Mind Over Medicine – by Dr. Lissa Rankin

Some background first: the author, a medical doctor, suffered a breakdown as a result of a series of life experiences (an understatement that doesn’t do it justice; her story is very moving; this reviewer cried while reading) and, in her short-term quest to merely survive and rebuild her life, she found a better way to help others, too. Which, like many doctors, was what she wanted to do in the first place, of course—alas that the modern medical industry all-too-often not only works doctors to the bone, but also creates conditions whereby they cannot possible treat patients with an appropriate level of care.

The primary premise of the book is thatbroadly speaking, healing (of tangible, physical maladies) can come primarily, if not entirely, from within.

It doesn’t mean you’ll never need medicine or surgery, but it does mean that if you’re not creating the right internal conditions for those things to work—or worse, if you are actively creating adverse internal conditions for those things to work—you are are sabotaging your own health.

This is for the most part not, by the way, about “eat some plants and do some exercise and get some sleep and don’t smoke or drink”. Rather: yes, those things too, but it’s not the focus here.

The focus instead is… Well, let’s outline the six steps of her method:

1. Believe that healing is possible (maximize placebo effect, reduce nocebo effect)
2. Let your “inner pilot light” guide you (this sounds mystical, but it’s mostly about how we typically have an intuitive grasp of what is wrong with our life that is creating a barrier to health, and if we listen to that, we can set about improving things)
3. Surround yourself with appropriate support (always sensible)
4. Diagnose the root causes of your illness (i.e. beyond the obvious; there’s a reason she says “causes” and not “cause”. Because yes, infection, yes, inflammation, yes, a bad diet, etc, but also things like stress, trauma, overwork, and so forth)
5. Write the prescription for yourself (i.e. be fully on board with the treatment that you are pursuing, and this also includes not just “I agree this medication/surgery is what’s best for me”, but also “social prescribing”, non-drug things to improve one’s holistic wellbeing, say for example “a walk in the park each morning”or “Marie Kondo my living space” or “get a divorce” “find new purpose by volunteering for a worthy cause” or “take up swimming” etc)
6. Treat your fears and resistance (in other words, troubleshoot all the aforementioned things if you think “that sounds good, but first I need to procrastinate”)

The style is mostly very personal, light pop science, but Dr. Rankin has also backed up what she recommends with a wealth of science. Indeed, the early parts of her own journey were full of thinking “this is probably so, but I can’t find the evidence to back it up; all I have is anecdotes and confirmation bias; I need to do better than that” and then a rigorous process of research that show her to be a very respectable academic, in addition to being a very human healer.

We don’t normally reference other people’s reviews, but in this case we think it’s worth mentioning that this book has also been reviewed very favorably by such well-respected figures as Dr. Gabor Maté (author of the excellent When The Body Says No, amongst many other things) and less famously but also highly relevant, Dr. Kelly Turner (author of Radical Remission, which we also gave a glowing review a little while back).

Bottom line: you know what, we have no reservations of any kind about this book. It’s good science, very accessible, potentially life-changing, an engaging read, and applicable to literally everyone who is alive.

Click here to check out Mind Over Medicine, and find you can attain better health than you previously thought possible!