Jo Marchant is the author of Decoding the Heavens, shortlisted for the Royal Society Prize. She has a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology and has written on everything from the future of genetic engineering to underwater archaeology for New Scientist, Nature, The Guardian, and Smithsonian. She has appeared on BBC Radio, CNN, and National Geographic. She lives in London.
A New York Post Best Book of 2016
A New York Magazine Best Science Book of 2016
A Mindful.org Top 10 Mindful Book of 2016
A Sunday Times Book of the Year
An Economist Book of the Year
A Spirituality & Health Best Mind/Body Book of 2016
“Ms. Marchant writes well, which is never a guarantee in this
genre… Second, [she] has chosen very moving characters to show us
the importance of the research… and she has an equal flair for
finding inspirational figures… the studies are irresistible, and
they come in an almost infinite variety.”
—New York Times
“Cure is a cautious, scrupulous investigation of how the brain can
help heal our bodies. It is also an important look at the flip side
of this coin, which is how brains damaged by stress may make bodies
succumb to physical illness or accelerated aging…Cure points a way
toward a future in which the two camps [mainstream medicine and
alternative therapies] might work together. After all, any medicine
that makes a patient better, whether conventional, alternative, or
placebo, is simply medicine.”
—Wall Street Journal
“A well-researched page-turner… raises questions about the role of
culture, environment and neurochemistry in our responses to
treatment—and may very well lead to widespread changes in the ways
we practice medicine.”
—Susannah Cahalan, New York Post
“Cure is for anyone interested in a readable overview of recent
findings in mind-body phenomena, a reliably enthralling topic… A
rewarding read that seeks to separate the wishful and
emotion-driven from the scientifically tested.”
—Washington Post
“Research-heavy but never dull, this revelatory work about the
mind-body connection explains how the brain can affect physical
healing.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Marchant is a skeptical, evidence-based reporter—one with a
background in microbiology, no less—which makes for a fascinating
juxtaposition against some of the alternative treatments she
discusses.”
—New York Magazine
"A thought-provoking exploration of how the mind can affect the
body and can be harnessed to help treat physical illness."
—Economist
“In a wide-ranging and compelling new book, science journalist Jo
Marchant explores whether the mind can heal the body… With lively,
clear prose, Marchant surveys the evidence for the mind-body
connection.”
—Science News
“Fascinating and thought-provoking. Marchant has travelled
extensively around Europe and the US, talking to health workers and
ordinary folk, to produce this meticulously researched book… Cure
is a much-needed counter to a reductionist medical culture that
ignores anything that doesn’t show up in a scan… [it] should be
compulsory reading for all young doctors.”
—New Scientist
“A revved-up, research-packed explication of the use of mind
in medicine, from meditation to guided visualisation. Marchant’s
nimble reportage on the work of scientists in novel fields such as
psychoneuroimmunology and her discussion of placebos are as fresh
as her reminders of how stress and poverty affect wellbeing are
timely."
—Nature
“Could my belief that I’m going to feel better in itself heal me?
It’s a fascinating question, and one that British author Jo
Marchant takes on with aplomb in her new book, Cure.”
—Spirituality & Health
“Writing with simplicity, clarity and style, and covering an
enormous range of material, [Marchant] surveys with grace what we
think we know, and what we would like to know, about the mysterious
and troubling relationship between our minds and our bodies… [She]
is level-headed, always with one foot planted in the worlds of
science and reason. Though open-minded, she is rigorous, her gently
skeptical tone reassures, and she gracefully skewers quackery.”
—The Guardian
“Thought-provoking… This new generation of evidence-based mind-body
researchers has produced some remarkable findings, which Marchant
analyses with elegance and lucidity."
—Times Literary Supplement
“Jo Marchant makes her case so cogently that it is hard to disagree
[with her]… The author has a gift for writing that is both clear
and vivid, and communicates complex ideas in a way that is
comprehensible and uncondescending… This is surely an area of
medicine whose time has come.”
—The Independent
"A diligent and useful work that makes the case for 'holistic'
medicine while warning against the snake-oil salesmen who have
annexed that word for profit."
—Sunday Times
“This is an important book, and one that will challenge those
dismissive of efforts to investigate how our thoughts, emotions and
beliefs might directly influence our physical wellbeing… The
evolving science explored in Cure is intriguing and
trailblazing, and Marchant's account of its pursuit is often
gripping… There's a lot to this impressive book, and it has the
potential to have the same dramatic impact on our understanding of
our self as Norman Doidge's blockbuster, The Brain that
Changes Itself.”
—Sydney Morning Herald
"Marchant explores the possibilities of psychology-based approaches
to improving physical well-being in this open-minded,
evidence-based account… A powerful and critically needed
conceptual bridge for those who are frustrated with
pseudoscientific explanations of alternative therapies but
intrigued by the mind’s potential power to both cause and treat
chronic, stress-related conditions."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A balanced, informative review of a controversial subject."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Cure represents a journey in the best sense of the word: a
vivid, compassionate, generous exploration of the role of the human
mind in both health and illness. Drawing on her training as a
scientist and a science writer, Marchant meticulously investigates
both promising and improbable theories of the mind’s ability to
heal the body. The result is to illuminate a fascinating approach
to medicine, full of human detail, integrity, and ultimately,
hope.”
—Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook and Love at Goon
Park
“This is popular science writing at its very
best. Cure beautifully describes the cutting-edge
research going on in the fascinating—and until now, often
unexplored—area of mind-body medicine. I would recommend this book
to anybody who has a mind and a body.”
—Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death,
and Brain Surgery
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