The Rabbit Effect

When Columbia University doctor Kelli Harding began her clinical practice, she never intended to explore the invisible factors behind our health. But then there were the rabbits. In 1978, a seemingly straightforward experiment designed to establish the relationship between high blood cholesterol and heart health in rabbits discovered that kindness--in the form of a particularly nurturing post-doc who pet and spoke to the lab rabbits as she fed them--made the difference between a heart attack and a healthy heart. As Dr. Kelli Harding reveals in this eye-opening book, the rabbits were just the beginning of a much larger story. Groundbreaking new research shows that love, friendship, community, life's purpose, and our environment can have a greater impact on our health than anything that happens in the doctor's office--