Health Neuroscience—How the Brain/Mind and Body Affect our Health Behavior and Outcomes

This Opinion piece discusses several key research questions in health neuroscience, a new interdisciplinary field that investigates how the brain and body interact to affect our health behavior such as health mindsets, decision-making, actions, and health outcomes across the lifespan. To achieve physical, mental, and cognitive health, and promote health behavior change, we propose that the prevention and treatment of diseases should target the root causes-the dysfunction and imbalance of brain-body biomarkers, through evidence-based body-mind interventions such as mindfulness meditation and Tai Chi, rather than dealing with each symptom or disorder in isolation through various treatment approaches.