It may be hard to believe that something as simple as talking with friends, feeling close to your partner or sharing thoughts openly can make a powerful difference in your health. But many studies document that these things do.

Why do some people get well even though their physicians think they have no chance, while others die who seem to have had every chance to recover?

Survival seems to depend on something more than just having the right treatment. Perhaps knowing that others care, that you matter to other people, strengthens a deep impulse towards life (a will to live) that is in every one of us.