18/03/2022
Book review
Cured by Dr Jeff Rediger
A fascinating delve into the connection between mind and body, stress and disease.
During his days as a junior Doctor the author kept coming across terminally sick patients, who against all the odds miraculously recovered. After coming to the opinion that modern medicine was akin to ‘the ambulance waiting at the bottom of a cliff in case you fall off’, he went on to spend 17 years studying spontaneous remission and the effects of stress on the immune system.
He found that disease is caused by much more than just a pro inflammatory/nutrient deplete diet and lack of exercise.
Chronic low level stress is the problem. It creates an environment where disease can flourish, while also ageing your body by reducing reducing telomere length.
Note: telomeres are a component of your DNA which shorten during cell division. Stress reduces their ability to replenish with early cell death occurring. Once your cells die, you start to die
The big message in this book is that stress can be much more subtle than being too busy, not getting enough sleep and hating your job.
Other mental stressors are unconscious, such as holding onto guilt or grudges and holding a negative perception of yourself. An identity or sense of self built on negative ideas (and the healing of) was a common thread in many patients who underwent spontaneous remission.
So what’s the fix?
Eat unprocessed, organic, mostly plant-based food
Change your situation so that your stress is controlled and can be perceived as a challenge, not a threat
Figure out what makes you happy and do a bit of it every day
Undertake the journey of rewriting what you think about yourself if your current thoughts are negative
This is essential reading for anyone wanting to take health into their own hands and to do as Dr Rediger describes ‘build guard rails to stop us falling off the cliff in the first place’
