“Cured: Strengthen Your Immune System and Heal Your Life” by is written by Dr. Jeffrey Rediger, a psychiatrist and faculty member at Harvard Medical School, exploring the world of spontaneous healing and remission from chronic and fatal diseases.
“Cured” delves into numerous case studies of patients who experienced remarkable recoveries from illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders. Dr. Rediger has thoroughly investigated these cases, looking for common factors that might explain these extraordinary healings.
This book traces his investigative journey into the phenomenon of spontaneous remission over the course of seventeen years. Over and over, he’s seen survivors of incurable diseases make seismic changes in these areas (which are often passed over in routine medical care). Unsurprisingly he discovered that the link between our minds and bodies holds a well of potential when it came to radical healing – even mainstream medicine accepts that our stress levels and thought patterns, for example, can impact our physical health. But what was surprising was the depth of it, which was more profound than his medical training had ever prepared him for. He takes us along with him as he investigates just how interconnected radical healing is with our thoughts, beliefs, and even our most fundamental, often unexamined sense of self, asking the question: Can my identity, in some way, determine my ability to heal? The answer is both revelatory and complex.
Throughout the book, he profiles, in depth, survivors of incurable diseases and finds that we must create a biological environment in the body and mind that sets the stage for healing. The body wants to heal, after all. He builds a discussion towards what he calls “the four pillars” of health: healing your immune system, healing your nutrition, healing your stress response, and what is most often left out of healing – healing your identity.
“Cured” challenges traditional medical thinking by suggesting that factors often categorised as “placebo” or “spontaneous remission” may, in fact, hold critical insights into the body’s remarkable ability to heal itself. The book is not only a compilation of remarkable stories of healing but also a call for a more holistic approach to healthcare, where healing your identity is as important as considering the physical symptoms of disease.
