Reviewing Cure

I finally finished reading Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant, and I have to say what a great book it was!

The subject matter seemed somewhat unbelievable, but Marchant did a great job in putting any doubts to rest.  Not only did she provide actual cases, but irrefutable evidence in the form of research studies.

She traveled around the world to meet with scientists whose research was not exactly mainstream.  She writes about Parkinson’s research in Italy where patients display dramatic improvements after taking placebos.  Germany, where immune system training cuts down on medication doses.  The United States where a new field called psychoneuroimmunology was born after researchers found nerve fibers directly linking the brain with organs of the immune system.

These findings can one day change the way in which certain conditions are treated, and this can eventually transform the field of medicine forever.  Change in the medical field however, is not an easy task.  Modern-day conventional or Western medicine is evidence-based.  It utilizes physical methods such as tests to diagnose problems, and drugs or surgery to fix them.  The concepts presented by Marchant are psychology-based approaches that follow more along the lines of Eastern medicine.

This book provides valuable information for readers who are interested in alternative medicine and cutting-edge therapies.  Marchant includes case studies, as well as research which demonstrates and supports the concept of the mind being able to heal the body.  Overall, I thought the book was well written, very interesting, and easy to understand.  Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body shows us that we may be on the threshold of transforming medicine as we know it.