Healthy Pleasures

Imagine a medical treatment that can decrease heart disease, boost immune function, relieve depression, and block painwhose only side effect is that it makes you feel good. It's safe, inexpensive, and readily available, No, it's not a miracle drug; rather, these benefits come from the experience of pleasure itself. And this pleasure prescription is filled in the internal pharmacy of the brain.Psychologist Robert Ornstein and physician David Sobel deliver the latest scientific evidence that pleasuresfrom saunas to siestas, chocolate to charityand positive attitudesfrom happiness to optimismare not only enjoyable but also good for you.

Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., is a psychologist, brain researcher, and writer. He co-wrote The Psychology of Consciousness, which has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide, and more recently, The Healing Brain.