Julio Verne

Application
The focus of this capstone project will be in analyzing and describing the impact that the insensitive way that doctors use to tell their patients about a terminal disease have in thedevelopment of the disease, and providing possible solutions to fight diseases by improving the patient’s state of mind.
Mind and body are connected; there is a link between what we think (our state ofmind) and our health and our ability to heal ourselves. There are considerable data suggesting that conditions such as depression affect our immune activity. Appropriate functioning of the immunesystem dramatically reduces health problems.
Causes of the problem
A big mistake of Doctors is that they separate the mind form the body. They are just concern about the physical state of the patientwithout considering their emotions. A patient diagnose with cancer, immediately will think of it as a death sentence, this may present a negative mental state. This will decrease his immunity system;therefore his possibilities of healing would be less than if he had some hope. Providing the patient with some feeling of control over their circumstances may create a positive outlook and attitude.Not every doctor has the ability of breaking the bad news. The breaking of bad news is an emotive subject for both health professionals and patients, and if doctors are not careful, they can create asituation of chronic stress which can cause the immune system functionality to decrease. This can also reduce the possibility of healing and recovering.

Effects of the problem
Psychologicalstress of the patient affects his recovery and his chance to survive. Cancer cells are foreign to the body. The immune system of a healthy person destroys "10,000" mutated (cancer) cells every day. (Segerstrom S, Miller,2004) When this defense ceases, the cancer can multiply and get stronger. Studies have shown how certain psychological factors, such as feeling helpless or suppressing negative...