Louise Hay's list of symptoms and emotional causes: what it is and how to use it

The "Louise Hay list" is the alphabetical table of health problems at the heart of her book Heal Your Body, later reprinted at the end of You Can Heal Your Life. For each problem it offers a one-line "probable cause" in the mind and a new thought pattern, an affirmation to repeat. It is best used as a prompt for reflection, alongside medical care and never instead of it.

This guide explains who Louise Hay was, how her list is built, how it differs from Jacques Martel's much longer dictionary (which this site draws on), what critics say about it, and where to find our own page for the body parts and symptoms people most often look up.

Who was Louise Hay?

Louise Hay (1926–2017) was an American self-help author and the founder of the publishing house Hay House. Born in Los Angeles, she had a hard childhood marked by violence and abuse. As an adult in New York, she found the First Church of Religious Science, part of the New Thought movement, which taught that thought has the power to change one's life and body. In the early 1970s she became a Religious Science practitioner and led people in spoken affirmations.

In the 1970s she self-published a small pamphlet listing bodily ailments and their "probable" metaphysical causes. That pamphlet became Heal Your Body, and its list was later enlarged and placed at the end of You Can Heal Your Life, published by Hay House in 1984. After she appeared on two major American talk shows in the same week in March 1988, the book reached the New York Times bestseller list and went on to sell tens of millions of copies in more than 30 languages. From the mid-1980s she also ran large support groups for people living with HIV and AIDS in West Hollywood, the "Hay Rides". She died in San Diego in August 2017, aged 90.

What is the Louise Hay list?

When people search for "the Louise Hay list", "the Louise Hay list of ailments" or "Louise Hay knee", they are looking for that A–Z table. It runs from common complaints to serious illnesses, and it is short: each problem gets a line or two rather than a page.

Her publisher describes Heal Your Body as a book in which you look up your health problem, find its probable cause, and then work with a new thought pattern built on positive affirmations. The idea comes straight from New Thought: change the thought, and the body follows. That last step is a belief, not a finding, and it is the part we do not carry over (see below).

How is the list structured?

Each line of the list has three parts:

1. The problem: a symptom, an organ or an illness, in alphabetical order.
2. The probable cause: a brief phrase naming a mental or emotional pattern that is linked with that problem.
3. The new thought pattern: an affirmation, in the first person and the present tense, meant to replace the old pattern.

We do not reproduce any line of the list here. It is someone else's work, and copying it would add nothing. What matters for you is the shape: a short probable cause, then a sentence to say to yourself. If you want her exact wording, it is in her books.

How does the Louise Hay list compare with Jacques Martel's dictionary?

The Quebec therapist Jacques Martel wrote a far more detailed work in French, Le Grand Dictionnaire des Malaises et des Maladies, translated into English as The Complete Dictionary of Ailments and Diseases. The two books share a family resemblance: a body problem, an emotional meaning, then a positive statement. But they work at very different scales.

This site draws on Martel's dictionary, not on Hay's list. We write our own interpretation of each entry, credit the entries and pages we used at the foot of every article, and put the medical facts first. You can read more about that book and how we use it in Jacques Martel and his dictionary.

What are the criticisms of the Louise Hay list?

The list is popular and many readers find it comforting. It also has serious critics, and you deserve to hear both.

• No scientific evidence. Nothing shows that a given thought pattern causes a given illness, or that an affirmation cures it. Proponents of evidence-based medicine have called the theories in You Can Heal Your Life groundless, and some passages, such as one presenting migraines as purely a matter of the mind, are medically inaccurate.
• Blame. Hay was criticised for "blaming the victim", especially during the AIDS crisis, when she suggested that attitude could overcome the disease. Writers and activists who lived through those years have said that this gave false hope and turned attention away from medical care.
• Her own story. Hay said she rid herself of cervical cancer in the late 1970s after refusing conventional treatment, but she also admitted she had outlived every doctor who could confirm the story. A personal account like this is not evidence.
• Turning inwards. A historian of the New Age movement has pointed out the danger when such ideas keep people from getting medical help, or focus all the attention on the inner self and none on the world around them.

On the medical side, it is true that stress, worry and low mood can affect the body, and that some people have real, lasting symptoms that tests do not explain. The NHS calls these medically unexplained symptoms and treats them seriously, with care such as talking therapies, exercise and physiotherapy. That is a long way from saying that a feeling causes an illness or that a sentence repeated in a mirror makes it go away.

Our caveat, in plain words

• An emotional meaning is a question you may recognise or not. It is never a diagnosis.
• No one is ill because they thought the wrong thing. Never use any list, ours included, to blame yourself or someone you love.
• Never delay, stop or replace a treatment because of a symbolic interpretation. Keep your doctor in the loop.

If you would like the wider picture of how emotions and the body are linked in this approach, see psychosomatic illness and can emotions cause physical pain?.

Common searches from the list, on this site

Most people come to Louise Hay's list with one body part in mind. Below are the symptoms people look up most often, with a one-line summary of our own interpretation (drawn from Jacques Martel's dictionary, not from Hay) and a link to the full page. Each page starts with the medical facts and ends with when to see a doctor.

Back, neck and shoulders

Joints, legs and feet

Head, jaw and throat

Thyroid, skin and digestion

The whole body

Looking for a body part that is not here? Browse by area, for example the back, the skin or the digestive system, or start from the emotions body map. If the pain is on one side, see the left and right sides of the body.

A gentler way to use this

Whether you open Louise Hay's list, Martel's dictionary or one of our pages, the same few habits keep it kind and safe.

• Start with care. Get the symptom checked first. The emotional side comes after, never instead.
• Read it as a question. "Is there something in my life that feels like this?" If the answer is no, let it go.
• Look for feelings, not faults. If a line rings true, notice the feeling it names, such as fear, anger, guilt or stress, and give it some room: write it down, talk it over, rest.
• Use affirmations lightly. A kind sentence can steady you. It does not have to be believed, and it is not a measure of whether you will get better.
• Never use it on others. Telling someone what their illness "means" can hurt them deeply.

This site offers symbolic interpretations for reflection. It does not diagnose or treat any condition. If you have a symptom that worries you, lasts, or keeps coming back, please see a doctor. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.