FROM THE EDITORS June 12, 2006 Issue

COULD WHAT PEOPLE ARE MADE TO THINK AND BELIEVE ABOUT THEMSELVES ACTUALLY MAKE THEM SICK?

DOLLARS, POUNDS, AND HEALTHCARE

A MEDICAL STUDY released a few weeks ago has had us thinking of Shakespeare's words in Hamlet, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

The study looked at healthcare spending and illness rates in the United States and England ("Disease, Disadvantage in the United States and England," Journal of the American Medical Association, May 3, 2006), and found that Americans spend more than twice what the English do on healthcare. And yet, say the report's authors, "Based on self-reported illnesses and biological markers of disease, US residents are much less healthy than their English counterparts."

As sobering as those findings are, it was another factor not addressed by the study that brings to mind Shakespeare's maxim on the power of thought to make things either good or bad. That factor—and it may be the proverbial elephant in the room—is the influence of information. What people think is largely conditioned by what they watch in movies and on television, listen to in radio programming and in conversations with friends and co-workers, and read in print and online.

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