Over 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates noticed a potential connection between personality traits and health conditions. Since he is considered by many to be the father of modern medicine, is it possible that he was onto something?

Current research is indicating that he was. Traditional Chinese medicine has known this for quite awhile, generally looking to the personality of a patient for diagnosis purposes.

A variety of illnesses, ranging from chronic fatigue, arthritis, diabetes, asthma and various auto-immune disorders have been shown to be a link between personality traits and health. The main reason for this appears to be the fact that our personality traits tend to determine what causes us stress and how we handle that stress.

Stress has an incredibly negative impact on the immune system, dragging it down and making it function poorly.

Our personality traits and health often times seem out of our control in this day and age. Far too many people fall back on the common excuse that it is “just how I've always been,” when discussing either half of the equation.

As an example, we've all been around people who seem to be able to take the stresses and negative conditions of life in stride, without allowing anything to really bother them. At first glance, this personality trait would probably lead to good health, right?

If a person is truly unbothered by things then, yes, their personality traits and health are working together to create a positive outcome. If, however, they are actually bothered by things but suppress them, then that is likely to have a negative impact on their health. Suppression of emotion, which creates internal stress, has been shown to negatively affect the immune system.

Because of the intimate connection between your personality traits and health, try implementing the following three suggestions:

Take charge of your life. Feeling out of control is one of the most negative personality traits and health damaging points of view. Understand that you are constantly making choices in your life and that, in reality, everything that occurs in your life is a result of a choice you made.

Focus on the task at hand, without wasting energy by letting your thoughts wander. This is actually one of the central concepts of Zen Buddhism, frequently summed in the following way: When hungry, eat; when tired, sleep. People frequently hear this and think that everyone does that when, in reality, too many people have a thousand thoughts running through their head at every moment. In the book Cancer Free For Life, there are many examples and ways to reduce stress in your life and techniques to understand cancer in order to eliminate it.

Eliminate worry from your thinking. When you boil down every situation in life, you find only two different types…the situations you have control over and the situations you don't have control over. If you don't any control, there is no point in worrying. If you do have control, don't worry about it, just plan on making sure the best outcome is realized. Eliminating worry from your life is one of the most positive personality traits and healthiest thing you can do.

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