The Last Best Cure: My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, a nd My Life

I just finished Ms. Nakazawa's book, "The Last Best Cure: My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back my Body, My Joy, and My Life." It was an excellent read and purchase. I will review the strengths and weaknesses of this book:* The book is written from a patient's point of view, as Ms. Nakazawa copes with multiple medical issues, specifically autoimmune disease.* This is helpful to other patients who are dealing with similar issues.* I also believe that this is helpful to professionals who are not familiar with the ACE study and it's long term health impact.* The book is not a "difficult read" but it is certainly filled with informative information, including medical statistics from various sources.* It was quite helpful that she went into detail of what the ACE study is, and how it has played out in our culture and in her personal life.* Ms. Nakazawa is a well recognized and awarded author, and continues to be so.* This book is one of three, and all seem to build upon the other.* She certainly understands the "mind-body" correlation.* She certainly understands the struggles that someone coping with autoimmune disease has to cope with on a daily basis. And she describes this well.* The term psychoneuroimmunology is introduced, and quite interesting to read about.* All of the medical/ clinical information is well researched from multiple sources.* She speaks about how she was able to regain wellness and find joy in her life.* She explains how she was able to accomplish this with Buddhist practices, Yoga, Deep Relaxation, Breathing Exercises, and Acupuncture.* I appreciated that she included the ACE questionnaire in the appendix.* I also appreciated that she included a way to monitor feelings of Joy in your life in the appendix.Weaknesses~* This book is primarily from a patient perspective. Ms. Nakazawa does not have any formal education in the medical field.* It reminds me a great deal of "The Body Keeps the Score," but from a personal perspective.* I was surprised that Ms. Nakazawa did not have more significant noted trauma, in relationship to her ACE, and her multiple autoimmune diseases (although I certainly do not wish that upon anyone)!* I am concerned that the title is misleading, regarding a "cure." I personally do not believe that autoimmune diseases can be cured. I do believe that they can be treated. And I also believe that there can be major symptom improvements. But ultimately a cure has not been found for autoimmune diseases at this point in time.Final Thoughts:It was a refreshing and well written read, from a patient perspective. It is certainly a wonderful addition to my library on this area of interest, and includes a great deal of thought provoking information. She is a wonderful story teller and is able to incorporate her own struggles with illness into an educational search, to help others. I will be reading her following two books, and look forward to it!

As a CPTSD and repetitive adult PTSD individual with a rare autoimmune illness, I have struggled my whole life with balance. It wasn't until the past 18+ months that my life caught up to me. I was in a tornado of stress, burnout, unbalance, unhealthy, and just flat out exhausted. I lost my purpose. I have learned a few supportive techniques in the past 8 months to help, but still felt empty.This book encouraged me to get more serious about meditation, a new tool I tried in past eight months but was not committed. It also helped me understand the power of breathe, even though I "knew" this, how it was laid out in context of this book emphasized the need even more. I also took up acupuncture. On week 3, with nearly 40 years of jing to move through my qi... But I am feeling better. Feeling more whole. More alive. More present. More balanced.So many times I felt like I was reading my own story on the pages. I often cried for the author, but for myself as well. Reading the ways she expressed how she felt helped me find words for my own pain, my own healing.I am so grateful for learning about this book and committing to it.I highly recommend for anyone feeling out of balance or off center in their lives, regardless of physical health and childhood/adult trauma! It is even more important for those of us that sit quietly with a storm of pain and emotions hidden behind the curtain, of which so few know about. This book will provide tips for self-respect, connections, centered ness, and a pathway to finding a "cure".

I cannot say enough about this book. It is WONDERFUL. Donna Jackson Nakazawa is brilliant technical writer and masterful storyteller. Once I started, I could not put the book down. I loved reading about her personal journey and could relate to her story so well. After suffering from progressive chronic illness for 15 years and trying every possible organic whole foods gf/df diet-from paleo to raw vegan, detox protocols, 100's of different supplements and protocols, endless bodywork and exercise, this book instills hope in me. I knew that a stressful childhood, shaped the person I am today. And I knew I had issues managing stress and my flight/fight response my entire life. But I never understood the connection between childhood and how it could shape my response to stress that then sets one up for illness. I had also recently said to one of my bodyworkers, before reading the book, I need more JOY in my life to heal. And felt like I had PTSD now from the illness itself. This book came to me at the perfect time in my life when I needed it most. I had begun to look at mind/body medicine, changing my thoughts, mindfulness, the power of neuroplasticity, and ways to retrain the Limbic system and get out of fight/flight mode of the Amygdala. This convinced me that is a path worth taking, with science to back it up. Our culture separates mind, body, and spirit--something that the ancients and what we believe to be primitive cultures, understood were all connected when you treat someone who is physically ill. Whether you suffer from autoimmune disease or any other chronic illness or want to maintain your health, you MUST read this book! Thank you for inspiring me Donna. I cannot wait to read you next book!

This book documents the author's year long experiment to change her relationship to the many chronic illnesses with which she lives, in an effort to reclaim a sense of joy she feels robbed of by her conditions. Apparently women are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions, and often these come in pairs or triples, and because there are no outward signs of illness there is a lot of silent suffering.She has the benefit of the support of an integrated medical doctor who monitors physiological changes in key markers as she works with mindfulness meditation, yoga, and acupuncture. By the end of the year she sees marked improvements in all aspects of her Wellbeing, both objectively and subjectively: she feels better and her results show she is better.A problem with the techniques she explores is that progress towards healing can be imperceptible, so her story can be a real inspiration to carry on. She also explains clearly how the effects of traumatic childhood events can lie dormant for years causing lasting changes in fundamental physiological functions which then contribute to patterns of disease.There is a lot of material available on the health benefits of meditation, yoga and other practices, but this one stands out for its clarity, the author's first hand experience and general positivity that it is possible to change one's mind and change one's health.Highly recommended.

This book is about a personal journey of healing the body from physical illness, through meditation, positive thinking, acupuncture and yoga.I've been on a journey of physical healing for years - have been on a tonne of different diets, read loads of self-help books and dabbled in meditation and yoga. They all helped, but this book has changed the way I think about healing. Everything written is backed up by science, and that is I what I needed to convince me to make meditation and positive thinking a way of life. I finished reading it a few days ago and I genuinely feel changed by it.Really a fantastic book - the best self help book you can buy.

Easy to read and understand, really interesting and worth buying if you are in chronic pain / have an autoimmune disease and are looking for a new way of living to help accept and reduce the pain and fatigue

This book is fascinating and well-written, pulling together new discoveries about epigenetics and the long-term effects of childhood trauma with the later repercussions on adult health. The author's experience of using mindfulness meditation and yoga to 'treat' her autoimmune disorders after exhausting all that conventional medicine has to offer was inspiring.

I loved this book and couldn't put it down! So well written, positive and inspirational with excellent science based research. A great read for anyone but it gives such hope to those of us with a chronic illness that working with the mind can heal the body. Thank you Donna.