The Last Best Cure
My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, and My Life
by Donna Jackson Nakazawa
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“The Last Best Cure will change lives; it may even save some. For all who travel through the dark and lonely landscape of chronic illness, here is hope and healing supported by solid science and first-hand experience. Hand extended, heart open, Donna Jackson Nakazawa is a seasoned, compassionate guide, pointing the way to the light at the end of the tunnel.”
—Katrina Kenison, author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day
“This is a genuine page-turning science/non-fiction thriller! Nakazawa is endearing. Her situation is compelling. Her story-telling art is masterful. You will learn a great deal of up-to-the-minute neuroscience research all the while hoping that Nakazawa’s disciplined quest for health succeeds.”
—Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness is An Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life
“Donna Jackson Nakazawa has written a moving account of her recovery from severe autoimmune disorders and her success with innovative mind/body therapies. It will certainly inspire others suffering from chronic illness to use integrative medicine to activate their innate healing potential.”
—Andrew Weil, M.D. author of Spontaneous Happiness
“As both a science journalist and someone struggling with serious health issues, Donna Jackson Nakazawa offers clarity, heart, and hope for recovery and well-being. Funny, fast-moving, honest, insightful, and always helpful, her story of her journey to wellness brings together mind and body, East and West, solid research and the upper reaches of human potential.”
—Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
“Our seasons of serious illness can be scary, lonely and deeply depressing. Now, with The Last Best Cure we have a window into another possibility. Donna Jackson Nakazawa made discoveries about stress, disease and the role of meditation and yoga that led her to profound healing. Grounded in scientific research and presented with great lucidity and warmth, Donna’s story will guide, comfort and inspire you as you journey toward full aliveness and wellbeing.”
—Tara Brach, Ph.D., author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge
One day Donna Jackson Nakazawa found herself lying on the floor to recover from climbing the stairs. That’s when it hit her. She was managing the symptoms of the autoimmune disorders that had plagued her for a decade, but she had lost her joy. For years, she’d been living on what she’d come to think of as the “Pain Channel.” She wanted to tune into the “Life Channel” instead. As a wife and mother of two, she was determined to get her life back. As a science journalist, she was compelled to understand why her brain might be her last best cure.
To help solve the puzzle of her own life she enlisted the help of a young Hopkins doctor before setting out on a year-long journey to research and test a variety of mind-body therapies — especially meditation, yoga, and acupuncture. Her quest: to find out how to awaken the healing potential of her own brain, with the hope of bringing about lasting change.
Along the way she interviewed many experts and pioneers in their fields. But not long into her year, Nakazawa’s journey took an unexpected detour. She stumbled upon a little-known branch of research into Adverse Childhood Experiences – studies showing a profound link between difficult childhood events and chronic illness in adulthood. Her discovery led to an epiphany about her illness that not only stunned her — it finally turned her life around.
At the end of Nakazawa’s year-long journey, doctor and patient compared before and after lab work and physical exams. What they found floored them. Not only did Nakazawa show surprising physical improvements, she felt herself tuning in, at last, to the “Life Channel.” Remarkably, she had even saved money on medical bills.
In The Last Best Cure, award-winning author Donna Jackson Nakazawa shares the science-based strategies she test-drove and the thought-provoking discoveries she made, showing readers how they, too, can discover their own Last Best Cure.
