Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind and Body by Jo Marchant may be an important new addition to the literature of the mind-body connection. In a Wall Street Journal article from Tuesday, February 16, 2016, she writes about a 75-year-old woman, formerly an avid golfer, who slipped in her kitchen, damaged a vertebra, and in desperation volunteered for an experimental surgery. She was soon back on the golf course, but what she didn't know when she took part in the trial was that the surgery was a sham, and what she experienced is known in conventional medicine as a placebo effect.
"Ms. Marchant's Cure is a cautious, scrupulous investigation of how the brain can help heal our bodies. It is also an important look at the flip side of this coin, which is how brains damaged by stress may make bodies succumb to physical illness or accelerated aging."
One of her studies investigates the relationship between income and well-being. "Poverty and lack of control leads to chronic stress, which damages the cardiovascular system and hinders the immune system. Chronic stress even effects our ability to maintain the integrity of our chromosomes. According to Ms. Marchant, 'feeling stressed doesn't just make us ill. It ages us.'"
Although some mainstream medical practitioners may question the effectiveness of complementary/alternative approaches,"... patients may turn to alternative therapies because conventional physicians sometimes do a lousy job of providing attention and empathy. But Cure points a way toward a future in which the two camps might work together. After all, any medicine that makes a patient better, whether conventional, alternative, or placebo, is simply medicine."
"Ms. Marchant's Cure is a cautious, scrupulous investigation of how the brain can help heal our bodies. It is also an important look at the flip side of this coin, which is how brains damaged by stress may make bodies succumb to physical illness or accelerated aging."
One of her studies investigates the relationship between income and well-being. "Poverty and lack of control leads to chronic stress, which damages the cardiovascular system and hinders the immune system. Chronic stress even effects our ability to maintain the integrity of our chromosomes. According to Ms. Marchant, 'feeling stressed doesn't just make us ill. It ages us.'"
Although some mainstream medical practitioners may question the effectiveness of complementary/alternative approaches,"... patients may turn to alternative therapies because conventional physicians sometimes do a lousy job of providing attention and empathy. But Cure points a way toward a future in which the two camps might work together. After all, any medicine that makes a patient better, whether conventional, alternative, or placebo, is simply medicine."
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