What’s more important — a healthy body or a healthy mind?

What’s more important — a healthy body or a healthy mind?

Answer?

Both...

Yes, you're right. Only when both the body and the mind are healthy, can we truly succeed — in education, career, family life, and even financially.

But what if, all of a sudden, your body falls ill? You would immediately seek medical treatment, right?

But what if your mind falls ill?

Let’s think of it like this...

In the midst of numerous challenges — children’s issues, job stress, and so on — you’re mentally distressed. Suddenly, you begin to experience persistent, intense abdominal pain. After consulting a doctor and undergoing tests, it’s concluded that you need to undergo complex abdominal surgery.

What would you do?

Even if you hadn’t paid much attention to treating your long-term mental stress, you would immediately agree to get treated for your physical illness, right?

But what do you think... will the surgery be successful?

Physically, you have no other illnesses. In such a context — in a hospital with good facilities, in a modern operating theater, with skilled surgeons performing a meticulous procedure — chances are, the surgery would be successful.

However, your recovery after the surgery is extremely slow...

Why is that?

Because the mind directly and indirectly influences the body’s ability to recover from certain stresses.

So, the mental health you ignored is now seriously affecting your physical health.

If you had the same urgency to maintain your mental well-being as you had for physical treatment, couldn’t this situation have turned out differently?

This isn’t just a random example — it’s a real incident I witnessed at a government hospital's surgical ward. After undergoing the same surgery, in the same theater, on the same day, by the same group of doctors, two patients — both of similar age and general physical health — had completely different recovery journeys. One went home within days, while the other had to stay in the ward for several weeks. The reason? That second patient’s poor mental health had a significant impact on recovery.

Poor mental health leads to:

Weakened immunity

Hormonal imbalances (like elevated cortisol levels)

Sleep disturbances

Metabolic changes

Effects on digestion, heart, and blood circulation systems

All these factors can severely impact your physical health over time, eventually making you physically sick too. It makes you more prone to falling ill frequently.

So yes — just like the body, the mind is extremely important.

If the mind isn’t well, it won’t be long before the body falls sick too.

So, if you feel that your mind is unwell, take steps to heal it before it starts affecting your body.

Let me end this article with the words of a young female patient I met in a psychiatric ward. I’m recording her words exactly as she said them:

"Doctor, if it’s a body illness, the mind can bear it. Even if a hand or leg breaks and is put back together, a strong mind can endure it. But doctor… when the mind falls ill, it’s unbearable. Nothing feels bearable in any way."

(Is your mind unwell? How can you identify it? Let’s find out in the next article.)