The most profound interaction between physical health and emotional health is that emotional health determines the way in which a person responds to illness. If a person is emotionally healthy then physical problems are given the attention they deserve and then put in the background. When a person is not emotionally healthy, then every little ailment becomes the focal point of life. Issues of life and death become prominent and the person becomes preoccupied with "Who will take care of me if I get sick?" or, "Where will I go to get care?" These are appropriate concerns, but they can be dealt with by developing a plan and forgetting about it until it is needed. A good plan should include a power of attorney, a living will, a funeral plan, and a plan for short-term home care and long term care. Most communities have professionals who can help you develop a suitable plan that fits your financial resources.
If there is no immediate concern about health, one can always worry about incontinence, cancer, brain tumors, Alzheimer's, or a thousand other possibilities. The amount of energy consumed in this kind of activity is exhausting.
There is also concern about the total effects of worry and preoccupation on a person's actual health. Some people spend hours researching all the possible things that could happen to them. If one is a mild hypochondriac it is not unusual for a person to suddenly acquire a series of fictional illnesses. Or some real illnesses that are psychosomatic.
A second concern about preoccupation with illness is that the stress starts to cause subtle changes in the physiology and biochemistry of the body. The possibility of stress related illnesses now increase. Subtle symptoms can quickly appear like digestive disorders, changes in the urinary tract, other gastrointestinal symptoms and many other system changes. Most physicians attest to the fact that a substantial numbers of their patients have emotional disorders, which are manifest in physical disorders. The average physician is not always equipped to deal with this kind of problem and usually is content to deal with the physical problem, real or imagined. Large numbers of chronic disorders fall into this category.
There are many opportunities to explore behavioral problems on this site. Experienced professionals explore almost every aspect of emotional health in some depth.
There is no attempt to tell you what to do, but rather to highlight certain behaviors and to focus your awareness of the effects of this behavior on others as well as yourself. If you can explore the implications then you can decide if you want to do something about it, or not.
Unfortunately, is it far easier to get information about well researched physical illnesses then than it is to find understanding of emotional complaints. For physical illness there are ways to get accurate measurements for established normal functions. It is much more difficult to address emotional and behavioral problems particularly if the behavior is chronic and deeply embedded in a person's makeup. The person sees nothing wrong with what he/she is doing. But, it can be done and anyone who is willing to devote some energy to the process can soon find some new pathways to explore.
The purpose here is to focus your attention on the allocation of your time and energy and to help you find pathways that will focus your new energies on productive and positive living.