=Digestion.= Everybody knows that appetizing food makes the mouth water, but not everybody realizes that it makes the stomach water also.  Nor do we often realize the vital place that this watering has in taking care of our food.  “Well begun is half-done,” is literally true of digestion.  A good flow of saliva brings the food into contact with the taste-buds in the tongue.  Taste sends messages to the nerve-centers in the medulla oblongata; these centers in turn flash signals to the stomach glands, which immediately “get busy” preparing the all-important gastric juice.  It takes about five minutes for this juice to be made ready, and so it happens that in five minutes after the first taste, or even in some cases after the first smell, the stomach is pouring forth its “appetite juice” which determines all the rest of the digestive process, in intestines as well as in stomach.  Experiments on dogs and cats by Pawlow, Cannon, and others have shown what fear and anger and even mildly unpleasant emotions do to the whole digestive process.  Cannon tells of a dog who produced 66.7 cubic centimeters of pure gastric juice in the twenty minutes following five minutes of sham feeding (feeding in which food is swallowed and then dropped out of an opening in the esophagus into a bucket instead of into the stomach).  Although there was no food in the stomach, the juice was produced by the enjoyment of the taste and the thought of it.  On another day, after this dog had been infuriated by a cat, and then pacified, the sham feeding was given again.  This time, although the dog ate eagerly, he produced only 9 cubic centimeters of gastric juice, and this rich in mucus.  Evidently a good appetite and attractively served food are not more important than a cheerful mind.  Spicy table talk, well mixed with laughter, is better than all the digestive tablets in the world.  What is true of stomach secretions is equally true of stomach contractions.  “The pleasurable taking of food” is a necessity if the required contractions of stomach and intestines are to go forward on schedule time.  A little extra dose of adrenalin from a mild case of depression or worry is enough to stop all movements for many minutes.  What a revelation on many a case of nervous dyspepsia!  The person who dubbed it “Emotional Dyspepsia” had facts on his side.

=Circulation.= It is not the heart only that pumps the blood through the body.  The tiny muscles of the smallest blood-vessels, by their elasticity are of the greatest importance in maintaining an even flow, and this is especially influenced by fear and depression.  Blushing, pallor, cold hands and feet, are circulatory disturbances based largely on emotions.  Better than a hot-water bottle or electric pads are courage and optimism.  A patient of mine laughingly tells of an incident which she says happened a number of years ago, but which I have forgotten.  She says that she asked me one night as she carried her hot-water bottle to bed, “Doctor, what makes cold feet?” and that I lightly answered “Cowardice!” Whereupon she threw away her beloved water-bag and has never needed it since.