Jeffrey Rediger, MD. Cured: Strengthen Your Immune System and Heal Your Life. Flatiron, 2020.
You might also find my "Mysteries of Healing: Dialogues with Doctors and Scientists" useful and interesting.
Healing:
*Top influence is to change identity—see self in a new way, figure-ground shift, change your default mode network (DMN). It's loosely connected regions of the brain that light up together to form the neurobiological basis of self—who you are.
How to change it? Change your routine, travel, meditate, yoga, education, new experience. P. 293 (Rediger doesn’t mention it but different alters have very different medical issues in people with Dissasociative Identity Disorder.)
*Use your mind to reduce stress: Strengthen the immune system by reacting positively to stress, e.g., ask what’s the lesson or challenge? Chronic stress can alter the genes of the immune cells, flood the body with cortisol and other stress hormones. This can lead to chronic inflammation (the immune system in overdrive) which harms the immune system and can lead to disease. P. 126, 128. Depression also weakens the immune system.
Up to 80% of visits to primary care doctors are related to stress. (You can test C-reactive protein as a marker for inflammation.)
Calm the vegus nerve as with Herbert Benson’s relaxation technique (drawing from Transcendental Mediation, relax you muscles, breathe slowly, while focusing n a mantra for ten to 20 minutes daily) and social connection. Avoid the epidemic of loneliness and enjoy small moments of loving connection that activate oxytocin anti-stress tonic. P. 193. The higher you heart rate variability (HRV—see HeartMath) the more engaged the vagus nerve and the more active the parasympathetic system (which calms and heals). P. 196 The vagus nerve connects the three brains—head, heart, and gut. The goal is to lengthen telomeres on chromosomes, which are linked to longevity. The faster they wear down, the faster we age. P. 160
Placebo works even when we know it’s a sugar pill because we feel cared for. P. 251
Quantum physics’ double-slit experiment shows that just observing changes a particle to a wave. (Love and prayer are powerful according to healer Dr. Nemeh in Ohio.) Our bodies ae energy, “frozen light,” as physicist David Bohm said.
*For those with ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences--childhood traumas, abuse, neglect), clear them because they can rewrite your DNA to be more susceptible to disease, which can be passed on to your children. P. 274. (The ACE test is on https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace-quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean)
90% of chronic illness is environmental not genetic (psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics). P. 38.
* Eat nutrient-rich natural foods and avoid processed foods and sugar as its sharp-edged crystals tear the walls of arteries and capillaries where plaque is more likely to build up in the repair sites, narrowing the blood vessels. Sugar also increases inflammation, but it’s addictive because it stimulates dopamine. Avoid a lot of meat and emulsifiers (as in ice cream and mayonnaise)—the later disrupt the microbiome and triggers chronic inflammation. The health of the microbiome is related to cancer and other diseases. A single round of antibiotics can impact the gut bacteria for up to a year. P. 56 For every human cell in our bodies we have 100 bacterial cells. Professor Michael Pollan recommends eating mostly plants.
*People with spontaneous remission were highly involved in yoga, Rolfing, diet, journaling, mental imaging, meditation, relaxation, intentional gratitude, or what ever worked for them. P. 338
Rediger’s Recommended books
IONS Spontaneous Remission: An Annotated Bibliography. 1993. 3,500 references in 800 journals.
Kelly Turner. Radical Remission (2014), Lissa Rankin. Mind Over Medicine, 2020. Louise Hays. Heal Your Body. Kenneth Pelletier. Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer. Bernie Siegel. Love, Medicine, and Miracles.
