Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind over Body

Science is a polarized field of study where you either believe there's a vaccine or pill for everything...or you look to your nearest shrubbery to find some homeopathic remedy. Whatever your viewpoint, Jo Marchant takes the road in between with the idea that our minds are oftentimes the most powerful tool we can use to combat illness.

Unlike other science books where the authors know little about science and a lot about speculation, Marchant has a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology. The book starts off with an explanation as to why even the most scientifically-sound approaches fail, because if you're not mentally visualizing its success, it can prove unsuccessful. The book then moves onto how to train one's immune system to be resilient beyond belief by incrementally building up a baseline of activity. Marchant reconceptualizes what pain is, and how sometimes pushing through it is a good thing, notwithstanding over-exertion to the point of injury.

I really enjoyed the "Fight or Flight, Thoughts that Kill" chapter, because Marchant talks at length about how mere thoughts can be the determinant factor in one's survival. Using the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake as a comparison, Marchant states that despite one cardiologist's lucky survival, dozens of other people died because "simply thinking that they were about to die was enough to kill them." This chapter couldn't stress more the importance of positive thinking even in dire situations.

Finally, the "Fountain of Youth, The Secret Power of Friends" chapter is kind of like a circle-back to all that's been explored throughout the book and how no man (or woman) is an island. Marchant explores the idea of personal connections and how "social isolation (is) indeed a death sentence, as much a threat to our survival as hunger, thirst or pain." This is not to say one needs to go out and friend every acquaintance on Facebook and Instagram, but that "social relationships influence gene expression in a way that's relevant for health."

In all, I found this to be an extremely intriguing read with lots of colorful vignettes throughout the text. I would wholly recommend it to both science and non-science literate friends and family.

tldr; Informative science book about mind over matter without being too academic.

Score Card: Cover Art: 4.8/5 | Content: 5/5 | Ease of Read: 5/5

I was provided a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion about it; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

It is difficult for me to separate reviewing this book from reviewing the subject matter of the book. Marchant has made this a very easy read- but I worry that is at the expense of explaining the science it is based on adequately. From as early as chapter 1, I was troubled by the lack of explanation. Instead of feeling enlightened, I felt I would have to go read the studies she is citing on my own if I wanted to understand what they were truly finding. Marchant did a very good job finding the latest research (published and pending), compiling it in one location, and adding a personal touch by including interviews with the researchers not available elsewhere--there is an extra star for this alone.

I received this book via goodreads giveaways. I noticed that the proof version I received was nearly 50 pages shorter than the finished editions, so maybe the final version was improved.

The blurb for this book describes it as “A rigorous, skeptical, deeply reported look at the new science behind the mind’s surprising ability to heal the body”.

Science writer Marchant investigates various “alternative” healing methodologies, techniques for self-healing, placebos, and theories/research about the mind-body connection. Her main problem with alternative healing methodologies is that they are not scientifically proven.

Many of the stories were fascinating, and I was willing to read on as she skeptically debunked some methodologies and people’s faith in “alternative” healing, but I got very annoyed when, in her concluding chapter, she made several illogical, unconvincing statements:
“When people reject conventional treatments in favor of untested ones, they may die as a result.” Yes, and equally, when people accept conventional treatments in favor of untested ones, they may die as a result. And gee, when people are born, they may (sooner or later) die as a result. Later in her concluding chapter, the author herself conceded: “…medical interventions are causing harm that dwarfs any damage done by alternative treatments.”
“Physical complications resulting from alternative medicines are rare but do exist.” Yes, and it’s extremely common that physical complications result from conventional medicines.
“Another concern is the psychological harm that therapists might do to vulnerable patients.” But earlier in the book, the author wrote about her own traumatic experience of having an emergency C-section in a conventional hospital, and of suffering panic attacks in hospital after the birth of her baby. She went on: “…many women are left with mixed feelings about the birth of their babies. Around a third of women feel traumatized after giving birth, while 2-6% of women suffer from full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder (with women who have experienced instrumental deliveries or emergency C-sections at increased risk).”

Disappointing.

If you have ever had a discussion about health or fitness with me, you have most likely heard me wax poetic about the mind/body connection. Phrases like "sometimes you have to eat that candy for your mental health" and "if a placebo works, is is really a placebo?" come out of my mouth in a slightly embarrassing frequency. So, when Blogging For Books offered me a review copy of this book, I jumped on it. I was genuinely excited about reviewing a book that looks at my google educated perceptions. I was not disappointed.

Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant was a really good blend of scientific evidence presentation and personally gripping stories and it was a pleasure to read.

To say Ms. Marchant is a scientist is an understatement. Words like microbiology and genetics sprinkle her bio and her writing history includes a vast amount of very technical subjects. So when you use terms like "spiritual healing" and "mind power" you can only imagine that she would roll her eyes. But as she tells it, she simply could not ignore the steps that were being made into legitimate scientific research into the mind-body connection.

This is where this book was born. The author completes a very skeptical, yet open-minded at the same time, review of several areas of medicine that are working on non-traditional ways of healing. There is a gut-wrenching section on treating war veterans with virtual reality, reviews of religious miracles, and close looks at how the mind-body connection is being used to help athletes break records. She calls the bad science where she sees it, and lauds the good science just the same. It is an apparently very unbiased look at what is helping people legitimately, what needs more review to prove it's legitimate, and what is lacking in legitimacy; but all of it is done with respect.

The highlight of the book is that she tells the science through the stories of real people. It moves this subject from being something cold and data driven to something warm, people driven (albeit sometimes in a heart breaking way), but fully backed by good scientific review.

If you have any interest in the mind-body connection, health improvement, "new age" medicine, "traditional" medicine, or just love to read compelling stories of real people, this book is well worth your time.

Please note that I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review but have received no other compensation.

“…in many situations, we have the capacity to influence our own health, by harnessing the power of the (conscious and unconscious) mind”

Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body is the third book by British scientist, science journalist and editor, Jo Marchant. In it, she looks at many different, often “alternative” therapies and examines the claims they make in a rational and thoughtful manner. Many of the results are not just unexpected, but frequently quite astounding. If Text had offered a “be surprised or your money back” guarantee on this one, it would have been a safe bet for them.

Quoting actual trials and real patients, Marchant reveals some stunning facts about placebos, looks at how to train the immune system, fighting fatigue, hypnotherapy for a myriad of ailments, and pain therapy of quite a different nature (will some future pain relief trials be funded by gaming software developers?). Marchant looks at biofeedback, mindfulness, talk therapy, reiki and prayer, and reports amazing results in conditions as diverse as autism, IBS, spinal surgery, ageing, HIV, childbirth third degree burns, autoimmune disease, Parkinson’s and transplant rejection.

She speculates on a different approach to aged care: “What if reshaped care for the elderly not around managing their decline, but harvesting their abilities? We could use that ageing brain to give back to a society that’s in great need…..We don’t know what the message does to a person when they are told ageing is a time of deterioration. If we reframe it, and say ageing is a time to give back to others, it might actually help them age better”

She concludes that “…the vast majority of health problems we face aren’t physical or psychological – they are both”. She also tells us “At the heart of almost all the pathways I’ve learned about is one guiding principle: if we feel safe, cared for and in control – in a critical moment during injury or disease, or generally throughout our lives – we do better. We feel less pain, less fatigue, less sickness. Our immune system works with us instead of against us. Our bodies ease off on emergency defences and can focus on repair and growth”.

All the information that Marchant conveys may be readily available, but her talent, no doubt a product of her career in both science and journalism, is to compile and present it in an easily understandable form for readers without scientific expertise. Readers will find themselves looking at how they can apply these discoveries to their own lives and the lives of those they care about, not just for treatment of illness, but for ways to improve their quality of life now and in the future. An absolutely fascinating read.

‘Cure’ is a rational examination, by a scientist, of the effects that the mind can exert over illness, pain and health. The book is brought to life by loads of examples of the successes and failures of mind over body, which Marchant relates and then evaluates. She acknowledges both the positive effects of mind over body as well as its limitations. This makes for a measured rather than fantastic read, but results in conclusions which hold a greater truth.

The connection between mind and body during illness has long been at the center of a hot debate between the scientific and lay community, especially in Western medicine. Opinions tend to the extremes. Medical convention usually downplays the effect of the mind on healing. On the other end, New-Age nature babies babble about auras and essences. (Commune with the Earth Mother, and while you’re at it gambol through the woods and hug a squirrel.) In a balanced scientific approach, Marchant, a geneticist and medical writer, offers a thoughtful examination of the evidence in an attempt to answer the question: can aspects of the mind be harnessed to cure the body?

Placebos and Stress
Marchant investigates medical conditions with mental components. Placebos, for example, are a staple of medical testing, purposely concocted to have no effect on patients, yet they can. Placebos don’t change anything a person is not consciously aware of, such as cholesterol levels. However, Marchant notes in certain instances they are able to significantly alter pain, and can work better than, or as well as, prescription medications. So much so, that even when people know they’re given a placebo, they still receive a beneficial effect. Still, they’re rarely studied. One reason is that placebos effects are often elusive and change depending on the type of placebo, shape, size or color, even the gender and culture of the patient. Marchant notes, “just because the benefits mediated by placebos are mostly subjective, that doesn’t mean they have no potential value for medicine.”

Another area Marchant examines in detail is stress. Over time, stress can have devastating physical consequences, since it actually has the ability to rewire the brain. She delves into case studies involving the benefits of continuous care and supportive interaction. One program called Comfort Talk, reduced the need to sedate children needing MRIs—lessening the need for more medication. What struck me most in much of the reporting in this book was how it often takes only a very small change in treatment, requiring little money or effort, to greatly improve the benefit for the patient. A large part of Comfort Talk, for instance, is simply eliminating scary language.

Brains are weird.
Yes, they are. Marchant has written a fascinating book. Cure is neither dry nor dull, and filled with personal stories of patients and researchers, some amusing, some rather heartbreaking. Marchant ends with a strong plea for more scientific research to fully understand the role of the mind in health, but funding sources remain elusive. More than three quarters of clinical trials are paid for by pharmaceutical companies who have no interest in findings that won’t lead to the development of new drug treatments. Here’s hoping at least a few CEOs will read this book and put profit aside for the betterment of all.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a review.

"Cure" is a look at the latest scientific research on how the mind can help (or hinder) our body's ability to heal. The author is a scientist and generally skeptical about alternative medicine, but she keeps an open mind. She clearly explained the studies and how this information could be used to help people. She kept my interest and was easy to follow from start to finish. I intend to read this book again, and I highly recommend it.

I've long wondered: if the placebo effect helps people and has no side effects, why haven't we used that rather than dismissed it? That's the first topic the author tackled: research into using the placebo effect. It turns out a placebo can work even if you know it's a placebo! The research explains how the placebo effect works and what things it can help with (like pain). There's also research into combining placebos with drugs to create a Pavlov effect which can reduce the amount of drugs that the person needs.

She also looked into fatigue (how the mind controls when you feel fatigue), hypnosis, virtual reality (to decrease pain), biofeedback, religion, meditation, how the words and behavior of the caregiver matter, and how strong social bonds support health. She briefly talked about research into telomere length and epigentics. Her conclusion is that the mind can play a positive role in health and that proven techniques should be used along with drugs, etc. But it's hard for techniques that decrease drug use to get funding for further studies or become accepted by doctors.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

Really great book on mind-body interactions that makes the science in this area very accessible and interesting. I constantly found myself reading for longer than I'd planned. The book is engaging, and it covers the topic with a good breadth (from "sciencey" ideas like the placebo effect and biofeedback to more "soft" or "new-agey" ideas like hypnosis, prayer, and the healing powers of social interaction) and always digs into real science done on these topics. The core of each chapter are interviews with patients and doctors/scientists studying these phenomenon. It's a good layout for an accessible science news book, because it helps buffer the reader from Too Much Science syndrome by padding the description of experiments with the patient's description of outcomes, or the scientist's explanation of what their results mean.

Overall, the topic is fascinating, and I learned a lot. As a science-trained person, I could have wanted a bit more indication from the author of what, exactly, the scientific community's reaction to these results have been. She often describes how the field doesn't get much funding, and how other scientists sometimes don't believe the results, but she doesn't really dig into the question of whether this is bias or if there are honest flaws in the experimental designs. I can't really blame her for leaving that out, as it would negate the theme of the book to be too critical of the studies she's featuring. But, I was left with that question, and that was enough to make me knock off a star.

In the book Cure, award-winning science writer Jo Marchant presents us with various life stories and cases about the ability of the mind to heal the body, and scenarios where the mind influences the brain. By exploring topics such as stress, placebo’s, meditation, virtual reality, etc she constructs a case for western medicine to move away from the mind-body duality that it now embraces. Throughout the book Marchant interviews the doctors, the patients, and among a host of other characters and provides us a first-hand experience of the events. The nice thing about the book is that she remains focused on the scientific approach while being thoughtful to the arguments presented by the other side, and remains careful when she gets into the quackery territory.

We have all heard stories about sugar pills which cure headaches, alternative treatments that help the patients, and many other things. This book is chock full of life stories of that kind where the western medicine couldn’t do much, but the alternative medicine proved helpful. Marchant explores the mind’s ability to heal, and takes a deep dive into the alternatives to western medicine, and brings into focus the cases where it works, and where it doesn’t. While there is definitely no dispute on whether the right way to fix a broken bone, there are many scenarios where you don’t even need any medication – sometimes, it’s all in your head – Marchant covers these areas, in a rational scientific way, staying grounded in it.

The book has twelve chapters and each of it deals with a specific area of focus. She begins with placebos, physiological conditioning, fatigue and the like, in later chapters she talks about virtual reality, hypnotherapy, meditation, faith, social connections, stress, etc and how they affect our immune system, our pain responses, etc. She concludes the book mentioning that our bodies and minds are not separate, but they have evolved in harmony, and they must be considered as one. This book is a thoroughly scientific book, and Marchant captures the life stories with precise detail without becoming boring, addressing the mind-body medicine.

It is a good read, especially if you have some leisure time in the hand. The book moved very slow for me, for reasons I can’t explain. Maybe it is because I kind of know where the author was heading? I don’t know. It’s a very good book especially if you’re interested about what are placebo’s and other abilities of the mind to influence our health / body.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

In her introduction, Marchant presents us with two premises differentiating two opposing philosophies in medicine, but both premises are false.

1. Western medicine deals in the rationalistic, physical world of the body, and uses tests, scans, drugs, and surgery to "diagnose the problem and fix the broken part." They neglect the person.

Conventional Western medicine is highly specialized and tends to focus on body parts and measurable processes over the patient's subjective experience. The ability to quantify data and compare it against a "norm" allows science to manipulate the human body to bring its measurements back into normal range. Suppressing symptoms provides relief to the patient. Everybody's happy.

The fallacy is the claim that conventional medicine cures people. Medicine is driven by profit, and the pharmaceutical companies are the main profiteers. Their art is using chemicals (pharmaceuticals) to manipulate body chemistry, typically by inhibiting select enzymes. They seldom look for cause in disease but confine themselves to the alleviation (suppression) of symptoms. When these fail to work, they escalate to poisoning and surgery. Their poorest track record is with chronic disease, while their glory is surgical trauma repair. Conventional medical treatment is the third leading cause of death in the United States.

The greatest hypocrisy is that medical science ignores the subjective state (or mind) in diagnosis and treatment of patients, but embraces only those studies wherein the mind's influence is eliminated via the double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the gold standard of scientific research.

2. Everybody else (followers of ancient, alternative and Eastern medicine). She writes "These holistic traditions prioritize the immaterial over the material; people over conditions; subjective experience and beliefs over objective trial results."

The key here is the word "holistic," which means "characterized by the treatment of the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the physical symptoms of a disease." They do not prioritize one state over another but harmonize the data. Additionally, most alternative therapies attempt to find the cause of the imbalance and correct it, thus allowing the body to return to homeostasis.

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The first half of the book is a wondrous testimony to the power of the placebo (generously footnoted). We meet many people who were benefited by placebos, even when they knew they were placebos. We learn the clever ways science has devised to test the placebo effect. One cannot read this part of the book without admitting that something powerful, but unmeasurable, is happening. Yes, one can measure the results of a placebo (effect), but not why the placebo produced the effect (cause).

I lost interest in the second half. It's more along the lines of using devices to measure the effects of the mind directly upon the body, such as meditation and biofeedback. She admits that stress contributes to poor health, but doesn't realize the significance of that. This is completely subjective, but I felt like Marchant had "left the building," and so I too felt like leaving.

I wondered why Marchant didn't seek out those who claim to use their minds to heal others, such as new thought practitioners or kahunas of Hawaii. Of all people, those at least have a working hypothesis on how the mind affects the body. No philosophy of mechanism is offered. I assumed it was because she was limiting herself to those sources acceptable to science: peer-reviewed studies.

But then she tells of her volunteer work at Lourdes, where 7,000 people have claimed to be healed and 69 people have received "miracle" status. Marchant tells of only one, and her miraculous healing was explained away by another doctor. Marchant concludes her book with a distasteful story of her visit to a reiki practitioner playing the part of a very bad psychic. Marchant deplores "woo woo" medicine: acupuncture, reiki, and homeopathy, and she clearly distances herself from it. At the end I have a bad taste in my mouth.

What is completely missing in the dialogue is logic. Anyone who has studied hypnosis knows that it is the subconscious mind that heals the body and performs autonomic function. It is our subconscious belief that determines if the pill we're swallowing will help us or not.

If I take a placebo pill and believe it will help, and it does, then we say the placebo effect worked. Credit can be given to the mind alone, because the pill was inert. If it doesn't work, we say the mind had no effect. This is the same as saying that in a positive state the mind functioned, but in a negative state it was asleep. The mind is active in both states. The subconscious mind that causes the pill to work in one causes the pill to not work in another.

This is clearly seen in the case of Linda, a trained medical assistant we meet early in the book. For two decades following the breakup of her marriage, Linda suffered symptoms of IBS. She spent most of her time at home and was always within reach of a bathroom when she went out. She participated in a trial where she was given capsules and told they were a placebo. But within three days of taking them, all her symptoms subsided and she was free of IBS for the length of the trial. She grew desperate that the trial would be over, and within three days of trial's end, all of Linda's symptoms returned.

If one is truly interested in testing the power of the mind to effect physical change with the theory that belief controls matter, then the only scientists who can be involved in such a study must themselves believe. Their beliefs are every bit as essential as the beliefs of the participants. Then you'll start seeing more consistent results. And science must somehow account for the power of non belief. But even then, funding is simply not available for a therapy that would revolutionize medicine but that lies outside pharmaceutical interests.

A special thank you to Crown, NetGalley, and LibraryThing Early Reviewers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Award-winning science writer Jo Marchant travels the world to meet the physicians, patients, and researchers on the cutting edge of this new world of medicine in her extraordinary book, CURE, A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body.

"The healing power of the mind -or lack thereof; has thus become a key battleground in the bigger fight against irrational thinking." Drawing on her training as a scientist and a science writer, Marchant precisely and thoroughly investigates both promising and improbable theories of the mind’s ability to heal the body.

When the health problems we face aren’t just physical or psychological—they are both. By combining the best of both world, one day, hopefully a workable solution of medicine. Using life-saving drugs and technologies when they are needed, but also supports us to reduce our risk of disease and to manage our own symptoms when we are ill; and when there is no cure- allowing us to die with dignity.

We cannot wish ourselves better. Harnessing the power of the mind providing alternative treatments offering something conventional medicine has missed. There are ways we can use our conscious minds to influence from believing we have taken a pill or focusing on the present moment to seeking support of a loved one. If we feel safe, cared for, and in control during an injury or disease, we feel less pain, less fatigue, and our immune system works with us instead of against us. To focus on repair and growth. However even though the mind plays a role in health, this does not mean it can cure everything.

As the author reiterates, the problems with modern medicine run deep; clearly they will not all be solved by mind-body therapies. But trying to improve medical outcomes by treating patients as the complex human beings we are, rather than simply as physical bodies, is a good starting place.

The implications of embracing the role of the mind in health go beyond medicine, based on the research in the book (stresses of poverty and inequality) are creating life-long chronic disease before babies are out of their nappies.

Understanding the link between mind and body—not just about health, medicine, or society, but something more fundamental. What it means to be human.

It is now clear the principle holds true for health; our thoughts, beliefs, stress levels, and world views-- all influence how ill or well we feel. However, you don’t have to believe what your brain in saying. I recently read Michael A. Singer’s The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself-highly recommend. Also, Dr. Joe Dispenza's You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter.

Physical reality— and in turn, the health of our physical bodies influences the state of our minds. As examples: Inflammation induces fatigue and depression. Low blood-sugar levels make us short tempered. Calming our bodies by slow breathing, improves our mood.

The main threats facing us today are not acute infections, easily cured with a pill, but chronic stress-related conditions for which drugs are not nearly as effective. Shocking, the top ten highest grossing drugs in the US help only between 1 and 25 and 1 in 4 of the people who take them; statins may benefit as few as 1 in 50.

Combined with the ongoing problem of physicians pushed to see more patients in less time, contributing to a loss of empathy among medical professionals. Our country spends $3 trillion a year on health care, meanwhile prescription drug use is high- almost half of Americans are on medications for cardiovascular disease and high cholesterol (both caused by high stress), with nearly 60% of adults aged over 65 taking five or more different drugs at any one time.

From allergy side effects, adverse drug reaction, complications of medications, interventions, prescription drug abuse and the rise of antibiotic resistance, there needs to be other alternatives. The US is the richest country in the world yet even with trillions of dollars to spend, it cannot match the life expectancy of a middle-income country like Costa Rica.

Unfortunately, the clinical trials are funded by drug companies who have no interest in proving the benefit of any approach to care that might reduce the need for their products. Sadly in comparison: "Annual budget NIH $30 billion, versus .2% goes on testing mind-body therapies".

Marchant is not advocating relying solely on the mind to heal us, but denying its role in medicine surely isn’t the answer either. Her hope is that this book might help to overcome of the prejudice against mind-body approaches, and to raise awareness that taking account of the mind in health is actually a more scientific and evidence-based approach than relying ever more heavily on physical interventions and drugs.

With our minds as well as our bodies shaped by evolution, we are built to hold beliefs that aid our health and survival, not that are necessarily true. There are powerful evolutionary forces driving to believe in a variety of remedies and faith, and some more positive than they are. By simply understanding how our minds influence and reflect our physiology, we can resolve that paradox and live in tune with our bodies in a way that is based on evidence, not delusion.

Well-researched, informative, beautifully written, and laid out in easy to read chapters—"a must read"! Baby boomers will appreciate the immediate effects of thoughts and beliefs--how our state of mind shapes disease risk throughout our lives, especially as we move into older adults, with dementia, Alzheimer's, and other health concerns.

On a personal note:
I happen to be one of those, with a family history of heart disease, cancer, and high cholesterol. However, due to my severe allergies, I am unable to take any medications or undergo any procedures. Therefore, thyroid, heart, cholesterol, and other conditions are controlled by vegan diet, yoga, environmental changes, exercise, and low stress. I am a firm believer in the mind-body, meditation, and other ways to heal the body, versus medications. Embrace alternative treatment!

Although not consciously aware at the time, I approached “Cure” with a pessimistic attitude. I expected either the usual western medical denigration of all things alternative or the opposite embracing of anything alternative without any firm basis. I was pleasantly surprised. Jo Marchant, the author of “Cure”, boasts a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology—placing her, in my opinion, firmly in the western medicine framework.
Over twelve chapters, she covers the effect of placeboes, using conditioning to reduce drug doses, the use of GET (Gradual Exercise therapy) and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) to treat CFS and FM, the effective use of hypnotherapy, guided imagery using virtual reality headsets, giving patients an active role in treatment, how stress rewires the brain, the effectiveness of meditation, the role of compassion in healing, biofeedback and religious belief. Her conclusion—alternative methods are effective and more research needs to be carried out to determine why and how, and, most importantly, how to integrate western medicine’s reliance on physical interventions with alternative methods.
As a cautious believer in alternative methods, I appreciated Marchant’s scientific investigation into these methods. Without wholeheartedly endorsing all alternative methods of healing, she does admit that these methods work for some and encourages investigation into “how” to make them work for more. If you are interested in the Science of Mind over Body, I highly recommend this well written and researched book.Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

This book is so amazing I immediately wanted to share it with all my friends! Sure, we are surrounded with claims of the powers of “natural” treatments for medical conditions: reiki, acupuncture, holistic cures, and the like. Yet, author Jo Marchant sorts through it all to present scientific evidence of the actual affect of thoughts, emotions, and beliefs over the physical functions of the body. She sorts through Hoodoo and woo-woo to demonstrate the proven value of placebos, conditioning, emotional and sensation training. In other words, the brain can be used to lesson pain, improve ailments and disabilities, and reduce the need for risky, powerful medications.

Patients recovering from surgery who received painkillers administered by an informative physician received up to 50% more pain relief than those receiving the same drugs via a computer-controlled intravenous drip received. Irritable bowel syndrom sufferers taking placebos received relief from the condition from placebos, even when they knew they were taking placebos.

Marchant supports the potential of the mind’s ability to heal and to improve the body function with 28 pages of footnotes. As a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology, Marchant approached this investigation as a scientist, yet she could not be dismissive of research-supported results.

I highly recommend “Cure: a Journey into the Science of Mind over Body” for anyone faced with chronic or disabling medical conditions or people interested in pushing their bodies to extremes. It is foolish to discount the interplay of psychology with medical treatment, and this book demonstrates why.

A long overdue book -- a scientist, firmly rooted in the scientific method, investigates homeopathy, hypnotherapy, and other non traditional treatments to see what works, what doesn't, what is pure bunk, and what just might work. We all know the placebo effect and this just takes the story deeper. Does it really work, why, how, can we reproduce the results, etc. Really interesting and gets beyond the woo woo aspects of alternative medicines.

This is a wonderful book covering many amazing situations in which the patient's mind can help improve their medical situation. It says that although mainstream medicine has created many wonderful treatments and it seems clear that some alternative medical practices are bogus, it seems that mainstream medicine has pretty much ignored the tremendous power of the patient's mind to help in treating many afflictions.

A well written, well researched book on mind/body processes that impact health. Her exploration of the placebo effect and fatigue are fascinating. It's well known that the "TLC" of being in a clinical trial produces such a strong beneficial effect, that studies of anti-depressants often show little benefit above placebo. As a physician who struggles to treat patients with fatigue, her exploration of it made intuitive sense. It's timely as just this week, JAMA published an article demonstrating that mindfulness and CBT are effective in treating back pain, and the editorial spoke of finding patients quality and accessible programs. As she concluded, drugs and surgery are not without risk, and if we can harness the healing powers inherent in our bodies, it would be of great benefit. She addressed the issues of quackery, misuse of power by CAM practitioners, and the "tyranny of positive thinking". A useful book for clinicians and patients.

Mind over body.....I believe! Jo Marchant will make a believer out of you as well. Just from reading the preview, I was intrigued. It made sense. Then, looking back to my health issues, I can totally see it. I do know that when I got sick, the first thing the doctors told me was to eliminate my stress. That was a good one. "You have stage IV throat with metastasis. It is important to eliminate your stress." I have worked on it and worked on it and certainly made some headway. "Cure...." certainly brings it home. The idea that the placebo effect is evidence of how the body can cure itself is excellent. I have worked very hard, using creative visualization, etc., to get myself where I am. I especially like the mention of the lemon and producing saliva, as this is one of the things I did to try to improve my salivary function after radiation (and chemo), and you now what, I have pretty decent salivary flow. After four years, I still practice this and other things and this book just drives everything home for me. This book is great for everyone. Not only for physical health, but for mental health as well! Give it read, you will be better off when you are done!

Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this book. This is my opinion, you are welcome to write your own review with your own opinion, but please don't attack me personally because my opinion is the same as yours. Three stars means the book is ok, not horrible. Not that is isn't good, and opens up non-'new age' people up to the healing potential of the mind, but that the author seems to have such a negative viewpoint on anything she deems 'unscientific'. The book opens with her belief that all homeopathy is nothing more than 'sugar pills' and the only effect must be from the placebo effect. I felt much the same way. Until 'medical experts' (ear nose and throat specialist) gave totally different opinions about my two children when they were babies and had chronic ear infections. At that time, her pediatrician said that diet had absolutely nothing to do with ear infections! One expert said the youngest needed tubes in her ears, and that the oldest could wait. The other expert said exactly the opposite as to who needed the tubes. I talked to parents who said tubes did not in fact help their children and made swimming and things like that a bit of a nightmare. So I went to a homeopathic doctor. My children had not been cured by the doctors antibiotics. They were too young to know of the placebo effect and we did not talk about the treatment in front of them. But both had their ear infections cleared up in a week, NEVER to have another one!

I am a scientist, and understand the scientific theory quite well. But I now know that there are many things that science is only beginning to understand. Things that are real but lack modern instruments to measure them. Like before we knew how to measure and detect radiation and electricity! And those things, I have come to know, and quite necessary for us, things like a belief in God. And the book really is negative about things like 'healing thoughts' being 'hijacked' by New-Age Gurus. She seems to feel like only the pure scientists who have studied such things in a scientific manner can have a legitimate opinion. And I have an issue with that, because perhaps people who are more deeply in tuned with the spiritual simply discovered a lot of things that are very helpful for healing before the scientists did.

I have read Dr. Joe Dispenza's books, like You are the Placebo, and feel like he explained the science behind the power of healing in the brain, and how to harness it, much better than this author did. Not that this book isn't interesting, because it is. Dr. Dispenza also uses meditation, something the author says can protect against depression. But most people think meditation is another 'new age' belief.

Still, the stories presented here are interesting, and hopeful, and give minds that only believe the scientific something to think about!

My review title says it all. A great yet readable compilation of scientific studies about the effect of placebo, nocebo, hypnosis, conditioning, meditation, virtual realility, personal care, social connection, religion and so on, upon our neuro, immune and physiological systems. Can be helpful for those who have to fight for themselves, their friends and relatives against problems such as autism, chronic fatique syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic pain. In short, recommended!

This is a scientific approach to the effect of the mind on our bodily health. It is interesting, well-written, and covers a lot of territory. My quibble is that as someone who has an interest in this area, I did not learn as much as I hoped that was new. If you haven't gone into this material much before, don't know too much about the placebo effect for example, I strongly advise you to read this book.

I sympathise with many of the reviewers who rated this book as 3 stars: it is (for my taste) a bit too chatty, and I'd like to see an index, a proper bibliography and more detail on the science. However, accepting the book for what it is -- not a textbook, but an overview for the non-specialist of current research into the operation of the mind and body as an integrated system -- Jo Marchant delivers what she promises. Anyone with an interest in the field will find some material that is familiar but also some new ideas, and that's really all one can ask for.

This book really needs to get more attention that it has, and I say that not actually knowing how much attention its received. Thats because I really don't think its possible for it to get enough attention.

Before I even picked up this book I knew about the placebo effect. The placebo effect is probably one of the best known mind-body effects. If you believe you are taking the correct drug, then your problem may go away. To pass FDA rules, a drug has to show benefits over and above the placebo effect.

so it was with great interest that I picked up this book, which is a serious look at the mind body connection. As the author points out, the idea that the brain has healing power idea is heavily tainted "by new age gurus and spiritual healers". And we also know that you can't reliably think your cancer away.

But somewhere in the middle, between the placebo effect and the inability to think your cancer away, the brain does play a role. And the question is, how much.

Author Jo Marchant tries to answer this question. The book is a combination of broad studies as well as case studies. I'm not keen on case studies, because they are often cherrypicked to find the perfect example. But I've also learned they are necessary to make articles and books readable. Science journals are fascinating. But they can be dry. Its important to know that Marchant is trying to bridge that gap by making her book accessible and interesting to a broader population. Thats a hard feat to undertake, its not possible to make everyone happy, and I believe Marchant does an excellent job.

As the author says on page 74-75 "... The vast majority of doctors have this dualistic understanding of mind and body ... go see a psychiatrist for the mind and a physician for the body ... but sometimes things aren't biological or psychological, they are both. "

Marchant also discusses about how there are broad groups of affected patients who don't want it to be brain related, they want it their afflictions to be purely physical, solved with operations and medicines. Apparently these groups can become very agitated when you suggest otherwise.

Truly an eye opening and interesting read. I hope to see more information about this topic from other authors.

this book is highly disapointing. there wasn't anything in it i didn't know. it's obvious that is was all new to the author. i got 3/4 through and won't finish it. i'll be more careful choosing books in future.

If you love to delve into inexplicable phenomena, especially related to illness and healing, this book is just what the doctor ordered.
Jo's writing style is very readable and clear. She makes the whole topic of mind over matter (body) seem like a mystery as she provides clues along the way. You get to decide what you believe, or not, as there is nothing dogmatic.
I also enjoyed how she structured the chapters and included topics as diverse as placebo, nocebo, changing your brain, how friendship heals, and my favorite: Faking it, why nothing works.
With a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology Jo has the background and scientific rigor to tackle these issues authoritatively.

I loved this book. Jo Marchant delivers intriguing and informative writing about how our bodies and mind work. I have been working on a project about placebos with my art students. This book gave us a fascinating insight into the idea of placebo.

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.

I wish they had titled this book different. I almost didn't read it because it came across as you can wish yourself well. Fortunately it is actually well written and points out you can't think your way into not needing things like insulin if your a diabetic. It does a good job showing how you can positively impact how you think about and react to your treatments and medicines. She goes along way into gathering data and studies. I have come across some of it before it other medical books. The mind and body do have a connection. I enjoyed it and would read from this author again.

This is a very readable, very well written book explaining some of the scientific work being done with regard to the mind's effects on the body. It's written for the secular lay person and as part of the target audience, I really appreciated this discussion. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested in a non-religious discussion of this subject matter.

Don't expect your typical new age book here. This is an intelligent and highly readable book about the power of the human mind over illness. If you're not presently a believer in the power of the mind, you certainly will become one after reading this excellent volume.

She always looks beneath the obvious to try to explain what might be going on. Well-researched and well-written. I learned a lot. Good companion to "Ending Medical Reversal". The practice of medicine needs some fundamental changes.

The concept of how the mind affects the body first interested me when I read books from Louise Hays. I found "Cure" to have some fascinating information. Placebos for autism and back treatment where patients improved thinking they were receiving meds, but it was their thoughts that made them better! I especially liked the Parkinson's study since I was already familiar with the study. Although I liked a lot of the book, it does seem a little too clinical in many aspects. The author tries to give a glimpse of real situation, then gives lots of clinical information. Interesting, yet dry.

Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant examines the link between the mind, body, and healing. Marchant has a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology, and the book is thoughtfully written and heavily researched. My favorite parts of the book were the true stories about different patients, and how they struggled with and overcame various symptoms and maladies. The book does not minimize how diseases and disorders often cannot simply be cured through mindful changes, but it does show how many people have been able to conquer certain symptoms in unusual ways. I especially liked the chapter “Enjoy the Moment: How to Change Your Brain,” which discusses living in the moment. Marchant writes the book in a very detailed manner; she gives a lot of information about the psychological studies she discusses, and she has inserted plenty of footnotes. For those interested in the relationship between the mind and body, this is a nice book to check out.

*I received this book for review*

This is a well researched and well executed book by an accomplished science writer. I was skeptical beforehand about the topic and came away with more respect for the field. A shame that research funding for these medical issues in the United States is from the pharmaceutical industry for the most part. Otherwise we would learn far more about the impact that the mind has over the body, rather than being encouraged to pop another pill. Europe is farther advanced in its thinking here, with more government funding of mind body research. Well recommended. Would love to see a follow up book in a few more years.

Stunning book. I love brain science and read a ton about it but found this book had new insights on every page. I originally got it from the library but had to buy my own copy so that I could highlight underline it cetera.