Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

And when you stop resisting what is, the stress just isn't there, at least not to the same degree.

And sometimes the solution to stress or chronic stress that may be impacting our health, I think it's not, sometimes it's not as hard as we think.

I think sometimes it can be challenging for sure.

I always remember a case of a lady, a middle-aged lady with Crohn's disease.

I'm pretty sure I used this as a case study in my first book,

And I always remember how she had really bad Crohn's.

She didn't like the immunosuppressants that gave her bad side effects.

And I was seeing her for a more holistic approach, let's say.

And one of the times she came to see me, the recommendation for me was to have 15 minutes to herself every day.

And she went away for four to six weeks.

And in that time, she would have 15 minutes to herself every day, which from recollection was after she dropped her kids off at school, before she got into work, she'd go for a 15 minute walk in the park.

That was it.

The other thing she brought into her life was a passion that she'd always wanted to do, which was salsa dancing.

And she had never done it.

She never thought she had time.

She was always doing things for her husband and her children, never for her.

And 15 minutes of me time every day and going to a salsa dancing class once a week brought her Crohn's disease symptoms down by over 50% and it was sustainable.

I always remember that because I'm like, wow, no one's teaching us at a medical school, but it totally makes sense through the lens of the immune system and stress.

If her having time to herself is lowering her stress, if her doing something that she's passionate about, we also know that has a positive impact on your stress response and your immune system.

it stands to reason that her symptoms may reduce somewhat.