Is your mood making you sick?

        More to the point, can your mood heal what ails you, or keep you from ailing in the first place?

        A growing pile of data suggests that it can.

        And Tristate health experts and health-care consumers are growing more convinced that a good mood is good medicine for people battling a variety of ailments.

Sandy Uhl of Montgomery is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        Sandy Uhl has to finish chemotherapy and then go through radiation therapy for breast cancer, but she's not worried. “I feel very positive about everything,” the 53-year-old Montgomery woman says. She credits a combination of walking, prayer and support from her family and friends for getting through the rigorous treatment.

        Ron McKenney, 65, of Miami Township says staying busy with volunteer work and a support group helps him cope with the possibility that the heart transplant he got in 1997 might be failing. Nora Rubinoff, 38, of West Chester, says a good belly laugh worked wonders during a leukemia scare. And Donna Domhoff, 41, of Sycamore Township says a combination of faith, family and an adventurous spirit is helping her beat breast cancer.

        To paraphrase an old saying, if it feels good — and it's not illegal, immoral or likely to make your condition worse — do it.

        Support groups, yoga, art, prayer, funny movies, knock-knock jokes, music, dancing, kick boxing: All of these, and more, are reliable remedies for helping the sick heal themselves, and helping the healthy stay that way.

        There are practical reasons why happier means healthier, experts say: Patients who feel more confident about their recovery are under less stress. Long-term, unalleviated stress takes a heavy toll on the immune system, and makes healing more difficult.

        Happier patients are also more likely to take better care of themselves in terms of eating properly, exercising, getting enough rest and taking their medication. People who are depressed or stressed are more likely to smoke or eat poorly.

        Several studies, and years of anecdotal evidence, also show that people with strong support networks — friends and family, or formal support groups — are more likely to recover from illness. One study showed that HIV-positive men with strong social support are less likely to develop AIDS.

        Not everyone who's depressed will get heart disease. Not everyone who's fighting stress will get cancer. And you don't have to be Pollyanna to recover from an illness or injury with flying colors. But the right outlook makes getting through illness and treatment much easier.

        Researchers at Mercy Health Partners are in their third year of studying patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to see what part of their treatment seems to have the biggest impact.

        So far, it's the group support, says psychologist Dr. Marilyn Wander of the Mercy Holistic Health and Wellness Centers in Mount Airy and Western Hills. Of the 14 subjects interviewed, 10 cited not being alone as the most important part of a treatment regimen that includes acupuncture, group support, herbal treatments, reflexology and standard pulmonary rehabilitation.

        Not long after Mrs. Uhl started undergoing chemotherapy for her breast cancer, she found out about the American Cancer Society's “Look Good, Feel Better” program.

        The meetings are sort of like slumber parties for women with cancer: They experiment with makeup and try on wigs and giggle a lot and learn that talking to other women with their disease makes chemotherapy a whole lot easier.

        “It was just fun. It was like you were with a bunch of friends having fun,” says Mrs. Uhl, an assistant professor of speech pathology at Miami University.

        Cancer has a way of making patients re-examine their priorities, and Mrs. Uhl has done just that: She's stepped up her walking program, logging four or five miles a day. She works less and enjoys it more. She spends more time with her friends and her family, including her husband, Jay, and daughter, Cassie. She reads books by Dr. Bernie Siegel, a leader of the mind/body medicine movement, and is giving serious thought to taking up yoga at the Wellness Community, an organization aimed at providing support services for cancer patients and their families. She plays tennis as often as she can and tries to find time to read all the books her friends and family bring her.

        She recently completed Ice Bound (Talk Miramax Books; $23.95), Dr. Jerri Nielsen's autobiographical tale of battling breast cancer while trapped at the South Pole. She listened to the book on tape while doing her daily walks. “I walked faster and longer while reading that book,” Mrs. Uhl says. Some days, she went for walks twice just so she could hear more.

        Sometimes the worst symptom patients have to deal with is fear. For Mr. McKenney, president of the Change of Heart support group for heart failure patients and patients awaiting heart transplants, keeping busy is the best medicine.

        Mr. McKenney suffered a heart attack in 1990, and his health began deteriorating. He went into the hospital in September 1996, knowing a heart transplant was the only hope. He came home in February 1997.

        After months of rehabilitation, his health was good and his outlook was better. But a few months ago, his body began showing signs of rejecting his new heart. Now he's on steroid therapy. Steroids “just play with your mind.”

        So he counsels support group members and volunteers at two Mercy Franciscan hospitals.

        “I keep busy, and I think that's the secret. If you sit around, your mind's going to deteriorate, and you're going to feel worse,” Mr. McKenney says.

        Mrs. Rubinoff keeps a plaque at the entrance to the garage of her West Chester home: “Blessed are those who laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.”

        She is a firm believer in the healing power of humor, citing numerous studies that show laughing — and even just smiling — releases beneficial endorphins and helps strengthen the immune system. She credits her husband, Eric, with teaching her to appreciate humor.

        She keeps a file of jokes that friends have e-mailed her and has several humor sites bookmarked on her computer. When she feels stressed or depressed or sad, she watches funny movies.

        And she teaches students at Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School a course in Bikkur Cholim, or the visitation of the sick. The role of humor as a healing agent is a strong theme in her class, Mrs. Rubinoff says.

        Those lectures came in handy when a long illness left her feeling drained. Her doctor told her leukemia could be the culprit. Luckily, it wasn't.

        "I spent a couple of days moaning and feeling depressed until I realized that wasn't going to help me,” Mrs. Rubinoff says.

        Then she started counting her blessings: Her husband, their two sons, their friends.

        Mrs. Domhoff kept meaning to sign up for the women's Bible study class at Montgomery Community Baptist Church. Then last August she was diagnosed with breast cancer. “I said I wanted to grow spiritually, and now I have my opportunity,” she says. “I didn't get real depressed about it. I just looked at it and said, out of all the cancers, if I had to get any, I'm glad it was breast cancer, because they can do so much for it. I felt very optimistic at that point,” she says.

        It also gave her a chance to try yoga, meditation, acupuncture and naturopathy. And, supported by her husband, Tom, and surrounded by the power of prayers from friends and family, she feels confident as she continues treatment.

        “I feel so much joy inside. I feel this joy in me. I feel physically good. Maybe it's because of what I've physically gone through. I just thank God every day for what I do have, and I thank Him every day for my health.”

        People who credit their positive outlook for speeding up their recovery have a knack for seeing their illness as a short detour on their life journeys, not as the final destination.

        “I guess I visualize it as something I've had to endure that's going to be OK, and 20 years from now, I'm going to be OK,” Mrs. Uhl says. “This has just been a brief interruption.”

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