline, job overload, financial pressure, midlife questions,

or other potent issues? What about the lack of gratitude we've felt lately? What about the

feeling that's overtaken us recently that our lives have become too much

hamster wheel and too little joy? Is our stress sending a message when it knocks us down

and keeps us there long enough to respect the severity of its strain? Even if we got on the sick

train in a good mental state, have we succumbed to frustration?

Could that despondent attitude be perpetuating our wretched physical condition?

I'm not suggesting illness is some kind of spiritual visitation akin to a Christmas carol showing us the error of our ways in a metaphysical parade, although severe fatigue

can bring on some funky hallucinations. Some pathogens are stronger than others, but the fact is

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