In clinical trials, it’s called the placebo effect. But patients treated with placebos don’t just feel better. It’s not just ‘in their heads’. They can heal their bodies by healing their thoughts. For years, pioneers in the medical community have been extolling the virtues of the mind’s power to heal the body. Their insights into the connection between our thoughts and emotions and our physiological states have long been dismissed as quackery, pseudoscience and shams, but today, there is scientific evidence that we can self-heal – and in some special cases cure – illness and disease. Western-trained integrative physician and obstetrics and gynaecology doctor Lissa Rankin, pored over hundreds of objectively evaluated, peer-reviewed studies from medical journals to find proof that the mind can heal the body. In this book, Mind Over Medicine, she shares some of these extraordinary cases, as well as stories of hope and spontaneous healing from her own practice. She also guides you through the process of uncovering where things might be out of whack in your life – spiritually, creatively, environmentally, in your professional and personal relationships – so that you can create a customised treatment plan aimed at bolstering all of these health-promoting aspects of your life. By expanding your definition of health and healing, you can diagnose the real reason you’re sick and suffering, as well as find new ways to improve your health and boost your vitality.