Stress causes illness - including such severe illnesses as cancer and heart disease. To fight against these illnesses, cardiologists and cancer specialists have reached the same solution: you have to beat stress. True life stories of patients healing themselves give reason to believing in the power of a calm mind, even in the midst of stress.

An American cardiologist and a French cancer specialist, who don't know one another, set up surprisingly similar rehab programs based on exercise, diet, and meditation. More than mere rest, exercise alleviates the fatigue of medical treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and the raw anxiety accompanying disease. Meditation, including meditative exercise, generates alpha waves in the brain, and a cascade of other effects calming mind and body. These methods help patients gain back their self confidence, and the energy to fight the disease. Scientific research funded by the US NIH (National Institutes of Health) is under way to discover exactly how meditation works its magic, possibly triggered by spontaneous release of nitric oxide into the bloodstream. These methods of guided self care, fighting the devastating effects of stress and anxiety, are increasingly understood by science and medicine as powerful complements to modern surgical and pharmaceutical treatments.

In Paris, Boston, and Connecticut, five patients tell us the moving stories of their fights for life. Thanks to karate, exercise, and meditation, they are survivors, appreciating and enjoying their lives even more than before.

Sunday, 10/5/08 from 5-6 a.m. ET