Reply To: Gabor Mate Interviews

[el gallinazo]

I just re-watched this one hour interview comprised of several episodes with Canadian physician Gabor Mate on Democracy Now, compiled almost a year ago. I am a huge fan of Mate’s, coming across him less than a year ago. TAE regular, Scandia, attended a workshop with him a few months ago. I downloaded and read his latest book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts which deals primarily with addiction, though not only drug addiction. Mate describes in detail his own addictive battle with compulsive purchases of classical music CD’s, most of which he actually has never had the time to listen to, as well as a detailed description of how the brain functions and neurochemicals transmit to initiate and maintain addiction. In the interview linked below, he deals with a comprehensive analysis of how childhood and even intrauterine stress leads to chronic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (42:40), ALS, and cancer, as well as addiction and ADD. Mate is ruthlessly honest with his own history. A Jew born in Budapest just before the Nazi invasion, his father was in forced labor and his mother and he were barely able to survive. Mate explores well structured scientific studies indicating the strength of the mind / body connection and points out that the human immune system has very similar memory functions as the brain does. One study was made of unhappily married women. The study discovered that the women who were unable to express their emotional discontent were four times as likely to die during the duration of the study as the ones able to express it. This is an hour which anyone with half a brain or immune system will not regret spending. You will be amazed at the clarity of expression of his thoughts.

https://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/30/dr_gabor_mat_on_the_stress